Clinton Kicks Off West Coast Campaign Trip

DENVER (Allpolitics, July 21) -- President Bill Clinton arrived in Denver on Sunday, kicking off a three-day campaign trip to the West Coast that will include his 25th visit to California since taking office.

Clinton was scheduled to participate in a private discussion of women's issues on Sunday evening and to drum up campaign contributions for the Democratic party at two fundraisers.

On Monday, White House officials said the president will unveil at a speech in Denver new measures to crack down on parents who do not make child support payments. He will then fly to Los Angeles.

The Western campaign trip has two purposes: raising funds for the November 5 election and lavishing time and attention on California, the nation's most populous state. It alone has 54 of the 538 electoral college votes that actually elect the president.

A White House official said Clinton, who left Washington on Sunday afternoon and was scheduled to return on Wednesday morning, will stress two campaign themes -- fighting crime and encouraging people to take responsibility for their lives.

A Clinton campaign official said the president was expected to raise roughly $750,000 in Colorado out of a total $4.5 million to $5 million during the three-day trip, which includes no less than eight fundraisers.

Colorado an important indicator

After three decades of leaning Republican, Colorado is now seen as a bellwether state, because its results were near the national average in 1988, when it voted for former President George Bush, and in 1992, when Clinton carried the state.

Nationally, polls show Clinton holds a lead of roughly 20 percentage points over Republican Bob Dole, the former senator who is all but certain to be named his party's nominee at next month's Republican convention.

Public polls in Colorado give Clinton a slight lead over Dole, but one indication of the state's political independence is that its governor is a Democrat, while both its senators and four of its six members of Congress are Republicans.

From Denver, Clinton will do a whirlwind tour of California, with stops in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco for a blizzard of fundraisers and speeches, chiefly on the issues of crime and juvenile violence.

On Monday afternoon, he is scheduled to visit a high school in Monrovia, California, which has a record of carrying out ideas that Clinton has championed to fight youth crime, including school uniforms and teenage curfews.

He will make another crime-related speech on Tuesday in Sacramento.

A Los Angeles Times poll published on Thursday showed Clinton widening his lead in California, giving him a 27-point margin over Dole compared with a 21-point lead in March.

Asked why Clinton was spending so much time on California, given what appeared to be a commanding lead, campaign press secretary Joe Lockhart said no one was taking anything for granted.

"We are taking nothing for granted and will resist any (tendency) to get overconfident," Lockhart said. "This is July. There is a long time between July and November."

Related Stories:

• Transcript of President Clinton's radio address -- July 20, 1996
• Clinton expected to unveil welfare initiative -- July 15, 1996

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