Politics

Silicon Valley Smiles On Bush

April 6, 1999 / 11:06 AM EDT / AP

Fifty-five executives with ties to the high-tech world urged Texas Gov. George W. Bush to run for president, the latest sign that the Silicon Valley will be a prime battleground in the race for the White House.

"We need visionary leaders who understand the New Economy," the executives wrote in an advertisement they placed in Monday's editions of the San Jose Mercury News.

"We look forward to a spirited bipartisan debate on the issues and encourage George W. Bush to run for president to ensure that the United States continues to symbolize the best the future has to offer," the ad continued.

Bush, a Republican, has formed a presidential exploratory committee, but has not said definitively whether he will run for the White House.

Among those on the list of Bush backers are Jim Barksdale, president and CEO of Netscape Communications; Bob Herbold, chief operating officer of Microsoft Corp.; Jeff Henley, chief financial officer of Oracle Corp; Steve Behm, a vice president of Cisco Systems; and Ben Anixter, a vice president of Advanced Micro Devices.

Floyd Kvamme, a partner in the venture-capital and investment banking firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers, was second on the list. His son, Mark Kvamme, is chairman of the high-tech advertising and marketing firm USWeb/CKS, Inc., but is not on the list. He is working for Bush's rival for the GOP nomination, Rep. John Kasich.

The others on the list are executives at a wide range of finance, law, semiconductor, software and hardware firms.

Many of the high-tech firms despise what they see as frivolous lawsuits filed against them by shareholders and others.

The advertisement on page eight of the newspaper's business section said Bush had guided civil court reform through the Texas Legislature "so entrepreneurs can pursue new technologies, rather than defend against frivolous lawsuits."

They called Bush-led public school reforms "a model for the country."

And they praised Bush for "creating an environment that stresses personal responsibility over government intervention, and innovation over regulation."

Bush has proposed a research and development tax credit to his legislature as a way to keep Texas competitive in the field. High-tech firms have long sought such a credit at the federal level.

The public endorsement of Bush marked an expansion of his efforts to coordinate with various groups that are willing to back him nearly a year before the first primaries of the 2000 election season.

Until now, most of those expressions of support have come from elected officials around the country. The letter is the first time a private-sector group has written such a letter to Bush, said Leslie Goodman, a GOP consultant and Bush supporter.

The advertisement also represented an escalation of the candidates' efforts to court Silicon Valley, a region that has money, plenty of voterand growing political clout.

The ad came one day before Vice President Al Gore, who wants to succeed President Clinton, was to campaign in San Jose, and one week after Kasich met with high-tech executives in Silicon Valley, with Mark Kvamme at his side.

"This letter just proves that Silicon Valley is fertile ground for Republicans," said Duke Hipp, a spokesman for Kasich's campaign. "There's this misconception that Silicon Valley is Democratic. This proves that it isn't."

Hipp added: "We'd like to have a letter like this as well."