 
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Friday, August 25, 2000
By James O'Toole, Politics Editor, Post-Gazette
Subbing for her mother, stumping for her father, Karenna Gore Schiff breezed through Pittsburgh yesterday, leading a panel discussion on women's issues and greeting black leaders in the Hill District.
Her first appearance was before a group of women assembled in a Market Square restaurant, a gathering handpicked by the Gore campaign to highlight various aspects of the vice president's policies and proposals.
Adrienne Young, the mother of Javon Thompson, a Carnegie Mellon University art student who was shot to death in 1994, told Schiff about her involvement in the Million Mom March and said, "We are going to support the [candidate] who supports our youth."
"I am totally with you on that," said Schiff. "My dad wants photo license IDs for all new gun owners; he wants trigger locks on guns."
Schiff, who is a lawyer but spends much of her time on the campaign trail these days, told the group that, since the birth of her son, Wyatt, 14 months ago, she had new empathy for some of the stories she heard about the stresses of working mothers.
At one point in the discussion, Jury Commissioner Jean Milko fought back tears as she told Schiff of the challenges of raising a 7-year-old granddaughter left in her care after the death of her son.
"God bless you," Schiff said.
"If anyone says this election doesn't matter, we're going to be the SWAT team that goes out and shows them," said Schiff, who tried to relate her father's proposals on each of the issues raised by her audience.
The group she spoke with, which included former Mayor Sophie Masloff and Catherine Baker Knoll, the former state treasurer who is now seeking that job again, were not the only ones who greeted the Democratic candidate's daughter.
The Republican National Committee observed the visit with a news release denouncing the Clinton administration's record on women's issues.
"American women want a leader who is committed to changing the bitter, partisan tone in Washington," Pat Harrison, co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. "Partisan bickering has meant lost opportunities on big issues that affect families, and Al Gore has played a central role in those failures. Nobody understands this better than working moms."
Schiff came to Pittsburgh fresh from her starring role in the Democrats' convention in Los Angeles.
She gave a featured nominating speech for the vice president, softening his austere image with homespun details, such as the revelation that Gore made his children toast "with lots of butter" for breakfast. Whether through such personal touches or through the candidate's own policy laden acceptance speech, the Gore campaign left California with renewed vitality and sharply better poll numbers.
Schiff gives the credit to the candidate, not to her depiction of him.
"I think that what matters more is the substance and specifics," she said. "When I talk about my dad as a dad, that is somewhat peripheral to the debate. My dad is great dad, but that is not why people should vote for him."
Schiff was substituting yesterday for her mother, Tipper, who came down with the flu somewhere between Los Angeles and the riverboat trip that she and the vice president embarked on after leaving the convention.
Schiff, the Gores' oldest child, lives in New York City with her husband, a primary care physician. She said she planned to be on the campaign trail for two or three days a week between now and November. She is also promoting her father's bid for the presidency through Gore.Net, an Internet-aided effort to draw young people to the Democratic campaign.
"It's really about getting the voices of young people to be heard and reaching out to those who are cynical, disaffected, turned off from politics," she said while waiting for a sandwich at Primanti's.
"I hear on the road a lot from young people who say, 'No, the whole process is corrupt, it makes no difference.' That's something I take very, very personally and I want changed."
Later, at a small rally at the Hill House in the Hill District, Schiff was greeted by black leaders, including City Council members Sala Udin and Valerie McDonald and state Rep. Joe Preston, D-East Liberty.
While urging the small crowd to work for the Democratic ticket, Preston defended Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, on the issue of affirmative action.
That subject had prompted concern among some black lawmakers because of statements Lieberman has made that are critical of racial quotas and of some approaches to affirmative action.
Lieberman sought to assuage those concerns in Los Angeles in meetings with black lawmakers and with his acceptance speech, in which he echoed President's Clinton's statement on affirmative action: "Mend it, don't end it."
Preston told the group that he had been at a Black Caucus meeting in Los Angeles in which District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton offered reassurance that Lieberman, a former civil rights worker, had a 100 percent voting record on affirmative action.
"After that, my questions were answered," Preston said.
Karenna Gore Schiff shares a laugh with former Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff. (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)