Perot Could Hurt Clinton, Too

WASHINGTON (March 29) -- A possible Ross Perot third-party campaign is making President Bill Clinton's advisers increasingly nervous.

With the Texas billionaire on the campaign trail hinting about running for president again, White House aides are taking a much closer look at what that might mean and they say they don't like what they see. But they don't want to talk about it publicly.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry deftly sidestepped the issue, at least for now: "That's a September-October question and I'll be happy to entertain it then."(44K AIFF or WAV sound)

Privately, however, Clinton aides now fear that Perot could wind up hurting the president more than he hurts Sen. Robert Dole. Polls show Perot making inroads among some traditional Democratic constituencies -- voters who are younger, more blue-collar and more secular.

But Republicans are also plenty nervous that Perot will siphon off anti-Clinton votes that they believe Dole deserves. Perot, hurtling around the country in what looks like a campaign, claims he's not trying to hurt either side.

Earlier this week in Philadelphia, Perot put it this way: "There's a simple solution to their concerns. They're in session in Congress, the House and Senate. They pledged to do these things. Why don't they do these things. Then I wouldn't have anything to talk about." (149K AIFF or WAV sound)

Until now, the conventional wisdom has been Perot would divide the anti-Clinton vote and guarantee the president's re-election. Perot voters did side with Republicans in the 1994 elections, even though two years earlier, exit polls showed they hurt the Clinton and Bush campaigns fairly evenly.

The latest polls have Clinton ten to 12 points ahead of Dole in either a two- or three-man race. That's important, though the numbers are likely to change.

Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said a three-way race advantages the person who's ahead and right now, that's Clinton. "The more candidates you have in a race, the harder it is for any one alternative to the president to meet him and pass him," Rothenberg said.

One White House insider says it's much too early to draw hard conclusions. He says Perot would have a different impact state-by-state. But like many other Clinton supporters, he no longer sees Perot as a godsend; he says the Texas billionaire might turn out to be a nightmare.

Related Story:

• Texas Billionaire Stumps In Florida -- March 29, 1996

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• The Reform Party Homepage

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