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March 10, 2000/3 Adar II 5760, Vol. 52, No.27
Dem primary historic 1st, likely political dud
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
Vice President Al Gore's Super Tuesday, March 7, national sweep over former Sen. Bill Bradley may make Arizona's Democratic primary all but inconsequential in the 2000 race for the White House.
Nonetheless, the Arizona primary may go down in history.
Though primary polls across the state will be open Saturday, March 11, voters have been able to cast their ballots via the Internet since Tuesday, March 7. This will be the first legally binding election ever held that includes Internet voting.
Despite its historic significance, however, local observers doubt the results of the Arizona voting will have much impact on deciding which Democrat will be the party's White House pick.
"The race should be over by the time Arizona votes, but I don't think it would make any difference," says former Congressman Sam Coppersmith. "I think the vice president will prevail here in Arizona when the vote goes through."
Coppersmith says Bradley's campaign "never really took off." He says much of Bradley's problem is the same one facing the Republicans.
"(The Republicans) are finding it very hard to run against the substantive record of the Clinton-Gore administration," Coppersmith says. "So they're trying to basically say, 'Pay no attention to all the things that traditionally matter, it has to do with the quality of the person and their level of individual virtue.' "
Coppersmith says Bradley tried attacking Gore from the left, suggesting that the vice president is too conservative to be the Democratic nominee.
"What I think you're seeing out there is the American people really want a centrist president," Coppersmith says. "They want a centrist president so badly they're willing to pretend against all the evidence that (Sen.) John McCain is a moderate."
McCain supporter and lifetime Democrat Sid Rosen, who spearheaded an effort to convince Jewish Democrats to re-register as Republicans and vote for McCain in Arizona's Republican primary in February, predicts that Gore will probably win in Arizona, "although there are many in the Jewish community who are very favorably inclined to Bradley because of their feelings about the disastrous Clinton-Gore administration."
Rosen, who is planning to re-register again as a Democratic, says support for Israel continues to be the litmus test facing all candidates in earning the Jewish vote.
Rosen says that, even though the Arizona primary may have little to do in deciding which Democrat becomes the party's nominee, the historic significance of the Internet voting can't be ignored.
"I think (Internet voting) is the wave of the future," Rosen says.
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