ES MOINES - Put to the toughest test yet of their commitments to civil rights, Vice President Al Gore and former senator Bill Bradley last night tried to outdo each other in vowing to work to erase the nation's lingering vestiges of racial discord and discrimination.
In one of the sharpest exchanges of the last Democratic debate before Monday's Iowa caucuses, Bradley suggested Gore has failed to strive hard enough to end racial profiling. Police have used the practice to stop motorists and to develop suspects based on their race.
''I know you would issue an order to end racial profiling if you were president,'' Bradley told Gore in the Brown & Black Forum on minority issues at North High School. ''We have a president now. I want you to walk down that hallway and walk into his office and say, `Sign this exective order today.'''
Gore shot back: ''I don't think President Clinton needs a lecture from Bill Bradley on how to fight for African-Americans and Latinos.''
But rather than defend the administration's decision not to order an end to racial profiling, Gore accused Bradley of failing to heed requests from Newark Mayor Sharpe James to confront the issue when Bradley was a senator from New Jersey. ''It's one thing to talk the talk,'' Gore said. ''It's another thing to walk the walk.''
Not a word about the most important issue facing Iowa - farming - was spoken in the hour-long debate. In a quirk of the campaign season, the Brown & Black Forum is held every four years in the predominantly white state of Iowa, where the statewide black population was just 48,000 in 1990 - about one-third the black population of Boston.
The minority focus could have benefited Bradley by allowing him to avoid agriculture issues, which have hurt him because of his generally spotty record on farming. Or it could have hurt Bradley by preventing him from discussing issues other than race that might have helped him cut into Gore's wide lead in the Iowa polls.
While both candidates expressed unity in their opposition to discrimination, they jousted over specifics, from the best way to combat bias against homosexuals to the potential impact on minorities of their competing plans for health care and education.
Though Gore appeared taken aback by Bradley's challenge on the racial profiling issue, he quickly turned to James for support. James said after the debate that he had approached his ''good friend'' Bradley many times in the past decade about helping blacks who were victims of racial profiling. But Bradley insisted it was a local issue, and that he could not, as a US senator, help, James said. ''We were a bit disillusioned,'' James said. Bradley's debate comments were ''nice talk from a nice individual,'' but not enough, he said.
Both Bradley and Gore tip-toed around the question of whether 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who survived a perilous journey from Cuba to the Florida shore, should be returned to his father. Juan Gonzalez has been pleading for Elian's return since the boy was rescued clinging to an inner tube Thanksgiving Day.
Gore and Bradley each said the best solution was to have Elian's father come to the United States so he can state his wishes unencumbered by the communist Castro regime.
The question was awkward for Gore, since failing to back the INS decision meant repudiating his own administration. But if Gore stood by the INS ruling to send back Elian, he would have enraged the Cuban-American community, a small group that is politically powerful in the key campaign state of Florida.
Both candidates deftly navigated a couple of politically thorny questions. Asked whether they would boycott South Carolina because the Confederate flag flies at its State House, both denounced the flag. But Gore said he could not, as president, boycott any state, and Bradley failed to answer the question directly, focusing instead on the larger issue of racial injustice.
The ongoing fight over health care resurfaced in a racial context when Bradley was asked if Gore's criticism of his health care plan ''borders on race-baiting.'' Gore has said Bradley's plan to eliminate Medicaid and repace it with variable health care vouchers would hurt lower-income black and Latino citizens.
''I don't think they border on race baiting,'' Bradley said of Gore's criticisms. ''I think they do tend to divide people.''
Both candidates denounced the racially explosive comments made recently by Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker.
''I don't know John Rocker and I don't want to know him,'' Bradley said, adding ''I wouldn't be disappointed if they fired him.''
Bradley recalled that in his years in the NBA he often took it on himself to police racial sensitivities on the New York Knicks. He said he would sometimes pull a white teammate aside if he heard him use ''the wrong words.''
''Look,'' Bradley remembered saying, ''that doesn't work on this team. If you want to be on this team, you respect everybody.''
Gore also deplored Rocker's remarks, but, invoking the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he said he hopes that Rocker will ultimately find forgiveness.
''For some, racism may be a form of mental illness. For others, it is simply a manifestation of evil that they have the ability to transcend and overcome with love, forgiveness, and redemption,'' he said.
Bradley has received considerable public attention during the campaign for his commitment to improving race relations, with his biggest boost coming in December when he was showered with testimonials from Hall of Fame basketball stars and Hollywood celebrities at a fund-raiser in Madison Square Garden.
But Gore has easily outdistanced Bradley in solidifying the support of black political leaders nationwide. In addition to focusing for much of the last seven years on wooing black support, Gore has exploited Clinton's high standing in the minority community to build a broad organization, particularly in the key primary states in the South.
Gore has reaped endorsements from 29 members of the 38-member Congressional Black Caucus to Bradley's none. The only minority member of Congress to endorse Bradley is Representative Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois.
As a prelude to the debate, Gore made a highly symbolic visit to the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for the annual memorial service to honor King at the church where he preached and is buried. In addressing the congregation and placing a wreath at King's tomb, Gore effectively positioned himself at the center of black America.
For his part, Bradley began the day by appearing at a King Day event in Des Moines with Bill Russell, the former Celtic great who has made a rare foray into the political arena to support the former Knick and fellow Hall of Famer. Russell, who first met Bradley when Bradley was a Rhodes Scholar in the 1960s, said in an interview that the candidate has since proven to him that he is imbued with ''total integrity.''
Russell has long borne a reputation as being sensitive to what he perceives as social pretensions, particularly on matters of race. For that reason, he suggested, his endorsement of Bradley carries special weight. He sat in the front row for the debate last night, and he said he will campaign for Bradley later this week in Boston and New Hampshire.
''People in Boston know I'm very picky about my friends,'' Russell said at the Iowa Historical Building. ''But this guy's a friend of mine, and I'd like to think that him being in that select group says good things about him.''
Nearby, Senator John F. Kerry waited to address the group as a stand-in for Gore. It was Kerry's second King Day appearance of the morning on Gore's behalf. He had spent the night before organizing caucus groups for Gore.
On race relations, Kerry said neither Gore nor Bradley stood out as a leader on civil rights during their years in the Senate. One of the few memorable moments, Kerry said, was Bradley's speech condemning the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police. Bradley stunned onlookers by banging the podium 56 times in 81 seconds to signify the number of blows King had suffered.
''They were both very supportive of most of the critical issues'' on civil rights, Kerry said. But Bradley and Gore were not members of the key committees that handled civil rights issues, Kerry said, and were not major participants as a result.
Democratic presidential candidates Bill Bradley, left, and Vice President Al Gore shake hands before debating tonight in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP photo)
