Bush Launches Campaign Swing Through California

Texas Gov. George W. Bush launched a three-day swing through California on Wednesday to attract attention and money in the voter-rich--and plain old rich-rich--state.

Bush’s father, former President Bush, essentially ceded California during the 1992 election he eventually lost to President Clinton, a strategic mistake the younger Bush says he is determined to avoid.

Bush will give speeches and attend fund-raisers in Palm Springs, Orange County and San Diego, all wealthy Republican strongholds that have shown recent signs of becoming less partisan.

On the way, he plans to raise more than $1 million and visit with Latino leaders to shore up support in that crucial voter segment.

“I’m going to work hard in the great state of California,” Bush told a few hundred people sweltering under a tent in 99-degree heat at Palm Springs International Airport.

After the rally, Bush traveled by motorcade to a $25,000-per-couple fund-raiser at the Rancho Mirage estate of billionaire philanthropist Walter Annenberg, where the campaign hoped to raise $900,000 for the Republican Party.

Bush plans to focus on schools and celebrate Cinco de Mayo this week before unveiling in coming days a plan to shore up Social Security.

On his plane trip to California, Bush also signaled his growing frustration with recent attacks by Vice President Al Gore, the presumed Democratic nominee, that Bush said distorted his record.

Gore recently accused Bush of never having put together a budget and criticizing Texas’ high rate of recidivism. Bush called the comments “disappointing” and untrue.

Bush stopped short of calling his rival a liar but said Gore’s attacks would undermine the political process.

“The more outrageous the allegations against me, the more skeptical people will become,” Bush predicted. “I’m going to respond, but I’m going to respond in a way that doesn’t drag the process down.”

At one point, a reporter told Bush that Gore has told Latino audiences that while his grandchild was born on the Fourth of July, he hopes his next grandchild is born on Cinco de Mayo. Bush turned and muttered to a staffer: “Totally pathetic.”

With California tilting strongly to the Democrats in recent elections, Bush’s visit is as much about raising the profile of the state GOP as it is about his own election efforts.

Plus, with a potentially divisive redistricting battle coming up, Republicans are anxious to gain a foothold in the Legislature to make sure Democrats don’t control a process that could make some legislative districts even more solidly Democratic.

“The possibility of Bush carrying California is not zero. It’s not high. But he has to come to California,” said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Government Studies.

The real battle for the state won’t begin until after the Republican convention this summer, when Bush strategists will have to decide whether they have a chance of winning here or stick to battling Gore in Midwestern states such as Michigan and Ohio that are typically up for grabs in national elections.