Election 2000: Gore, Bush Waltz Through Southern Primary States
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The race for the White House moves into the South today, but there are different dynamics at work now. George W. Bush has the Republican nomination within his grasp; Al Gore, the Democratic nomination. But on the line today, a taste of November, a preview of the national election. How will two southerners fare in their home region? Today's primaries are in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida, states with almost 20 percent of the nation's population. Now Mr. Gore has been racing through those southern states hoping to shore up votes. Tennessee, of course, is his home state. The Vice President now has 1,996 delegates. At stake today are 573 more. The number needed for the Democratic nomination, 2,170, he's within shot of that. Bush, of course, is hoping to win big in his home state of Texas. He was in Oklahoma City part of yesterday, Bush now has 758 delegates, with 341 more at stake today. The number of delegates required for the Republican nomination is 1,034. The two candidates are headed on a fall collision course, and already they've been taking swipes at one another. Let's start with the Bush campaign, CNN's Gary Tuchman was with Mr. Bush as he swept across the region yesterday.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George W. Bush went back to school on Monday, specifically high school rallies in Louisiana and Mississippi, and said he had a lesson for Al Gore about why America can afford a tax cut.</s>GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe we need a president who sets clear priorities with the surplus, saving and securing Social Security must be a priority. Making sure we pay down some debt is a priority. But sharing some of that surplus with the hard-working people of America must be a priority.</s>TUCHMAN: That was one of the messages in Metairie, Louisiana. In Branson, Mississippi, the Texas governor told new voters they should cast their first ballots for an outsider.</s>BUSH: If America is happy with the mentality of the current administration, then I'm not the right guy. If America is pleased with what Clinton-Gore has done to the spirit of America, I'm not the right person. But if America wants somebody not of Washington; if America wants somebody who trusts people, not the federal government; if America is interested in somebody who knows how to lead, come and join this campaign.</s>TUCHMAN: The high schools were packed with Bush supporters, but one student in Louisiana challenged the Texas governor about his condemnations of President Clinton's past behavior.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is it that you can criticize others on misleading and vague answers, when you yourself have continually dodged answering drug use charges with a simple yes or no?</s>BUSH: There is a game in politics that says, let's float a rumor and force somebody to talk about it, and I'm not playing the game.</s>TUCHMAN: And what about not playing political TV commercials, that's what Gore says he will do if Mr. Bush agrees. George W. Bush doesn't agree.</s>TUCHMAN: George W. Bush is now spending some time here at the governor's mansion in the state capital of Austin. His only event on the schedule today is a victory party tonight a local Jewish community center. With John McCain now out of the race, it is not risky to call it a victory party. Mathematically, the governor of Texas could have enough delegates by the end of the night to clinch the Republican nomination. On the campaign plane last night, George W. Bush says, it is now starting to sink in that he's the guy. This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, live in Austin, Texas.</s>LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Later today, Al Gore will head to Tallahassee, Florida to spend the night and watch the returns from there, but first he plans to vote at an elementary school in Elmwood, Tennessee. CNN's Patty Davis is with the Gore campaign this morning. Good morning, Patty.</s>PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Polls opened here at the Forks River Elementary School in Elmwood, Tennessee. In just a few hours, this, as you said, is where Vice President Al Gore is expected to vote here later today in Tennessee's Democratic primary. Now Gore is expected to handily win this Democratic primary since his only opponent, Bill Bradley, dropped out, and of course, this is Gore's home state. He's also expected to pick up enough delegates to win a lock on the Democratic nomination today. Primaries and caucuses here in six states across the country, that includes Tennessee, and also the state of Florida where Gore campaigned yesterday. Now, Gore criticized Texas Gov. George W. Bush, not much of a surprise, what he called Bush's risky tax scheme, Gore charging Bush's big-money donors, special-interests, are driving Bush's agenda. Gore warned that Bush's proposed tax cut would return the country to the rough economic times of the early 1990s when another George Bush was president and Dan Quayle was vice president, and he also took the governor to task on health care.</s>VICE PRES. AL GORE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has no plan to expand access to health care; no plan to have a national Patients Bill of Rights; no plan to give seniors help with prescription drugs; and, in the words of John McCain, he does not put one penny into Medicare.</s>DAVIS: Gore plans on heading back to Florida after he votes here. Later this afternoon he's going to watch those six state election results from the state of Florida. He thinks there's a very tough battle in that state going into the fall election, that's because in the state of Florida George W. Bush's younger brother is the governor, that's Jeb Bush, he's working very hard to insure that his older brother George W. wins the general election in the fall -- Linda.</s>STOUFFER: Well, Patty, if Gore is making a serious run for Florida in the fall, a vice president from that state sure could help. I understand there is a senator from Florida who might be interested in the job?</s>DAVIS: That's true, well he -- we're talking about Senator Bob Graham, that popular Democratic senator from Florida, he is not committing himself to that. He says he is very happy with his job, but he is being talked about. I think I really have to stress that there is really nobody in particular that the vice president has locked on so far for his running mate. But Bob Graham is being talked about because Gore is going to have such a tough battle in the state of Florida. Gore's campaign head, which is Bob Butterworth, in the state of Florida, the attorney general, has recommended that Gore really look at Senator Bob Graham. He's popular. He got a 63 percent of the vote in the last senatorial election, and he possibly could head off some of Governor Bush's big advantage in the state, Linda.</s>STOUFFER: OK, we'll see. Thank you very much, Patty.