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BY MARIE FREEMAN / WATAUGA DEMOCRAT
Erskine Bowles paid a visit to Watauga County Saturday, speaking
in Boone.
Former White House chief of staff, North Carolina investment banker
and current Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, Erskine
Bowles said that he had nothing to do with the attack ad recently
run by the state Democratic Party.
The ad targets Republican candidate Elizabeth Dole and links her
to disgraced Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay. Bowles and Dole are recognized
by most political insiders to be the early front runners in the
contest for the seat to be vacated by Jesse Helms.
“I had nothing to do with that,” Bowles said. “I
plan on running an issue oriented campaign.”
As good as his word, Bowles spoke to a packed room of Watauga County
Democrats Saturday about the issues he finds important. He hopes
that they are the very same issues the voters of this state find
important come the November election.
Bowles met with local candidates, supporters and voters at the Agricultural Conference Center in Boone.
Bowles said that he had decided to leave public life, in large part, because of the cost and the bitter partisan turn politics had taken. He said he changed his mind on Sept. 11.
He said that he was in New York near the World Trade Center when the attacks happened and it took him more than four hours to find his son who worked several blocks from the Twin Towers.
According to Bowles, that experience pushed him back into the political ring. “I asked myself, ‘What could you be good at?’ ” Bowles said.
Bowles thought back to his five years of experience in Washington
heading up the Small Business Administration and as chief of staff
in the Clinton administration. He said that he felt he could call
on that experience and “add it to the trust I had built up
working with legislators on both sides of the aisle.”
Combining experience and trust with his background as an investment
banker and businessman, Bowles said that he felt he could help to
solve some of the problems facing the state and the nation.
Bowles came prepared to discuss the issues he considers the most
important and listed the six he planned on taking to Washington
should the voters of North Carolina send him there:
• A strong national security policy. Bowles said that as a
member of the National Security Council in the Clinton administration
he formed a bipartisan task force to study national security issues
and was instrumental in bringing the idea of a department of “Homeland
Security” to the national attention.
• He wants to work to build a strong national economic program
and is proud of his work to balance the federal budget during the
previous administration.
• He said that 90 percent of the new jobs being created require
the employees to have math and reading skills at a post high school
level. He is concerned that the nation’s schools are not prepared
to address the need and wants to work to improve the nation’s
education system.
• Bowles seemed most passionate when he discussed his desire
to repair the health care system and ensure that the millions of
parents and children without adequate health care or insurance be
cared for. He referenced the recent round of corporate layoffs and
said that while many of those laid off are protected by COBRA (a
post employment insurance program), most of those laid off could
not afford the premiums. They were not able to avail themselves
of the insurance protections provided by law.
• Linked to health care concerns, Bowles said that he wanted
to work to provide a patients’ bill of rights and senior citizen
prescription drug coverage.
• “Every time I come to the mountains, and I come often,”
Bowles said, “it breaks my heart to see Mt. Mitchell, Grandfather
Mountain and the Blowing Rock. I see the haze and pollution.”
Environmental concerns were the last of the six issues he hopes
to carry to Washington.
During the question-and-answer period, Bowles was asked his position
on stem cell research. He said that he has two sons who suffer from
diabetes and his father and sister died from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s
Disease). “I will fight hard for federal funds for stem cell
research,” he said.
Bowles said that he is opposed to a system of school vouchers.
“I am pro (school) choice but want choice made in the public
school system,” he said.
He said that he initially supported NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Association). He said that the initial plan was to manufacture
textiles in the U.S. and ship them to Mexico and South America to
be cut and sewn and returned. He said that the system is being abused
and goods manufactured in China are being slipped into Mexico, “a
label is being sewn on” and the goods are then shipped into
the U.S. According to Bowles, the original plan for NAFTA is being
subverted and he can no longer support it as it is.
Bowles said that he supports campaign finance and is in favor of
the McCain-Finegold bill to change campaign funding laws. During
his prepared remarks Bowles mentioned the “president,”
work in the “administration” and “the prior administration.”
People say that in North Carolina, in addition to a reason for
a good barbecue, politics is a “blood sport” and President
Clinton failed to carry the state of North Carolina in either of
his elections. It appeared that Bowles has anticipated that and
is preparing himself for a long fight. In his campaign literature,
Bowles mentions his work for “the president” in taking
charge of the national response to the Oklahoma City bombing and
his work and experience “as chief of staff to the president.”
His campaign brochure contains pictures of his children, his father,
his wedding and him in uniform and with a fine string of fish. At
no time during his remarks did he ever mention “the president”
by name and there is no mention of “the president” by
name nor is there a picture of Bowles with the head of the “prior
administration” in his literature.
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