From: clarinews@clarinet.com (United Press International)
Newsgroups: clari.news.politics,biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.top
Subject: Tsongas to stay out of the race
Keywords: politics
Date: 9 Apr 92 16:03:34 GMT
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Slugword: politics
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Note: (10grafld-picksup8thgraf: comparing his -- tsongas stays out of the
 race, warns party about perot)


	Former Sen. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts announced Thursday he will
not restart his suspended campaign, but warned Democrats they must fill
a vacuum ``before H. Ross Perot fills it for you.''
	Tsongas also said he will not endorse a democratic candidate at this
time and deferred discussing whether he would consider running as vice
presidential candidate with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.
	Tsongas suspended his Democratic presidential campaign three weeks
ago but finished second in the New York primary, behind Clinton, but
ahead of former California Gov. Edmund ``Jerry'' Brown.
	It was Clinton's win that convinced Tsongas to abandon his campaign.
He told a Boston news conference he did not want to be a ``spoiler.''
	Clinton's showings in primaries Tuesday in New York, Kansas,
Wisconsin and Minnesota bring him close to two-thirds of the delegates
need to win the Democratic presidential nomination this summer.
	But exit polls conducted by the television networks showed strong
discontent with the candidates running and with Clinton in particular,
an Tsongas picked up on that message Thursday.
	``The drop in the turnout has to terrify the Democrats,'' Tsongas
said. ``The Democratic Party cannot be a very happy camp today. But the
fact is that you can reverse that with a message that grabs people and
gives them hope for the future.''
	Tsongas also warned his party that unless they changed the perception
held by voters, the election will be open to a third party candidacy,
particularly by Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot.
	``The fact is, Ross Perot is getting a great deal more attention than
he deserves, because there's a perceived vacuum,'' Tsongas said. ``My
argument to the Democrats is very simple: Fill that vacuum, before Ross
Perot fills it for you.''
	Clinton traveled to Peoria, Ill. Wednesday to appear with striking
union workers at the Caterpillar plant there while Brown campaigned in
Virginia which holds caucuses this weekend.
	Comparing his position to those of the past Democratic nominess at
the same point in the campaign, Clinton said he thought he was doing 
``right well.''
	``This has been a difficult campaign, an unusual one, and I think
under the circumstance we're doing pretty well and we'll do better as
time goes on,'' he said.
	In his New York victory speech, Clinton said he planned to ``reach
out to those who did not vote for me but voted for change'' in the three
weeks until the next big primary in Pennsylvania April 28.
	After Wednesday's appearances, he planned a brief halt until next
week to rest his voice, his campaign said.
	He may have his work cut out for him. The exit polls Tuesday showed
that two-thirds of the Democrats in New York wanted someone else to on
the ballot.
	In addition, when asked if they thought Clinton had the honesty and
integrity to be president, 46 percent of the Democrats said they did
not, compared to 49 percent who said he did.
	And 40 percent of them said they would not vote in November or vote
for President Bush or possible third party candidate H. Ross Perot
rather than pull the lever for Clinton.
	On whether he can get those who are not voting for him to back him in
the future, Clinton said, ``I don't care if they love me or not. I want
them to respect me. And I want them to want me to be their president.''
	``We're going to talk about some of the mathematics of it, whether
it's doable,'' Brown said. ``The fact is that Bill Clinton has about 1,
400 delegates, getting very close to striking distance to the 2,145 that
he needs to get a majority to be our party's nominee.''
	Brown finished a close second to Clinton in Wisconsin and was running
just behind him in Minnesota, a preference poll that had no bearing on
the delegate selection process.
	But it was the third place finish in New York, where he had based
most of his effort, and fourth place behind ``none-of-the-above'' in
Kansas that slowed down the insurgent's campaign.
	But Brown moved on to next stop saying he will continue the race.
	``I still believe that our grass-roots movement, depending on the 800
number on people just calling in ... is a powerful idea and I'm going to
continue it just as long as people keep calling, keep pledging and
supporting this movement, which is of the poeple, not just about Jerry
Brown,'' he said Wednesday.
	On the Republican side, Bush rolled on through Kansas, Wisconsin and
Minnesota Tuesday, defeating challenger Patrick Buchanan handidly in all
three states.
	Taking a pre-dawn stroll in Washington to view the cherry blossoms,
Bush pronounced them as ``beautiful'' and as ``outstanding'' as his
primary victories Tuesday.
	The president declined comment on the muddled Democratic contest and
said ``I don't know'' when asked if he expected to be running against
Clinton in the general election.
	``Let's see what the come up with,'' he said. ``I'm not running
against anybody right now.''
	Buchanan campaigned in North Carolina which holds a primary May and
repeated that despite his winless performance so far he was in the race
to stay.
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