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Washington Notebook
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Former President George Bush and scores of Texas volunteers kicked off a Republican Party bus tour of the state Friday in Spokane. At a stop in Pasco for a "Save Our Dams" rally, a local musician sang, "Roll on, Columbia, roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn." To the Republican opponents of breaching electricity-generating dams, it mattered little that Woodie Guthrie wrote those lyrics about a New Deal public works project launched by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Democratic Party had its own statewide bus tour. It started on Saturday morning in Seattle, where actor Paul Newman fired up 150 people, including dozens of rowdy Machinist Union members at a labor hall. The Seattle television market is saturated with political adds - many for the presidential election and others for congressional races and ballot initiatives. Republican Sen. Slade Gorton and Democratic Rep. Jay Insee are both staving off a well-funded challengers. Two well-matched candidates are vying for the seat relinquished by Republican Rep. Jack Metcalf, who when elected in 1994 promised to serve no more than three terms. But for the national spotlight, the credit belongs to Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. He transformed Washington from a Democratic stronghold (at least in terms of presidential politics) into a swing state by luring liberals away from the Democratic Party. Now, the future of Washington - and perhaps that of the entire country - depends on whether Nader's support translates into actual votes. "People say that voting for Nader is a vote for Bush," said Jeff Herre, who works at the Seattle Town Hall, where Nader spoke Thursday night. "I think Bush will do damage if he wins, but people will survive and change will come about because people will be forced to be more active." But others are more concerned with immediate consequences. "My heart supports Nader, but I'm a realist," said John Day at a café near the University of Washington. "I don't want a conservative Supreme Court." For many Washingtonians, the presidential election is more of a decision about Gov. George W. Bush than a choice between Bush and Vice President Al Gore. In other words, most people are either expressly for Bush or against him. But relatively few are specifically for Gore. This was evident Saturday morning when, at both Republican and Democratic rallies, speakers lavished attention on Bush while mentioning Gore as mere counterpoint from time to time. At the rally outside the Republican headquarters in suburban Bellevue, near the home of Microsoft, people spoke of Bush's leadership skills and charisma. "It says a lot about a man when we see so many people [from Texas] out here," said Jeran Akers, one of at least 60 Texan volunteers who traveled to Washington at their own expense. "It demonstrates the love and affection we have for him" Meanwhile, at the labor hall in Seattle, Newman derided Bush's tax plan. It would benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of the population, people like himself, he said. "I'm not trying to do heroics, but I don't need it," Newman said. Indeed, for all of Bush's talk of reaching across party lines in Texas, he seems a polarizing figure to many here. Even at the Seattle Democratic headquarters, volunteers mentioned Bush before Gore when asked why they were there. "I'm scared to death that Bush is going to get in," said 66-year-old Marjorie Schulz, who noted she was working for the Democratic Party for the first time in her life. She cited concerns about Bush's stands on abortion, social security and environmental issues and also admitted, "I don't want my president sounding like a doofus." Another volunteer said he traveled from his home in California, which is considered safely Democratic, to fight against the Texas governor in a swing state. Yet at this point, reaching voters - never mind influencing them - is a difficult task. After the GOP rally, volunteers fanned into Seattle and neighboring suburbs to remind registered Republicans to vote. Tom Maclean, an economist who works for a utility company in Texas, received an address list for a precinct in Kirkland, a Seattle suburb of houses with two-car garages and tidy lawns. But Maclean found few residents willing to answer the door on a Saturday morning. In the course of an hour, he managed to speak to two people. Eventually, he disregarded the address list; instead of targeting households, he deposited flyers willy-nilly. Bush supporters are driven by opposition to the other guy, too. But for many, the other guy is President Clinton. "I'm a mother of four, and I haven't been proud when they (the children) ask me, 'Hey, who's that Monica Lewinsky?" said Linda Ayres, a Republican volunteer coordinator. "I was a registered Democrat. I crossed party lines." Yet partisanship remains a foreign concept to some. For example, Laird Barron, a student at the University of Washington, said he finds Bush and Gore equally offensive. After hearing so many stock answers in the presidential debates, he decided both candidates were like "wind-up dolls." And Nader, Barron said, just isn't a viable candidate. So, his choice? "None of the above."
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