Gore goes stumping in Florida, not Toledo

11/1/2000

Vice President Gore has decided not to campaign in the Toledo area today and instead will try to solidify his support in Florida.

His campaign had contemplated attending a large get-out-the-vote event sponsored by the AFL-CIO, to be held here today.

“The Gore-Lieberman campaign will be focusing on the battleground states with an emphasis on the Midwest,” Gore spokeswoman Kara Gerhardt said. “He'll be holding a lot of rallies and focusing on getting out the vote.”

She said a visit to Ohio, and Toledo, is not out of the question, but that one has not been scheduled. The campaign is deciding its schedule on a daily basis, depending on where strategists believe the Vice President can have the biggest impact on the election, which looms just six days away.

Ms. Gerhardt said the campaign in Ohio includes more than just the stops made by Mr. Gore and vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman. She said Democrats have mounted a million-dollar effort to excite members of the traditional base of their party to make sure they get to the polls. She added that while the Gore campaign itself is not now running advertisements on television, the Democratic National Committee is on the air with spots that urge the election of Mr. Gore.

The Vice President is trailing Mr. Bush by five percentage points in Ohio, a new tracking poll commissioned by The Blade shows. The daily poll was conducted by Zogby International of Utica, N.Y.

Mr. Gore was last in Ohio four weeks ago, when he stumped for votes in downtown Warren. His campaign manager promised Toledoans in March that he would make a visit to the city before the election. The manager, former California Congressman Tony Coehlo, has been dropped from the campaign.