President carefully picking his spots
WASHINGTON -- If you live in Pennsylvania or Florida, your chances of catching a glimpse of President Bush are pretty good. Missouri, Ohio, or Michigan, too. He's been to each more than 10 times as president, and he's sure to be back again soon.
Though Bush says he's not yet campaigning for reelection, he's beating a well-worn path through a handful of states likely to be presidential battlegrounds next year.
But if you live in states he carried overwhelmingly in 2000 -- or lost by a similar margin -- don't expect to see Air Force One anytime soon, unless it's overhead.
Bush has yet to visit Rhode Island, Vermont, or Hawaii, for instance, states where Democrat Al Gore won handily in 2000. Nor has he been to Idaho or Kansas, states he carried comfortably.
"The political season will come in its own time. I've got a job to do," Bush said at a Philadelphia-area fund-raiser last week. That was during his 22d visit as president to Pennsylvania.
Even while claiming that politics remain out of season for him, Bush has attended more than two dozen such fund-raisers since last June, collecting nearly $65 million toward an estimated $200 million goal for a primary season in which he has no opposition.
On the road almost constantly, he has used the visits to paint an optimistic picture of an America on the economic mend, which he credits to the tax cuts he pushed through Congress.
That counters the continuing US deaths in Iraq and a weak job market that have been pulling down Bush's approval ratings and contributing to GOP jitters about an election still 14 months away.
By matching official-duties events with $2,000-a-ticket fund-raisers, the White House has been able to pass along part of the travel tab to taxpayers -- a tactic used by all recent presidents seeking re-election.
Florida, where Bush's brother Jeb is governor and where the 2000 race was ultimately decided, is his next favorite destination after Pennsylvania, with 16 presidential visits so far, followed by Missouri at 13 and Ohio and Michigan each at 11.
Bush lost in Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2000 and won narrowly in Florida, Missouri, and Ohio. Together, these five states hold 96 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
Bush has also made multiple trips to Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, New Mexico, and Minnesota, all states that he lost narrowly in 2000, and to Arizona, Tennessee, and West Virginia, where he won by small margins.
He has visited California eight times. Gore won the state decisively in 2000, but GOP strategists think it could be competitive in 2004, with its huge prize of 55 electoral votes.
Bush advisers say it's not surprising that the president would begin campaigning in states that were close last time, given expectations that they will be again.
"We expect a close race in 2004. The campaign is raising the resources throughout the nation," said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.
Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, has suggested that next year's battle could be nearly as close as the 2000 contest. Bush lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote by a razor-thin 271-266 count.
One of Rove's chief concerns is the nation's continuing loss of jobs and the uncertainty about the economy. Small shifts in a handful of key states could make a huge difference.
That many of these key states are in the Midwest -- a Rust Belt region that has suffered from the loss of manufacturing jobs -- is a major factor behind the president's frequent-visitor status, GOP strategists say.
Associated Press writer Scott Lindlaw contributed to this report.
