ice President Al Gore's presidential campaign plans mostly to ignore former Senator Bill Bradley, his rival for the Democratic nomination, and to focus its research and attention on Governor George W. Bush of Texas, according to Gore aides who met with congressional staff members yesterday.
Stacie Spector, Gore's deputy campaign manager and director of strategic operations, made the remarks during a meeting between senior campaign officials and chiefs of staff and press secretaries to House and Senate members, one participant said. On Thursday, lawmakers will meet with Tony Coehlo, the campaign's general chairman, and Marla Romash, the deputy chairman.
The campaign's approach to Bradley, according to one person who attended the meeting, is to try to avoid overt attacks. ''They said, `We're just not trying to go after him. We can't afford to alienate too many folks,'' the source said.
Despite that assertion, both Coehlo and Romash attacked Bradley recently when he called for a ban on soft money contributions to the national party committees. Coehlo suggested that Bradley had been absent on the subject of campaign finance reform during his years in the Senate and would leave Democratic candidates in 2000 vulnerable to Republicans.
While some participants characterized the tone as an attempt to reassure Capitol Hill Democrats that the campaign is in good shape, Gore officials said there was nothing out of the ordinary about this week's meetings.
They said similar meetings have already taken place with Democratic women senators, freshmen House members and the House ''Blue Dog'' Democrats, conservative members of the party. Gore met personally with members of the Hispanic Caucus, and has plans to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, too. Officials said the meetings were merely a means of keeping lawmakers up to date.
Campaign manager Craig Smith painted a rosy picture for lawmakers' aides, saying that fund-raising was on track and that Gore is solidly ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to several people in attendance.
In an effort to allay concerns that the vice president is not doing as well as he might and could be in trouble if he faces Bush in the general election, Smith said polling data show that the more people learn about Gore, the more they like him. On the other hand, Smith said, the more voters learn about Bush, the less they like him.
Smith also said he expects Gore to wrap up his fund-raising by the end of the year so that will not be scrambling for funds during the heat of the primary campaigns.
''We don't want what happened to Bob Dole to happen to us,'' Smith said, according to another aide who was there.
