Gore’s New Chairman Raises Job’s Visibility

Bill Daley, Vice President Al Gore’s new campaign chairman and the outgoing Commerce secretary, was omnipresent on TV talk shows Sunday, illustrating that he plans a different style of leadership for the political operation.

“I’ll be more visible,” Daley said. “I’ll be out there more.” That is a change from his predecessor, Tony Coelho, who kept a low profile because of ethics investigations. He resigned last week, citing health reasons.

Daley also moved rapidly to attempt to smooth tensions with labor leaders who complained about Gore choosing such a prominent advocate of free-trade agreements that they have bitterly opposed.

“Organized labor and the working men and women are at the heart of this campaign because they’re the ones who will benefit as Al Gore keeps this economy strong,” Daley said on ABC’s “This Week.” He said he has spoken directly to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and a handful of union leaders to assure them Gore will not walk away from labor’s agenda.

The comments followed expressions of dismay from key labor leaders at Gore’s choice of Daley to succeed Coelho. The union officials cited Daley’s lead role in lobbying for congressional passage of both China trade legislation this year and the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993.

Sweeney has said those initiatives put Daley “squarely on the opposite side of working families.”

The Teamsters called Daley’s selection a “slap in the face to organized labor.”

U.S. unions have grown increasingly opposed to trade agreements, saying they threaten U.S. jobs, exploit workers in poor countries and lead to environmental degradation.

Daley on Sunday acknowledged an “honest disagreement” with organized labor over trade. He said that “open trade” would be central to Gore’s economic program but that Gore as president would ensure future trade agreements had labor and environmental components, a key issue for labor.

In interviews on five major TV network talk shows, Daley predicted the China trade agreement would pass the Senate if GOP leaders don’t “play politics” with it, urged Democrats not to vote for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and promised that Gore would do what he could to lower gasoline prices in the Midwest.

On the subject of Gore’s Republican opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Daley scoffed at Bush’s seeming ability to “be all things to all folks,” as he put it on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “He’s run a very masterful photo-op campaign.”

Daley, who inherits a campaign team whose candidate consistently ties or runs behind Bush in polls, asserted that once Americans tune in to the summer conventions and the vice presidential selection process, Gore will move ahead.

“When the American people truly do focus on who’s going to be the next leader, they will see that Al Gore is a strong leader, someone that they will look at not as a vice president, but as the next president of the United States,” he said in more than one appearance.

Although he is still new to the job, Daley was well-versed Sunday in the Gore campaign’s talking points, repeating on several networks his belief that the vice president’s stands on Social Security, Medicare, education and health care are more in sync with average voters’ concerns.

Daley also repeated Gore’s new “progress and prosperity” theme, saying the presumptive Democratic nominee was the best financial steward for the nation.

“We are now the beneficiaries of an incredible economy . . . and in order to keep this economy strong, Al Gore better stay in office,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Traveling aboard Air Force Two late Thursday night, Daley said he anticipates bringing a few loyal aides to the campaign but otherwise expects to keep the Gore team intact. Sunday, he specifically defended campaign manager Donna Brazile, who has repeatedly struggled in turf battles with Gore’s higher-paid consultants. One name actively floated is White House advisor Steve Richetti, who worked closely with Daley on House passage of legislation granting China permanent trade status.

And the new chairman demonstrated the political skill to deflect a dicey topic. Asked by ABC’s Sam Donaldson about Gore’s personality reinventions, he replied: “Not everyone is as gregarious as you, Sam.”