November 4, 1999

Special Report

Bradley tells Iowa student-journalists
he won't consider second spot on ticket

By Heidi Waldman
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa--Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley is running to become the next president, and he says that is the only office he will accept.

In an exclusive press conference and interview Monday, he said he would not consider running as Vice President Al Gore's running mate, if Gore receives the Democratic nomination. "I'm running for president of the United States. That's the office I seek and that's the only office I'll accept," Bradley said. "Life's too rich and full. If the people want me, I'll be president."

Bradley said he would suggest a wide number of reforms, including health care, gun control, civil rights and education. Meeting with student reporters from Iowa universities and colleges, Bradley stressed the rights of homosexuals and education reforms. He said he strongly supports a gay rights domestic partners law and amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include homosexuals for protection against discrimination. He also referred to the status of gays in the military.

"I support gays being able to serve openly in the military," Bradley said. "If a gay American can serve openly in the White House, in the Congress, in the courts, in the Treasury Department and in the attorney general's office, why can't they serve openly in the U.S. military? It doesn't make sense."

As for education reforms, Bradley emphasized forgiving loans up to $7,500 per year to education majors who agree to teach in rural school districts for five years in the hard sciences. For young teachers of all subjects, he would propose a $5,000 debt forgiveness for working in inner city and rural areas. "You need to be secure that you are not going to be inundated with debt," Bradley said.

Student involvement is important to the political process, Bradley said. He said he has made an attempt to reach out to young people in a time when volunteerism has never been higher, but political participation has never been lower. "What politics needs to be about is service," Bradley told the nine students there and the three who called from their colleges. "I think that service component is what has been lost in the last few years."

Bradley said he is making the appeal to get people involved who have not been involved in politics before. With the vice president as a rival candidate within the party, Bradley said it is important for him to work outside of typical party lines and the normal "mechanics of winning." He said Al Gore was able to use the "entrenched power" of his office to forward his campaign.

"I'm going to reach out to people who are not a part of the process," Bradley said. "When you participate in something, you add to the process." He said his campaign stresses issues young adults find important, including same-day registration, voting by mail, campaign finance reform, protecting the environment and securing jobs.

Bradley has run a grassroots campaign in Iowa even going door-to-door and shaking people's hands. For him, he said, the endorsement of longtime activist John Chrystal, a Coon Rapids banker who has served as chairman of many Democratic campaigns and a major financial player in Democratic politics, is more important than the House and Senate minority leaders' endorsements of Gore. Bradley said in Iowa, the Chrystal endorsement also received more news coverage. Chrystal sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1990 without success.

Bradley also covered school violence, such as what occurred at Columbine in Littleton, Colo., last year when 12 students and one teacher were killed by classmates. "Columbine is only one episode," Bradley said about violence in American schools. "There are 14 kids killed everyday in America with a gun." He said Columbine caught the nation's imagination, because it allowed people to see a situation where they could possibly see their own kids.

To stop something like the Columbine killings from occurring again, Bradley said there needed to be stricter gun control laws, removing gun shops from neighborhoods and banning junk guns like Saturday night specials.

Much of what Bradley said on improving conditions within various arenas was based on preventative measures, as in his gun control policy, rather than reactive measures. For example, he would begin educating values at an early age on topics like racial diversity and drugs. "We must reduce the demand [for drugs]," Bradley said. "And that begins in the second grade."

Along with that, he said he would like ad campaigns such as one for Drug Free America to run more often in prime-time television slots. Prior to 1992 when the ads ran more frequently, drug use declined, Bradley said. He said in the last seven years, use has been increasing again, and the space where the ads once ran is filled with promotional spots for the networks.

On a final topic, Bradley answered questions about how candidates have been attacking each other for the past few months. So far, Bradley has not participated in these attacks, he said, particularly when directly confronted by Gore. Bradley said he has been trying to run a positive campaign. "I think that voting for president is the most personal thing a person can do in the election process," Bradley said. He said people who vote are trusting the candidate they vote for with their security, their jobs and their lives. "I owe it to them to be positive...I'm not going to use my strength, my outrage and my ingenuity to attack," he said.