Gore Sets Up Shop In Nashville
Looking to add energy to his sagging presidential campaign, Al Gore came home to Tennessee Wednesday and opened his new campaign headquarters. He also named a new campaign manager.
Gore announced last week that he would move the headquarters from "K Street in Washington to the aisles of Kmart in Nashville.''
With about 250 supporters cheering him on, including his 87-year-old mother Pauline, Gore opened the downtown headquarters.
"Home is not only a place,'' Gore said, "it's an idea that we return to. Home is where we start from. Home is where we learn our values. It's where we return to remember ourselves in the best sense.''
Gore recalled being disillusioned when he returned home after serving in Vietnam. Living in Nashville helped reinvigorate him and get him to believe again in the "spirit of democracy,'' he said.
"We live in a time when we need more than ever to rekindle the spirit of democracy,'' Gore said.
He also renewed his challenge to rival Bill Bradley to meet him in a series of debates. "We could even have a debate right here in Nashville," he said. "I think that would be a good idea."
Gore named Donna Brazile his new campaign manager. She replaces Craig Smith, a longtime aide to President Clinton who did not want to move to Tennessee with the campaign.
Brazile, who worked for 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis and more recently for Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri), is one of the Democratic Party's most experienced grassroots organizers. The appointment of Brazile, who is black, helps diversify Gore's inner circle, which has been criticized for being top heavy with white males.
Her selection, reports Dotty Lynch, Chief of the CBS News Political Unit, also means the campaigns of both Democratic presidential contenders are being run by women -- Gina Glanz is Bradley's campaign manager.
"[She's] an African-American woman, with very strong credentials in the African American community and very strong in running field organizations," said Lynch. Brazile is the first African-American woman to run a major national campaign.
Analysts say the move to Nashville shows Gore wants to shake his image as a Beltway insider, distance himself from President Clinton and retool a top-heavy campaign that's losing momentum to Bradley, his only rival for the Democratic nomination.
"It's basically a public relations effort on the vice president's part,'' said M. Lee Smith, publisher of a Tennessee political newsletter. "The move and the new setup will have some effect in getting up some new enthusiasm. ... I tend to think it won't last very long or go very far.''
"So far, at least within the Democratic party, he's gotten pretty good reviews for realizing he was in trouble and starting to take measures to counteract it," said Lynch.
The move to Nashville, known as Music City, US, will make it "easier for them to get a campaign song written,'' quipped David Axelrod, a political consultant in Chicago.
Jokes aside, Axelrod thinks it's "a healthy move from an unhealthy place'' that will help separate Al Gore the vice president from Al Gore the presidential candidate.
"There's a fundamental disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country," Axelrod said. "They get so hung up on insider stuff that it's hard to get a fix on what's going on."
"Senator Bradley plans to make race and race relations a major issue," added Lynch. "Donna Brazile is a very strong voice in the African-American community, and having a job like this [means Gore] is trying to say 'I, too, care about these issues.'"