Iowa dinner featuring Gore has nonpartisan flavor Bob von Sternberg Star Tribune

Published Sep 30 2001

DES MOINES -- It was supposed to be a coming-out party for Al Gore, a chance to shake off his 2000 defeat and prove to the party faithful that he might very well try a rematch against President Bush in 2004.

Instead, the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner held Saturday night by the Iowa Democratic Party with Gore as the headliner was a political oxymoron: a completely nonpartisan partisan gathering.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the disappearance of partisan sniping, Gore and party officials executed a sharp U-turn, veering from red-meat attacks on Republicans usually served up at the dinner, to a red-white-and-blue tribute to patriotism and national unity.

Although Gore had not delivered his remarks when this edition of the Star Tribune went to press, his advisers said he planned to steer clear of politics in the speech he reportedly was writing himself.

The Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner has long provided an early national platform for Democratic presidential aspirants in a state whose February caucuses have become the opening round of the campaign every four years. Saturday was Gore's fourth appearance at the dinner since 1994.

Although the dinner ostensibly is a fund-raiser for the state party, the attendance by national political writers has guaranteed coast-to-coast coverage of the speech. Nearly 100 journalists attended Saturday night.

What they saw was a far cry from previous dinners. The hall in the Polk County Convention Center was awash in American flags, from table centerpieces to a bank of them behind the stage. Their press passes were emblazoned with "United We Stand." It was, said Sheila McGuire Riggs, the state party chair, "a different Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, no doubt about that."

About 1,600 Democrats paid $100 to $5,000 to attend the dinner. "The original plan was to show off our strong 2002 ticket and for Gore to come back and thank all his supporters in Iowa," said Sarah Leonard, party spokeswoman. "That became secondary to this other focus."

That focus included a tribute to relatives of longtime party activists who died in the terrorist attacks.

No matter what Gore said Saturday, political analysts have been saying his appearance was a no-win proposition: at best an irrelevance, at worst a display of insensitive political opportunism.

"There's no discussion at all anymore about the 2004 presidential campaign, so Al Gore's appearance seems sort of out of place," said Steffen Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University. "A lot of people feel, 'Why should he come here and give a talk now?' He's got to be completely apolitical at a political event. That's awkward and hard to do."

Gore supporters have continued to argue that their candidate was the legitimate winner last year, brandishing bumper stickers reading, "Re-elect Gore in 2004." But that argument has faded in the past 19 days, Schmidt said. "Even if he says, 'I'm the one who won,' with Bush's 90 percent approval ratings, no one gives a rip about the 2000 election."

A week ago, Gore toured his home state of Tennessee, taking pains to support Bush "without reservations." As for his own plans, he said he hadn't "decided whether I'm going to run again, and to me, this is not the time to be talking about politics."

Although Iowa Republicans' reaction to Gore's visit has been muted, he was stung last week by David Yepsen, the Des Moines Register's influential political columnist. Yepsen called on the party to postpone Saturday's dinner, saying, "It is a time for the country to be rallying around the president, not beginning the campaign to oust him. ... It's no time to be rolling out a new Al Gore."

Party officials, who rely on the dinner as their biggest fund-raiser of the year, gave no thought to postponing or canceling it, Leonard said. "David's a wonderful person, but he doesn't work for us," she said.

Rank-and-file Democrats in Des Moines said Saturday that they were indifferent to the speech or wary that Gore might say the wrong thing.

"If it's a message of solidarity -- 'OK, my people, if you're interested in me, help us get through this' -- that's one thing," said Larry Hawk, a television art director. "But nothing partisan."

Retiree Joanne Meyer said she is "inclined to think it's not a good idea, given the way the times are now. I don't think people want to think about politics. I voted for him, but I really don't care that much about him anymore."

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001