Congressional hopefuls parade to Democratic podium
By Matt Smith/CNN
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Democrats put their hopes for reclaiming control of Congress on display Wednesday with candidates for several House and Senate seats taking the stage during the early session of the party's national convention.
The speakers were invited up to the podium by Vice President Al Gore's campaign in hopes of presenting a united front for winning back the majorities in the House and Senate that they lost in 1994. The arrangement gives the national Democratic Party a parade of speakers to highlight its ideas and diversity; the candidates get three minutes of exposure on national cable television.
Democrats need to pick up six seats in the House and five in the Senate to win back control of Congress in November. House candidate Eleanor Jordan of Kentucky said Gore campaign manager, Donna Brazile, offered her the speaking spot as plans were being laid for the convention.
Jordan's state delegation was there, but few others had arrived in the cavernous Staples Center when she spoke.
"Of course, this is going out to people all over the nation. I'm comfortable with it," she said. "This was a great opportunity."
Jordan is vying to oust two-term Republican Rep. Anne Northup. She used her three minutes to speak of the need for improving Medicare and her personal history of going from being a single, teen-age mother to joining Louisville's city council and being electeed to the Kentucky State Assembly.
"This election in November is so different because it is very, very critical. We stand to be able to take back the House," said Jordan, who was being followed around the floor by an MTV documentary crew. "The number of Supreme Court judges and what kind of judges are going to be appointed to the bench certainly hinges on who is in the White House.
"So this election is very critical all over the nation, and I believe this giant pep rally is very, very important," she said.
Like many of the office-seekers who have taken the stage in Los Angeles, California Assemblyman Mike Honda -- who is trying to succeed Republican incumbent Tom Campbell in Silicon Valley's 15th district -- plans to use his televised appearance in campaign materials back home.
"I'm sure we're going to be using it in some manner. I haven't thought that far ahead, but I'm sure my team has," Honda said.
Honda is running in one of several California districts targeted by the national party. Campbell is leaving the House to run against Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
A former peace corps volunteer who lived in one of the World War II-era Japanese internment camps as a child, Honda used his convention time to highlight himself as a living example of Democratic diversity: "I have an Asian face, I speak Spanish and I was born in this country."
"They called us and let us know that we had three minutes to present ourselves," he said. "I suspect that the fact that we're one of the six seats the national party is targeting had something to do with that."
Honda is running for the seat once held by Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta, his old mentor. He faces former Campbell aide Jim Cuneen in November. Honda out-polled Cuneen in the state's open primary in March, so Democrats believe he has a good chance of winning that seat.
Others face more uphill battles: Troy Brown, for example, is the Democrats' nominee for the Senate seat currently held by Mississippi's Trent Lott, the well-entrenched Republican majority leader.
"We have some long and difficult days ahead, but that doesn't bother me," Brown said, adding, "TNT -- Troy and Trent -- is on."
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Wednesday, August 16, 2000
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