Bradley campaigned for black voters' support in Florida, while Gore steered his drive for union and gay support to a construction site and a Lincoln Center stage in New York. With the local issues and living rooms of Iowa and New Hampshire a memory, the Democratic rivals must assemble coalitions to form majorities in key primaries coming up. Bradley was targeting minority voters, campaigning in Tampa by criticizing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to replace racial and gender preferences in education and business with increased outreach efforts and broader anti-discrimination laws.
Affirmative action is about fairness, it's about social justice.
This sets the wrong tone. It is the wrong signal at the wrong time. On Tuesday, Bradley was to be in South Carolina to wade into the dispute surrounding the flying of the Confederate flag over the Statehouse in Columbia. But it's been Gore who has built strong ties to key Democratic constituencies, including labor and minorities over the past eight years. He has kept those ties tight in meetings like the one he had at his hotel Monday with New York labor leaders.