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---------------------- Forwarded by Chris Long/Corp/Enron on 05/19/2000 04:22 PM --------------------------- Jeremy Bash <Jbash@Fontheiminternational.com< on 05/19/2000 10:50:15 AM To: clong@enron.com cc: Ken Levinson <KLevinson@fontheiminternational.com<, Claude Fontheim <CFontheim@fontheiminternational.com<, Sally Painter <SPainter@fontheiminternational.com< Subject: Today's Post Story on Gore Campaign Chris: In case you haven't see this ... -JB Voters Hear a Dull Gore, So Aides Sharpen Message By Ceci Connolly Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 19, 2000; Page A06 NASHVILLE, May 18 -- Vice President Gore's top political strategists met here for more than three hours today in a fresh effort to sharpen a campaign that has ceded much of the spring to George W. Bush. High on the agenda, according to consultants and officials in the session, was a debate over new television ads and how to bring more logic to the vice president's travel schedule, so that what he is saying and where he is saying it do not appear random. "We need to make sure our message and travel make sense," said one participant. On Wednesday night, Gore spent a few hours before the cameras in a union hall here with his admakers Bill Knapp and Carter Eskew, as they continue fine-tuning commercials to be aired by the Democratic National Committee between now and the August convention. The DNC is preparing to sign an advertising contract with Knapp, Eskew and other Gore top media consultants, said party spokeswoman Jenny Backus. Sources in Washington said today the party could easily spend $10 million over the next three months indirectly promoting Gore and other Democratic candidates, although no firm budget has been set. From August 1995 to July 1996, the DNC and state Democratic committees ran $45 million worth of issue ads, party officials said today. Gore campaign officials confirmed that for several weeks they have test-marketed ads, many of them biographical spots aimed at reintroducing Gore to a public that continues to have an ill-defined, somewhat unfavorable impression of him. The DNC also has studied focus groups to determine the best lines of attack against the presumptive GOP nominee. More broadly, the Gore team is struggling to seize back the agenda after watching the Texas governor dominate the airwaves with proposals on housing, education, health care and Social Security. Some Gore aides argued that a turnaround began this week with the vice president's response to Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security. "If you had asked me a week ago, I would have said things were much worse," said one staff member here. "But I think Bush has made a big mistake with that proposal." Addressing 10,000 retirees in Orlando on Wednesday, Gore gave one of his most forceful, cogent speeches since locking up the Democratic nomination in March. His advisers hope that methodical critique of Bush's Social Security plan offers a blueprint for refocusing his candidacy and boosts his lagging poll numbers. "This was one of the first times since the end of the primaries we had direct engagement on an issue voters care about," said one campaign aide. "Both the candidate and the operation perform better when there is something to compare to and we have a mission or task at hand." One longtime Gore aide said the vice president was "warming up" to the Social Security debate, reveling in the complex details of the program and its broad scope. "Finally, a presidential issue," this person said. Yet the campaign continued today to debate how much time Gore should devote to attacking Bush rather than selling himself. Several Gore advisers say they are lining up more "surrogates" to handle the Bush critique so that Gore can carry a more positive message. Today's high-level session was the second of new weekly meetings called by campaign chairman Tony Coelho aimed in part at consolidating power at the headquarters here. Many Gore allies have grumbled in recent weeks about three competing power centers--here, at the White House and aboard Air Force Two. In addition to Knapp, consultants Tad Devine, Michael Whouley and Elaine Kamarck flew to Nashville for the session. Coelho is moving the scheduling staff, led by Lisa Berg, to Nashville and has asked Devine to spend two to three days a week here. Gore has salted the DNC with several top advisers, including Whouley, who will run the party, Knapp, who helped coordinate the 1996 advertising, and Laura Quinn, who is leaving the office of the vice president to oversee the DNC communications shop. DNC lawyers are finalizing the legal and financial details on a consulting contract with a new company that will include principals from three Democratic firms: Squier, Knapp, Dunn; Shrum, Devine and Donilon; and Century Media (which is composed of several of the same Gore consultants). , 2000 The Washington Post Company
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