OLUMBIA, S.C. - The Bradley campaign was taken aback yesterday by a request from the head of South Carolina's Democratic Party for Bradley to withdraw from the race for the White House.
The party chairman, Richard A. Harpootlian, asserted in a letter to Bill Bradley that the former New Jersey senator should step aside to spare Vice President Al Gore from damage that could cost Gore the general election.
''I believe it is time for you to pass the ball to the vice president, who has the opportunity to make the game-winning basket,'' Harpootlian said in one of several metaphorical references to Bradley's Hall of Fame basketball career.
Harpootlian, who says he has not endorsed either candidate, argued that Gore holds an insurmountable lead. Not so, said Bradley's spokesman, Eric Hauser, who asserted that Bradley has been ''picking up steam'' since his four-point loss in New Hampshire and that Gore is unelectable in the fall because of his role in the 1996 fund-raising scandal.
''We're certainly not dropping out,'' he said. ''Voters get to decide elections, not party chairmen.''
During a speech at Benedict College yesterday, Bradley accused the top Republican presidential candidates of opting to ''bottom-fish'' for right-wing votes by failing to repudiate the Confederate flag's use in South Carolina.
Though Bradley's entry into the flag debate was aimed in part at siphoning off Gore's minority support, he seized the moment to launch one of the most searing attacks yet by either Democratic contender against the GOP front-runners.
''At a time when leadership, courage, and principle should guide our leaders on this issue, both George Bush and John McCain have instead embraced the narrow political expediency of the Republican Party,'' Bradley said in a speech to several hundred students, staff members, and community leaders. ''It's an expediency that ignores a hateful and shameful past in an effort to bottom-fish for votes from the most right-wing element of the Republican Party.''
Bush and McCain have not taken a position on South Carolina's use of the Confederate flag as a state emblem, calling the controversy a state issue. Both Bradley and Gore have called the flag a racially divisive symbol of slavery and segregation.
''That flag shows the true colors of the Republicans who want to be president,'' Bradley told the audience at the historically black college.
Even before receiving Harpootlian's request to bow out of the race, Bradley's staff had vowed to step up attacks on Gore. On Monday, Gore renewed his criticism of Bradley's decision not to seek reelection to the Senate in 1996. Gore said Bradley chose to quit rather than fight the Republican majority in Congress.
Bradley's camp said Bradley's decision was not linked to the GOP's control of Congress.
''It appears the vice president has returned to a reckless disregard for the truth,'' Hauser said. ''It is somewhat alarming that day after day after day he continues to not be truthful on matters that relate to the campaign, to his record, and our record.''
Last night, Bradley held a town hall meeting in Cleveland where he proposed doubling an $8 billion federal program for distressed schools and giving parents the opportunity to choose what public school their children attend.
He also called for new-teacher testing, the Associated Press reported, saying it would assure quality teachers are in every classroom.
At the heart of the package, Bradley said, was an incentive system for schools to improve student performance.
''If they do succeed they get a reward,'' Bradley said.
Bradley plans to more fully unveil his education plan during a speech today in St. Louis.
