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Posted on 03/05/2002 4:58:49 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Clinton-bashers, beware: Even though the former president's name won't grace any ballots this year, eight of his former minions have caught the campaign bug and now seek elective office.
No other administration in memory has spawned so many candidates, and that's a source of pride for those still waving the Clinton banner. Paul Begala, a former aide to Bill Clinton, lauded "the extraordinary number of people he has inspired to enter public service."
Washington analyst Stuart Rothenberg said: "It's very rare to see this many aides and cabinet people run for office. Did Clinton's political energies rub off on them? Did all that time in the foxhole galvanize them?"
But there's a big caveat.
Even though Clinton was twice elected, presided over peace and prosperity, and weathered impeachment with broad public support, some of these candidates don't want to talk about the boss. They don't think he's necessarily an asset. They don't believe that a Clinton personal appearance would necessarily help. In fact, few have invited him.
As Democratic strategist David Axelrod conceded, "When it comes to talking about Clinton, there may be some negatives - particularly in certain states."
Candidates generally like to advertise their ties to national leaders. Yet you can't even find a Clinton photo on any of the campaign Web sites financed by these aspiring alumni:
Erskine Bowles, ex-White House chief of staff, seeking a Senate seat in North Carolina (where Clinton was never popular); Robert Reich, ex-labor secretary, who wants to be Massachusetts governor; and Janet Reno, ex-attorney general, running for Florida governor.
It's also true for Bill Richardson, ex-energy secretary and U.N. ambassador, a candidate for governor in New Mexico; Andrew Cuomo, ex-housing secretary, running for New York governor (though he does laud "Clinton prosperity"); and Fred DuVal, ex-Clinton liaison to state governments, running for Congress in Arizona.
Actually, one candidate does pose with Clinton on his Web site: Bill Curry, ex-White House counselor on domestic issues, running for Connecticut governor. But, on his biography page, Curry is careful to omit that he worked closely with Dick Morris, the pollster whom Clinton later fired for consorting with a prostitute.
That's the challenge for many Clinton alumni, whose prospects vary with the local political climate. Axelrod said: "It's about finding a way to capture what was good about Clinton in people's minds, and maybe figure out a way to talk about it, without bringing up the other stuff. You can't just act as if years of your life were erased."
Begala, the former Clinton strategist, is bullish about these candidates: "Voters will not say: 'Janet or Erskine served the country well, but I can't vote for them because their boss had an affair.' They offer Clinton's policies without Clinton's problems - which is exactly what voters want."
Paul Watanabe, a Boston political analyst, said: "They're running away from Clinton's personal side, but what could serve them well is his economic record. 'He came to Washington, tackled an economic mess, and turned things around.' That's a potential theme they can wrap themselves around."
Besides, in some locales, a Clinton connection is like gold in the bank.
Rahm Emanuel, a senior Clinton adviser and damage-control expert, is running for Congress from Chicago. It's safe for Emanuel to tout his Clinton ties, because his district is die-hard Democratic. It's so safe that Clinton himself showed up to help raise money. (One minor Emanuel rival is another former Clinton aide, Peter Dagher.)
Clinton ties don't hurt in Massachusetts, either. Robert Reich and a Democratic gubernatorial rival, ex-national party chairman Steve Grossman, are even dueling for Clinton's nod. Clinton appears to prefer Grossman, which is no surprise, since Reich in the past has trashed his old boss for betraying the liberal cause.
No, the diciest locales are places like GOP-friendly Arizona, where ex-aide DuVal is running for Congress. Not only are there no Clinton photos on his Web site (as opposed to a shot of DuVal at a tamale sale), but he never cites Clinton by name.
Most intriguing is the race in North Carolina, a state that twice rejected Clinton on Election Day. Senate hopeful Erskine Bowles was Clinton's chief of staff in 1997 and 1998 (the Monica Lewinsky year), and that has to be finessed.
As North Carolina political analyst Ted Arrington said, "As much as possible, Bowles' campaign is trying to show that he was a big player in Washington, a bipartisan broker on major issues like the balanced budget - without saying the words Clinton administration."
Bowles was untainted by the Clinton scandals; however, he might be tainted politically by a key Clinton issue.
Bowles helped broker the North American Free Trade Agreement, but NAFTA isn't popular in the small North Carolina towns that have suffered layoffs because of imports. Lots of blue-collar Democrats live in those towns. Mindful of that, Bowles has been trying to downplay his support for NAFTA.
Actually, Clinton could help Bowles. Bowles must first win a party primary this spring, and he will need African American voters. Clinton is lionized by African Americans. But Bowles doesn't want to give autumn ammunition to Republicans, who are likely to nominate 2000 presidential-primary candidate Elizabeth Dole. As a result, Arrington said, "he won't invite Clinton unless he's really desperate."
Nor is it likely that Janet Reno will ask Clinton to stump with her in Florida, given that his name doesn't appear anywhere on her Web site.
Long before she fainted in public in January, Reno's quest to unseat Republican Gov. Jeb Bush had not been going well. Polls show that her Clinton tenure is a big negative, particularly among conservative Democrats and independents. Her money-raising has been sluggish, and the AFL-CIO has refused to endorse her.
Bill Richardson, by contrast, has a home-state image that predates Clinton. Long before he worked for Clinton, the New Mexico gubernatorial candidate was a popular congressman, and the state's most prominent political export.
True, he did offer Lewinsky a job while he was U.N. ambassador, and major security breaches occurred on his watch at the Energy Department. And state GOP chairman John Dendahl already contends that Richardson is just a Clintonesque schmoozer who "tells people whatever he thinks they want to hear."
But New Mexico analyst F. Chris Garcia said that such an attack "will resonate only with people who'd vote against Richardson anyway. Others see Richardson as a power in his own right, so Clinton isn't much of a factor in the race. And Clinton won the state twice anyway."
Local conditions prevail; there is no evidence that these races are a referendum on Clintonism. But if even a few of these candidates win, it would disprove the Washington adage that aides and cabinet members can't cut it at the polls.
There's only one big exception, a Gerald Ford aide who went home to run for Congress in 1978. Today, he's a heartbeat away from the presidency.
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