Politics

McCain, Bradley To Team Up

December 10, 1999 / 10:43 AM EST / AP

It promises to go down as one of the season's most unusual cross-over campaign events: Republican John McCain and Democrat Bill Bradley appearing together next week for a mutual salute on campaign finance reform.

Campaign aides planning the joint appearance in New Hampshire said Thursday that they were down to finalizing the nitty-gritty of site and time.

The candidates were likely to share a stage, aides said, next Thursday in Claremont, N.H., where President Clinton and then-House Wpeaker Newt Gingrich shook hands in 1995 and pledged to change campaign finance laws. The promise was not kept by either party.

"For the McCain campaign, this would be a high-profile opportunity to talk about how special interests keep us from achieving the kinds of conservative reforms we need," said McCain spokesman Howard Opinsky.

The timing would have Bradley and McCain putting aside partisanship and congenially shaking hands the day before Bradley faces his Democratic primary opponent, Vice President Al Gore, in a televised debate from Manchester, N.H.

Aides in both of the Democratic camps worry that the debate could take on a negative tone, given the escalation of charges and countercharges between Bradley and Gore since October, when they last faced each other on the debate stage.

The McCain-Bradley meeting could help both candidates gain an edge over their front-running rivals. Republican George W. Bush rejected federal matching money so he could avoid spending limits; Gore got caught up in the 1996 fund-raising controversy and refused Bradley's challenge to reject huge "soft money" campaign contributions in the general election if Republicans did the same.

McCain made that pledge with Bradley.

Handshakes aside, political analysts say McCain and Bradley could be on a collision course.

Both are courting independent voters in New Hampshire, which allows independents to vote in Democratic and Republican primaries.

Bradley spokeswoman Kristen Ludecke disputed politicos who say the pair are competing with each other for the same independents.

"Bill Bradley and John McCain share a commitment to campaign finance reform, but they differ greatly on a whole host of other issues," Ludecke said.

In a statewide survey released Thursday by New Hampshire's WNDS-TV and Franklin Pierce College, McCain edged out Bradley by a margin of between 8 points and 15 points in a hypothetical general-election matchup.

In tests of their standings in state primaries, McCain and Bradley trail their chief rivals in most other states, but make their best poll showings in New Hampshire, site of the nation's first primary Feb. 1.