Politics

Al & Hill's Excellent Adventure

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 17, 2000 / 1:03 PM EST / CBS

Coming soon to Campaign 2000: Al and Hill's Excellent Adventure.

This weekend, Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will campaign together for the first time as Y2K candidates - he for the White House, she for the U.S. Senate from New York. Aides to Gore and Mrs. Clinton said Thursday that the two will appear at a church service in Albany, N.Y. on Sunday.

So far, the Democratic duo has not campaigned together in the Empire State. That has prompted questions - most recently on the front page of Thursday's New York Times - about whether the two campaigns were deliberately keeping each other at political arm's length.

When Gore was asked recently by a television interviewer why the two hadn't been campaigning together, the vice president said, "It's a matter of scheduling. Not just me, but also her."

This weekend is meant to change all that. Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said Thursday that there was no intentional distancing of the two candidates. Aides to Gore said likewise.

In fact, one Gore adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the first lady "helps us tremendously" between now and New York's presidential primary on March 7. "Her numbers are just off the charts with Democratic primary voters."

Support from Mrs. Clinton on the campaign trail could help Gore in the primary against Democratic rival Bill Bradley, a former U.S. senator from New Jersey and one-time basketball star with the New York Knicks.

Sunday's event in Albany will not only bring Gore and Mrs. Clinton together, but it will also give them both a chance to woo New York's minority voters. The church service is the highlight of an annual gathering of black and Hispanic state lawmakers.

Gore and Bradley have tussled for minority voters in their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. If the vice president is his party's nominee, he will need those votes in the fall. So will Mrs. Clinton. The First Lady is expected to face a tough fight for the Senate seat from New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, her likely GOP opponent.