OCA RATON, Fla. - While Bill Bradley said yesterday he would continue to wage a positive campaign, his office was assailing Vice President Al Gore for making dozens of ''promises without price tags.''
Facing Gore's continued aggressive rhetoric, Bradley said some politicians believe ''you're toast'' if you don't go negative. ''I haven't reached that point,'' he said.
''I'm trying to lay out a positive vision of the country, not demean an opponent,'' Bradley said in a speech to magazine executives. ''I think people would rather get to Election Day and have two people that they esteem as opposed, to one person they can barely tolerate.''
In Washington, meanwhile, Bradley's campaign issued a statement saying that for months, ''Vice President Al Gore has made promises. Rarely, however, has he told the American people what these promises will cost.''
It cited such proposals as: more school teachers and guidance counselors, an expanded earned income tax credit, tax credits for companies that help clean up the environment, and greater opportunities for a college education.
''Leadership means being straight with the American people about the cost of what you want to do,'' said Eric Hauser, Bradley's press secretary.
In response, Gore's press secretary, Kiki Moore, said, ''Al Gore's policies for American working families and the budget estimates associated with them have been reported publicly by news organizations.''
She added: ''Senator Bradley's concerns are clearly that his budget numbers ... would spend the federal surplus without saving'' Medicare or Medicaid.
The exchanges came a day after Gore stepped up his attacks on Bradley's health-care proposals as too expensive. At a campaign stop in Iowa, Gore said both Bradley and Republican front-runner George W. Bush have ''serious problems with fiscal responsibility.''
Yesterday, Bradley's aides tried to blow a hole through Gore's latest weapon: An Emory University study by former Clinton administration official Kenneth Thorpe projecting a budget-busting $1.2 trillion, 10-year cost for Bradley's health plan.
Gore trumpeted the report as ''nonpartisan'' during Wednesday's debate with Bradley. Yesterday, Bradley's campaign countered by distributing copies of an Oct. 4 university news release saying Thorpe, ''in his first weeks at Emory, ...has advised Vice President Al Gore on health insurance issues.''
In Bradley's speech yesterday in this Florida resort town, the overriding theme was maintaining a civil tone during the campaign. Bradley said he hoped to ''lay the premise here that we can have a new kind of politics....''
''The rough rule of thumb among political consultants is that negative campaigning works.
''Yet at the same time, I know from basketball that you can only take elbows for so long before you have to give them back,'' he said.
