On the Issues: Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley looked to be on a roll last November. He had a double-digit lead against Al Gore '69 in New Hampshire, was raking in campaign dollars across the rest of the country, and was causing Gore to change his campaign strategy. The vice-president acknowledged, for the first time, that he had competition for the Democratic nomination.

Would a sitting vice president seeking his party's nomination might be denied for the first time in American history?

But going in to today's Democratic primaries and caucuses, Bradley trails Gore in just about every demographic in just about every state in the country.

Though most Democratic observers concede that his candidate is in its twilight, Bradley has made a conscientious effort to keep focused on a core group of issues, including health care, campaign finance reform, race relations, and education.

He appeals to the party's liberal wing--garnering the solid endorsement of Harvard's liberal monthly, the Perspective.

Bradley has spent most of his campaigning propounding and defending his plan to provide universal health care coverage. Under the plan proposed by Bradley, the 44 million Americans without health care would be able to enroll in the health care plan that covers federal employees. Tax subsidies, the amounts of which would vary by income, would be provided to uninsured individuals to cover the program's premium.

This system would eventually replace the Medicaid system that currently provides insurance to the poor. Medicare, the insurance system for the elderly, would be maintained under Bradley's plan and expanded to provide prescription drug benefits.

Bradley's proposal to replace the Medicare system has come under strong attack from Gore. Gore says that Bradley's plan will hurt the poor, because the replacement would provide too low of a subsidy to individuals to buy insurance. Bradley strongly denies this and attacks Gore for proposing a system which does not include universal health care.

In keeping with Bradley's focus on care, he also proposes an ambitious plan to end child poverty "as we know it." He proposes increasing the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour. He promises to spend federal education dollars to place 60,000 new teachers in poor and rural areas of the country. He also proposes to expand the earned income tax credit (which would allow poorer families to keep more of their money) and to provide tax credits and other incentives for affordable childcare.

Another chief focus of the Bradley campaign has been the reform of the national campaign finance system. He proposes requiring television stations to give election candidates free air time before the election and proposes public financing of Congressional elections. He also proposes ending the ability to give unlimited contributions to political parties, known as soft-money donations.

Bradley, in increasing his criticism of Gore in recent weeks, has criticized Gore's fundraising efforts during the 1996 campaign presidential campaign, which included the vice president holding a fundraiser in a Buddhist temple.

Race relations are another focus of the Bradley campaign.

"Race is one of the fundamental elements of my campaign. . . . It is who I am, it's what I live," he has said. In nearly every stump speech, Bradley says he has a deep commitment in furthering racial unity, which has been present since his days as a professional basketball player. As President, Bradley says he would sign an executive order ending racial profiling. He says he would work hard to maintain and expand affirmative action programs. And he says he would hold his staff accountable for their own commitment to racial justice.

However, despite this focus, Bradley has gained very little support among most black voters. Polls of southern black voters, a key Democratic constituency, shows they overwhelmingly support Al Gore.

Bill Bradley was born in 1943 in Crystal City, Mo., where he lived until he left to attend college at Princeton University. There, he was a star on the school's basketball team. After graduation in 1965, he attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He then had a successful 10 year career in the National Basketball Association, playing as guard for the New York Knicks. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

Bradley entered politics, running for and winning election as a U.S. Senator from New Jersey in 1978. He served in this position for three terms and retired into the private sector in 1996.