AMPA - Bill Bradley, convinced that blacks would back his struggling campaign if they only knew him, accused Florida Governor Jeb Bush last night of committing ''a clear wrong'' and a lapse in leadership by repealing the state's affirmative action program.
Scrambling to chip into Vice President Al Gore's overwhelming support among blacks, Bradley launched the attack on the Florida governor immediately before heading for South Carolina to charge Texas Governor George W. Bush with a similar act.
''I think that he has demonstrated a lack of vision and leadership by repealing affirmative action laws,'' Bradley said of the Florida governor during a town meeting in the Ybor City section of Tampa.
''He did this despite the fact that affirmative action is about fairness. It's about social justice. It's about making sure all Americans have a fair chance.''
Florida's primary is not until March 14, a week after the big 15-state primary that is expected to make or break Bradley's candidacy. And South Carolina, where the Democratic primary is scheduled later, is largely inconsequential in the Democratic race.
But Bradley is banking on his appearances in the two states to boost his appeal to black voters and liberals. By nearly all accounts, Bradley will be unable to break Gore's momentum toward the Democratic nomination unless he can woo such core Democratic constituencies as blacks, Latinos, and liberals.
Though Bradley has made racial unity a central theme of his 20-year political career, he has watched with frustration as the nation's black establishment has buoyed Gore's candidacy.
Gore, in addition to basking in the reflected glow of President Clinton's strong bond with black voters, spent much of Clinton's administration cultivating black leaders in anticipation of a challenge for the Democratic nomination.
Bradley, in chastising the Florida governor over affirmative action, said, ''Giving people opportunity, investing them with responsibility, holding them accountable is not a preference or a quota. It is the standard by which the mark of progress is made in this country.''
To the crowd's applause, he said, ''I strongly oppose the action taken by Governor Bush because I believe that justice is one of the most enduring and abiding principles that make up the promise of America.
When opportunity is taken away or snuffed out, justice is denied and progress is brought to a standstill.''
In South Carolina, Bradley plans to renew his criticism of the Texas governor for recently taking his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination to Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian college in the state, which lost its tax-exempt status in the 1970s because the school engaged in racial discrimination.
The two-pronged offensive against the Bushes comes eight years after Bradley attacked their father, then-President George Bush, for allowing race to become an issue in the 1988 election by failing to repudiate an ad criticizing former Massachusetts governor Michael S. Dukakis over the furlough of Willie Horton.
Bradley, in a speech on the Senate floor, also blasted Bush for opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act when Bush ran for senator in Texas.
Bradley launched his stepped-up appeal to black voters at a predominantly black church in Queens, N.Y., on Sunday, when he cast himself as a leader whom blacks could trust and respect as president.
Today, Bradley is scheduled to broaden his appeal to black voters when he delivers a major education address in Ohio calling for policies that would better serve disadvantaged students and their families.
