Bush team shifts to campaign mode
WASHINGTON -- President Bush hasn't visited his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., held a reelection kickoff rally, or unveiled a catchy slogan for Bush-Cheney '04.
Yet as Democrats scramble for their nomination and dominate the news, an organization lubricated with money and commanded by disciplined veterans of Bush's 2000 campaign is quietly and methodically managing a nine-month marathon to secure the president's reelection.
Motivated by memories of the last, protracted election and the defeat of Bush's father in 1992, polling that points to another tight race, and uncertainty about who the Democratic nominee will be, the Bush campaign is battling the overconfidence of incumbency and building what many Republicans call an unprecedented grass-roots network to energize activists and turn out the GOP vote in November.
The campaign has established a database of 6 million names and reaches out to them with several e-mail updates every week. More than 6,000 individuals in battleground states have trained as county and precinct organizers and been given goals for registering voters, recruiting volunteers, and spreading the Bush gospel to the local media.
Bush offices are opening around the country, and eventually each state will have a chairman reporting to a regional political director from the campaign.
In Washington, campaign officials are courting key constituencies and assigning staff to the weekly meetings of social, religious, and fiscal conservatives, and business groups, that in turn link their grass-roots organizations to local Bush operatives. Events for women and young voters are taking place, and Bush surrogates are fanning out to states where the campaign believes the president's message is being drowned out or distorted by the Democratic candidates.
"It's the best I've ever seen, and it's revolutionary because Republicans are notorious for being anti-organizational," said Paul Weyrich, a longtime conservative activist who meets regularly with White House political strategist Karl Rove on the campaign's mechanics and message for reaching evangelical voters. Weyrich says the direction for the campaign "is coming right from the top."
Bush, who says he is too busy as president to plunge into politics, has delegated day-to-day re-election operations to the centralized command of Rove and campaign manager Ken Mehlman, who worked together in the 2000 campaign and later in the White House.
In fact, much of the 2000 team -- pollster Matthew Dowd, advertising chief Mark McKinnon, finance director Jack Oliver, GOP chairman Ed Gillespie, campaign chairman Marc Racicot, and Southern strategist Ralph Reed -- already are active in the campaign. Karen Hughes, Bush's former communications director, is expected to be involved as well.
But this campaign is not the hurly-burly, funky casual, Austin-based Bush-Cheney operation of four years ago. It looks and runs like a corporation, as neatly dressed aides monitor cable television and tap into their computers in quiet, carpeted cubicles.
With a staff of 160, the Bush campaign resides on the first and eighth floors of a nondescript high-rise across the Potomac River from the White House. No Bush-Cheney sign marks the location of the headquarters, and the only hint of presidential politics is a formal, framed photograph of George and Laura Bush hanging in the lobby. Though the office opened last May, there are stacks of unpacked boxes.
Even with $99 million in the bank (and a fund-raising goal of $170 million), the perks of the White House, and a seasoned team, press secretary Terry Holt says the challenge for the Bush campaign is staying sharp, keeping its focus, and building the organization while the Democrats fight for the nomination.
"The mindset here is that every day counts, every phone call, every contact counts," Holt said. "The number one thing is the culture: This is a very disciplined, very organized, very loyal group."
The campaign day starts at 6 a.m., when junior aides begin reading and watching the morning news and preparing briefings and "rapid responses." Conference calls and senior staff meetings are underway shortly after 8, to survey the political landscape and craft a daily message. Outside political advisers, including pollster Ed Goeas and Mary Matalin, who worked for Dick Cheney, are consulting with the campaign, and Senators Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, stay in close touch.
Ron Kaufman, the GOP committeeman from Massachusetts who was a political adviser to the first President Bush, says he wishes the management in that White House "had been half as good."
"They're running as if they were 20 points behind in the polls, and they are careful of every buck they spend," Kaufman said.
Indeed, while the buttons and bumper stickers are ready, the opposition research is collected, and the campaign themes are rehearsed, the Bush campaign is still operating under the radar. No advertising has aired, the slogan is a secret, and the president isn't expected to enter reelection mode until springtime, though he is traveling to New England next week for an event in New Hampshire and a fund-raiser in Connecticut.
Though considerable planning had been invested in a potential race against Howard Dean, Bush campaign officials say Senator John F. Kerry's surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses on Monday did not throw them off course. "We have not focused as much on one candidate as on the whole field," said Mehlman. "Whoever we face, we expect to have a tough race."
Mehlman won't discuss campaign strategy, but he said the president believes in "the power of a positive message" and in "attacking problems, not people." In his State of the Union message on Tuesday, the president previewed a stay-the-course election theme of keeping America safe, prosperous, and grounded in traditional family values.
"We are focused on the issues, we are focused on a positive message," Mehlman said.
That contrasts with the Democratic candidates, who, according to Mehlman, have been "very negative" in their attacks on the president and "very similar" in their support for higher taxes, opposition to the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, and criticism of the Patriot Act. "Except for Joe Lieberman," Mehlman said, "they have taken a cut-and-run position on Iraq."
Representative Deborah Pryce, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House GOP Conference, said the Bush campaign has had to adjust to the prospect of an opponent other than Dean. "Every Republican wanted the nominee to be Howard Dean. We saw so much weakness," Pryce said. "But [the campaign] was ready to pivot on a dime."
Thomas A. Rath, a political activist in New Hampshire with close ties to Bush, said Kerry's lengthy record in the Senate of taking liberal positions, which include raising taxes, supporting large federal programs, and opposing capital punishment and gun rights, would be a target for the Bush reelection campaign.
"I can see an ad that starts with Ted Kennedy and goes to Michael Dukakis," said Rath. He said the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage also could be used against Kerry.
Tony Welch, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said the Bush campaign has the resources to highlight policy differences by "buying just about anything they want.
"Unfortunately for them, they can't buy 3 million jobs or health insurance for 43 million Americans," Welch said. "It won't be the campaign operation that wins the race for the president. It's going to be his record that loses it."
