Bradley received farm subsidy payments, hits Gore on tobacco

By Mike Glover, Associated Press, 1/16/2000

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A partnership that includes Bill Bradley received $2,150 in farm subsidy payments in 1997 and 1998, campaign aides said Saturday. As a Democratic senator from New Jersey, Bradley had opposed such payments.

Bradley got $700 from the payments to the 250-acre farm in Missouri he owns with a high school friend, the aides said.

Campaign spokeswoman Anita Dunn said the farm also received relief payments after floods in 1993. Bradley donated his share to charity, added Dunn, who did not immediately know the amount.

During last week's debate, Vice President Al Gore accused Bradley of voting against flood relief that year. Bradley said Gore distorted his record and he insisted he eventually voted for the relief package.

Bradley said Gore's record was tainted because he accepted federal subsidy payments for growing tobacco on the Gore family's Tennessee tobacco farm.

In addition, Bradley aides said, the Democratic National Committee had accepted soft money from the tobacco industry to put on the 1996 convention that nominated Gore and President Clinton.

''Senator Bradley continues to stoop to new lows every day,'' said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane.

Bradley has come under fire in the campaign for Iowa's precinct caucuses on Jan. 24 for not being sympathetic to farm assistance programs. While he insists he was only representing his state, he has continued to maintain the Missouri farm operation.

Dunn, who was questioned about the subsidies by a reporter, argued that subsidies Bradley received were minor and said his opposition to those programs showed he was not influenced by personal gain.

''If you want to see the difference between the two candidates, nothing better illustrates it than the fact that Bill Bradley voted against a program from which his partnership received a small subsidy,'' Dunn said.

Lehane said the latest exchange underscores the importance of Gore's challenge to step up the number of campaign debates.

''We reiterate our challenge that he debate us weekly,'' Lehane said.