Gore Gains Key Endorsement

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin is endorsing Al Gore's bid to be president.

Rubin, who resigned from the Clinton-Gore administration in July, was to announce the endorsement Tuesday during a meeting in New York with the vice president and business leaders at New York University Law School.

In the campaign against Democratic rival Bill Bradley, Gore has argued that he is best suited to continue the economic prosperity the country has enjoyed under the administration. He hoped an endorsement by Rubin, a prominent economic figure, would underscore that message.

"He helped make the American economy the envy of the world and I intend to keep it that way,'' Gore said in a statement.

Rubin, who served in the Clinton cabinet since 1995, previously was co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs, & Co., an investment bank. He recently accepted a position as a member of the Office of the Chairman of Citigroup Inc.

Rubin's endorsement comes on the heels last month of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich's decision to endorse Bradley, a former New Jersey senator.

Bradley, meanwhile, was endorsed Tuesday by a trio of Capitol Hill veterans who saluted the Democratic presidential candidate as more committed to tackling the nation's big problems Gore.

"We need to stop marking time on the problems," California Rep. George Miller said, singling out the 44 million Americans without health insurance and neglect of America's national parks.

At a news conference arranged by Bradley's campaign, Miller joined fellow California Democrat Pete Stark and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., to endorse the former senator from New Jersey. All three share a collective 66 years experience in the House of Representatives, where Gore also served.

"What we need is someone who understands that not everybody is making it in this society and who is willing to go out and say we have to fix it for them too," said McDermott.

Bradley has endorsements from just nine members of Congress, who are automatic delegates to the Democratic party's nominating convention next summer. More than 100 members of Congress - well below half the number of Democrats in the House and Senate - have endorsed the vice president.