Gore Camp Vows to Keep Fighting

In a move that sparked fresh uncertainty and concern, Vice President Al Gore’s beleaguered campaign said Thursday that he may not concede the tumultuous postelection race for the White House even if he is losing to George W. Bush on Sunday when Florida is due to certify its votes.

The announcement came hours after Florida’s Supreme Court appeared to further dim Gore’s chances of overtaking Bush by rejecting an urgent Democratic appeal to force the Miami-Dade canvassing board to resume recounting thousands of disputed ballots.

Ron Klain, a senior legal advisor to the Gore camp, told reporters that the Democratic nominee will make another legal challenge by Monday to contest the abrupt decision by canvassing officials in Miami-Dade County to halt its recount.

Saying Gore had authorized his comments, Klain said Gore will not give up if Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certifies a final result this Sunday that awards Florida’s pivotal 25 electoral votes to Bush. A campaign spokeswoman later confirmed Klain’s account.

“It seems clear there will be legal action by both sides at that point,” Klain said. “Hopefully the courts can wrap it up very, very quickly. But to know who’s the president, the votes have to be counted and counted the right way. That didn’t happen in Dade County, and we’re going to make sure it happens.”

The response from the Bush camp was terse. “Today is Thanksgiving and we will not comment,” said Ari Fleischer, a Bush spokesman.

But privately, one Bush aide said, “This is extraordinary. It’s not clear that even Al Gore’s supporters on [Capitol] Hill will follow him if he takes this step.”

Other Republicans suggested Gore risks a public backlash if he is seen as selfishly prolonging the postelection muddle.

“It seems to me this is strike 2 1/2,” said Ken Khachigian, a veteran GOP strategist and former advisor to President Reagan. “I’m trying to give the guy some slack, but at some point he has to realize how bad this is starting to look.”

On a day when most Americans gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving, operatives for the two campaigns barely slowed their bitter legal and political wrangling as both sides bickered anew in court papers and on the airwaves.

In another legal chess move, Gore’s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to disregard a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Bush. The Republican nominee asked the justices to overturn a Florida Supreme Court decision earlier this week that allowed county hand counts to continue until Sunday. The U.S. Supreme Court has not said if it will accept the Bush suit for review.

In papers filed Thursday night, Gore’s lawyers called Bush’s request a “bald attempt to federalize a state court dispute” and interfere in the Florida balloting. Bush’s court brief contained false and “partisan accusations regarding the manner in which the Florida recount is proceeding,” Gore’s lawyers claimed.

“It is difficult to imagine how this court could intervene in the still-ongoing state proceedings so rapidly and clearly as not to deflect and derail the election process in untoward and unprecedented directions,” they added.

Despite the ever-growing thicket of court challenges, and the ever-changing recount tallies, Gore has yet to overtake Bush’s narrow but steady lead in the 16 days since the election. With the results from the hand counts in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Gore now trails Bush by 719 votes out of 6 million cast.

But Gore’s aides insisted he still may gain enough votes from the ongoing recount of disputed ballots in those two counties--even without help from Miami-Dade--to surge ahead of Bush before a court-imposed deadline of 5 p.m. EST Sunday.

President Clinton urged Americans to be patient as the extra-innings election plays out. “There is a process underway,” he told reporters in Thurmont, Md. “The courts will do what they’re going to do, and that’s the way it ought to be.”

Some Republicans dismissed Klain’s comments as mere bluster. “I have no doubt there are people in Al Gore’s camp who are ready to fight this until 2004,” said GOP strategist Jim Pinkerton. “I’m sure there are also people who believe he should step aside and be gracious, although I’m not sure there’s anyone who will say that to Al Gore’s face.”

But William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, suggested Democrats and Republicans alike are imbued with a deep sense that truth is on their side.

“I think both camps believe their guy deserves to win, therefore there’s a real desire to fight on and make sure no injustice is done,” Kristol said.

Gore’s lawyers went to the state Supreme Court in Tallahassee early in the day to seek an emergency order that would force the Miami-Dade County canvassing board to resume manual counting of at least 10,750 disputed ballots.

In its 29-page filing, the Democrats said the board may have been influenced by “protests, political attacks and near mob-like action” by local Republicans who sought to stop the recount in the heavily Democratic county. They said Gore expected to gain nearly 800 votes if the recount continued, enough to put him over the top.

“Scores of noisy demonstrators engulfed the counting floors,” Gore’s lawyers wrote. “Many were yelling and some pounding on the doors and windows in close proximity to the election department’s staff. Democratic personnel were physically assaulted within yards of the vote counting while in the lobby below prominent Republicans launched vituperative attacks on the canvassing board members and its staff.”

Unless the court agreed to include Miami-Dade votes, or even to extend the certification deadline, Gore’s lawyers warned, “the consequences may well include the ascension of a president of questionable legitimacy, or a constitutional crisis.”

Because the court was closed, staff who rushed to open the building faxed copies of the papers to the seven justices, including one who had taken a plane out of town. After a telephone conference call, the justices unanimously signed a brief order denying the petition without explanation.

Before the court ruled, Mindy Tucker, a Bush spokeswoman brushed off Gore’s appeal. “It seems Al Gore wants the court to keep extending the deadline until he can count the votes enough times to change the result,” she said.

In Washington, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said Republicans in Congress were prepared to disqualify Florida’s electors if the outcome of Florida’s recount does not appear to be legitimate.

The latest round in the extraordinary legal tug-of-war sometimes bumped holiday parades and football games off the airwaves as campaign surrogates sought to press their claims before a confused public.

Gore Sees Hope in Broward Recount

Votes continued to trickle into Gore’s column as the Broward County canvassing board met all day in Fort Lauderdale for a laborious review of about 1,800 disputed ballots.

Gore netted 88 votes out of the first 327 ballots reviewed there. Republican observers were clearly agitated by the results and the way the three board members viewed so-called dimpled ballots--in which the tab by the candidate’s name is not properly punched through.

Tensions peaked when sheriff’s deputies nearly hauled a GOP lawyer out of the recount room after he refused to temper his criticisms. Democrats celebrated the results, though it’s unclear if Broward County will deliver the bounty they need.

“This is encouraging, absolutely encouraging,” said Michael W. Moskowitz, an attorney for the Democratic Party. “We’re on track to win 400 to 500 votes from this county.”

But U.S. Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), who was part of the Republican team watching the recount Thursday, said Gore may win “even more votes” since the recount so far has focused on suburban areas in the northern part of the county where Republican support is strongest.

“This is ‘Survivor,’ ” said Mitch Ceasar, chairman of the Broward County Democratic Party, who also watched the recount. “We’re tuned in to every episode.”

But tedium mostly ruled in the counting room. Robert W. Lee, the Broward board chairman, peeled off ballot after ballot, holding the 8-inch card to the light, looking for a tiny hole or impression to mark a vote, and then turning the card over to inspect the back. At times, he unsheathed a large magnifying glass for a closer look.

The canvassing board in Palm Beach County, the only other county still recounting ballots, shut down for the day so exhausted board members, observers and staff could rest. It will resume recounting about 10,000 disputed ballots today.

In Washington, doctors said Dick Cheney, the Republican vice presidential nominee, may be able to return home from the hospital as early as today. Cheney was rushed to the George Washington University Medical Center before dawn Wednesday after suffering a mild heart attack.

Not far away, Gore hosted a holiday dinner with family and friends at the Vice President’s official resident. Bush telephoned Cheney, went jogging in the rain, and celebrated Thanksgiving with his family and friends at his 1,600-acre ranch in Central Texas.

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Times staff writers Mark Z. Barabak in Los Angeles and Megan Garvey in Austin, Texas, contributed to this story.

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