Bush Chases His California Dream
Joking that he's been to California so often he could qualify as a native, George W. Bush has kicked off yet another swing through the vote-rich state to talk about his education program and raise money for Republicans.
On Thursday, the Texas governor will visit schools, address a National Guard association, take in a county fair and hobnob with donors during his two-and-a-half-day visit to California - his 15th in a year and the third since this summer's Republican convention.
"I'm coming a lot. Pretty soon you might be calling me citizen of the state of California," Bush quipped at a rally in central California on Wednesday.
The GOP nominee faces an uphill battle to beat Democrat Al Gore, with most state polls showing Bush with a double-digit deficit against the vice president. Bush has pledged not to give up on California in this year's quest for the White House like his father, then-President Bush, did eight years ago.
But at the same time, the Texas governor tacitly acknowledged his underdog status. "I'm confident that we can carry California. I know that goes against conventional wisdom," he said at a fund-raiser in Irvine, Calif.
Bush's recipe for wooing Californians combines a focus on education - an important issue for many voters - with Democratic-sounding appeals to the state's ethnic groups.
He started right away on Wednesday, rushing from the airport in Long Beach to an Asian neighborhood for a rally.
"Part of making sure we win in California is to understand the wonderful fabric of this state," Bush said. "This is a state of many faces and many cultures. I say we welcome all cultures."
In stops in Orange County and San Diego scheduled for Thursday, Bush will tout his education plan to hold schools more accountable for teaching kids the basics.
The governor favors using standardized state-created tests to measure whether schools are doing a good job. Under his proposal, schools that fail to make the grade would lose a portion of their federal funding and states that improve test scores would be rewarded. Parents of kids in failing schools could get $1,500 to pay for private schools or tutors.
Bush says he wants to give local educators more control over the performance of schools by letting them set the testing standards.
"I do not want to be the federal superintendent of schools," Bush said Wednesday. "I believe in local control of schools."
The issue is especially potent in California, where voters will decide in November whether to approve a ballot initiative that would provide vouchers for kids to attend private schools.
Bush was the featured attraction at two fund-raisers Wednesday that raised $1 million for Republicans. Most of the money goes to the state Republican party to help GOP congressional candidates, several of whom are in very tight contests. Two more fund-raisers are scheduled Thursday in San Diego.