Gore, Bradley each lay claim to 'underdog' title

(10/1/99)

Gore, Bradley each lay claim to 'underdog' title

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination has become a contest between two men who each claim to be the underdog.

Even with fresh evidence that his campaign is surging, Bill Bradley insisted Thursday his was an uphill battle against Vice President Al Gore.

``I feel like an underdog. I always feel like an underdog, and here there are some numbers to confirm it,'' he said, referring to polls that show him trailing Gore in California.

His comments in Oakland came one day after Gore, no longer assured of an easy victory, challenged Bradley to debates and announced he was moving his campaign headquarters to his family's home state of Tennessee.

``I feel like the underdog. I'm going to campaign like the underdog and I think that's the way to get elected,'' Gore said Wednesday.

Even Bradley denied he had ``momentum,'' allowing ``traction'' at most, some of his supporters were swelling with confidence.

``Bill WAS the underdog,'' said Ted Schlein, a partner in a Silicon Valley investment firm who attended a Bradley fund-raiser in San Jose Thursday night. ``I think someone might have whispered in Gore's ear and said, 'Maybe it's better to be the underdog than the frontrunner.'''

Is the label ``underdog'' hip?

``We never thought so,'' Schlein said. ``We just were that, until now.''

Kathleen Sullivan, the Democratic Party chairwoman in New Hampshire, where Gore narrowly trails Bradley in polls, said with a chuckle that the underdog title fight was under way in earnest.

``I guess we have to wait and see who's the real underdog on Election Day,'' she said.

Bradley, challenging a sitting vice president, has always painted himself as an underdog.

Thursday he said he faced an uphill fight against ``entrenched power'' and the ``symbolism'' Gore wields by arriving at campaign stops in Air Force Two.

Nevertheless, Bradley was upbeat on the stump Thursday, signing autographs, telling jokes to more than 200 supporters at an Oakland rally, then bringing them to rapt silence with a story about a fourth-grader who told her teacher it was her sibling's turn, not hers, to eat breakfast one recent morning.

Bradley was still upbeat at the San Jose fund-raiser, calling his campaign ``a joyous journey that we're on.''

Bradley raised an estimated $6.7 million between July and September, spokeswoman Anita Dunn said. Gore raised around $6.5 million during the same period, according to advisers.

But by spending far less than the vice president, Bradley wound up with more than $10 million in the bank as of Thursday. Gore aides said the vice president would have between $9.5 million and $10 million.

Bradley's three-day California swing brought in $1.2 million, said Rick Wright, Bradley's national finance chairman.

``We've made a concerted effort to reach out to new people who have never been a part of the process, let them know I'm serious about such things as campaign finance reform,'' Bradley said.

He insisted the financial numbers had not given him or his staff any emotional boost.

``You don't get an adrenaline boost in the second quarter,'' he said. ``You get an adrenaline boost when you're in the final minutes of the game.''

``Bradley is not the underdog. I am the underdog,'' commented Gore.

``No, I am the underdog,'' commented Bradley.