Bush on top again

September 14, 2000

Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush has once again surpassed
Democratic rival Al Gore in a newly released three-day poll that has
portrayed the race for the White House as a see-saw battle for the past few
weeks.

According to Portrait of America’s newest three-day presidential polling
survey, Bush is now leading Gore in the popular vote by slightly more than 1 percent. As of Thursday, Bush led 43.2 percent to 42.1 percent.

In the third-party races, Green Party nominee Ralph Nader still led the pack with 2.8 percent; Reform’s Pat Buchanan had 1.8 percent; Libertarian Harry Browne had 0.9 percent; the Constitution Party’s Howard Phillips had 0.2 percent; and Reform’s other candidate, John Hagelin, had fallen to 0.1 percent.

The results came from a nightly Portrait of America Presidential Tracking Poll and reflect interviews conducted September 11, 12 and 13 with 2,250 likely voters. Rasmussen Research conducted the poll, which has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, with a 95 percent level of confidence.

Other polls released Thursday show Gore up by anywhere from 3 to 6 percentage points with the exception of a new poll released by

Voter.com, which has Bush up by 6 points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, new charges of alleged campaign finance impropriety have surfaced against Gore, who is being reported by major media to have tried to solicit a six-figure political donation from a noted Texas lawyer in response to a promised veto by President Clinton of a tort reform bill in 1995.

Though Clinton did veto the measure a year later in May 1996, the New York Times reports a memo indicated that Don Fowler, then head of the Democratic National Committee, allegedly contacted lawyer Walter Umphrey to request a donation of $100,000 after Gore unsuccessfully tried to call him a few weeks earlier.

Gore campaign officials have denied that the vice president made the calls. Fowler denied it as well, saying the language contained in the “call sheet” memo was not language he would have used.

According to the Times, Fowler allegedly told Umphrey, “Sorry you missed the Vice President. I know [you] will give $100K when the President vetoes Tort reform, but we really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible.”

Meanwhile, Bush and Gore campaign officials continued to haggle over conditions for national debates, as Bush campaigned in California and Gore made appearances in New Hampshire.