Bush-Kerry Fight Off to Quick Start

By Mark Z. Barabak and Maria L. La Ganga

March 4, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writers

Appealing for money and support, President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry swung into the 2004 general election Wednesday, launching an eight-month battle that promises to pick up where the polarized 2000 presidential campaign left off.

Bush was in Los Angeles, raising money for an ad blitz that starts today and seeks to burnish an image scuffed by months of Democratic attacks.

Kerry, freed of serious primary opposition, moved to consolidate his control over the Democratic Party and began the search for a running mate by choosing a veteran Washington hand to oversee the process. A vice presidential selection is not expected for some time.

The Massachusetts senator then flew to Florida, the epicenter of the bitter 2000 election fight, to campaign ahead of the state’s Tuesday primary. A top priority was raising the money needed to compete with Bush’s record campaign treasury, now $150 million and growing. Kerry stated his goal succinctly: “We’re going to raise as much as we can as fast as we can.”

In Raleigh, N.C., Sen. John Edwards officially exited the race at an exuberant rally at the high school attended by two of his children. Fatigue etched in his eyes, he endorsed Kerry as someone who “has what it takes” and declared, “I’ll do everything in my power to make him president of the United States.”

While Edwards said for weeks he was not interested in being Kerry’s running mate, aides quietly acknowledged he would probably accept the job if offered.

Others mentioned include Florida’s two Democratic senators, Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, who campaigned Wednesday at Kerry’s side. The presumptive nominee, however, refused to engage in speculation about whom he might pick to fill out the ticket.

“I’m not even going to begin to go there,” Kerry told reporters after a campaign stop in Orlando. “I believe it has to be very private. It’s a very personal process. I wouldn’t begin to just throw names around.”

Thanks to a front-loaded primary calendar, the Democratic nominating fight was settled earlier than any in modern history, leaving Kerry relatively unscathed and in position to rally a party that is highly energized and strongly united.

But the rapid conclusion also makes for an unusually long general election campaign, which leaves Kerry at a considerable financial disadvantage.

The Bush team moved quickly to exploit its edge, plotting a TV campaign expected to last months and seek to define Kerry for voters before he has an opportunity to effectively fight back.

At a news conference outside Washington, the Bush reelection campaign unveiled four spots, including one featuring the president speaking in Spanish.

The ads will air starting today on several national cable TV outlets and in selected broadcast markets in more than a dozen battleground states. The campaign declined to name the targeted states or describe the size of the ad buy.

With titles such as “Safer, Stronger,” “Tested” and “Lead,” the ads underscore the Bush strategy of portraying the president as a steady hand in turbulent times. They flash images harking back to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including pictures of firefighters to link the president to the heroes that day, and also include footage of Bush at work in the White House and taking the oath of office.

“The Kerry campaign has run 15 or 16 negative ads in various markets around the country, spent millions of dollars on those, and it’s one of the things that we know as a campaign we have to confront in the initial stages,” Matt Dowd, a Bush reelection strategist, told reporters at a screening of the new ads at campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va.

Even as he scrambled for contributions, Kerry was not going entirely undefended.

The group MoveOn.org announced it would launch anti-Bush ads today to counter the president. Wes Boyd, president of the left-leaning organization, said it would broadcast ads in 17 states attacking the president’s economic policies as unfair to workers and fiscally irresponsible.

The selective targeting by both sides underscored one of the truths of the 2004 election: Far from being a 50-state campaign, the race is likely to come down to a dozen or so states that were close in 2000 and probably will be again. They include Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and West Virginia.

And like 2000, strategists for both parties agree, the November election is likely to be close.

Bush enjoys many advantages, including incumbency and a slight tilt in the electoral college, resulting from population shifts that put a few more electoral votes in states he is expected to win.

But at the same time, some of the heaviest job losses under his watch have come in the battleground states of the Midwest.

“He can’t get rid of that hump on his back,” said Ed Sarpolus, an independent polltaker in Michigan, where job losses have driven Bush’s approval ratings below the 50% danger level for an incumbent.

While the president is expected to campaign heavily on national security issues and his anti-terrorism efforts, Sarpolus said his polls of Michigan voters showed many there believe, “It’s more of a terror to lose your job. That’s the focus here, jobs and the economy.”

The general election also promises to present voters with some of the starkest policy choices they have faced in years.

“We’ve got the whole doctrine of preemption in our foreign policy, enormous cutting-edge social issues like gay marriage. There’s the whole question of the economy and how to get it up and running, and what our role is in the global economy,” said Q. Whitfield Ayres, a Republican pollster in Washington.

“There are some who will argue there are not a lot of differences between the two parties. But I think most voters will see significant differences.”

Kerry’s first stop Wednesday was in Florida, site of the disputed 2000 presidential election, which hung in the balance for weeks until the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, stepped in to make Bush the winner.

Home-state Sen. Graham cited the controversial outcome -- still a rallying cry for Democrats throughout the country -- as he introduced Kerry at a town hall meeting in Orlando.

“We need to learn the lesson of 2000, and that is not only does everybody have the opportunity and encouragement to vote, but we have the responsibility to see that every one of those votes is counted,” Graham said. “No more lost votes in Florida.”

During the session with voters, Kerry briefly addressed the need to beef up homeland security and give greater support to America’s first responders, the police, fire and emergency medical services that are an important line of protection against terrorism.

He accused the Bush administration of under-funding its own education reform measure, and reiterated his call to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Kerry then swung into an appeal for donations, sounding a lot like former rival Howard Dean by pitching his campaign website and urging donors to chip in “$10, $50, $100.”

“I need your help. I need you to work,” Kerry pleaded. “If we get a million people to take part in this ... we can fight back and reclaim our democracy.”

Later, the campaign announced that Kerry had raised $1.2 million on the Internet in a period of less than 24 hours after he effectively clinched the Democratic nomination by winning nine of 10 Super Tuesday states. The Kerry campaign declared that a record, topping Dean’s best 24-hour performance by more than $400,000.

Soon after arriving in Florida, Kerry announced that Jim Johnson, a banker, Washington civic leader and onetime aide to former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, would oversee his search for a running mate. Kerry said he expected the process to take several weeks; he has until the nominating convention in July to make a choice.

Kerry aides, meantime, met with staffers of the Democratic National Committee to discuss plans to integrate the party’s operations with Kerry’s campaign. One change could be a reduced role for the party’s chairman, Terry McAuliffe.

Although Edwards exited the race, Kerry is still not alone in the Democratic field. From far back in the pack, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio issued a statement signaling his intention to stay in the race.

“Congressman Kucinich has emerged as the voice of the progressive movement in the political debate,” campaign manager Dorothy J. Mayer said Wednesday in an open letter to supporters. “His campaign will continue to secure delegates on the way to the convention where, with our ongoing support, he will continue to be that voice.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton of New York also remains in the race, though he made no campaign appearances Wednesday.

Times staff writers Nick Anderson and James Gerstenzang contributed to this report.

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Delegate count

Here is the breakdown -- for California and the nation -- of presidential preferences of delegates to the Democratic National Convention. It includes choices by “super delegates,” those not picked through primaries or caucuses and who can change their minds.

Needed to nominate: 2,162

California

Candidate Delegates

John F. Kerry 288

John Edwards* 82

Al Sharpton 0

Dennis J. Kucinich 0

Total

Kerry 1,502

Edwards* 505

Howard Dean* 182

Wesley K. Clark* 70