Pubdate: Mon, 31 Jul 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Bill Ainsworth, Staff Writer
Bookmark: MAP's link to shadow convention items: 
http://www.mapinc.org/shadow.htm

MCCAIN GRABS SPOTLIGHT AT A SHADOW CONVENTION

PHILADELPHIA -- Arizona Sen. John McCain brought his message of campaign 
finance reform yesterday to a different kind of political gathering 
yesterday: the Shadow Convention, a collection of party mavericks, 
celebrities and progressives trying to prod both parties to focus on 
alleviating poverty, halting the war on drugs and reforming campaign finances.

The five-day event, which will be repeated in Los Angeles to parallel the 
Democratic National Convention, was organized by columnist Arianna 
Huffington, a one-time Newt Gingrich Republican who now calls herself a 
"populist in the radical center."

Huffington, the ex-wife of former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael 
Huffington, brought in comedians, policy experts and grass-roots organizers 
for serious discussions as well as nightly political satire. They are 
engaging in a sort of intellectual protest against the Republican and 
Democratic national conventions, Huffington said.

"The parties' flimsy and farcical platform process points up the vacuum at 
the center of what we call our political debate," she said.

The Shadow Convention features experts on campaign finance, drug policy 
alternatives and poverty. In addition to McCain, speakers at this 
Philadelphia gathering include comedian Al Franken and Tom Campbell, the 
Republican U.S. Senate candidate in California.

The Los Angeles version will feature Franken; actor/director Warren Beatty; 
the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and Bill Maher, host of the television show 
"Politically Incorrect."

"Huffington's smart enough to understand that you need Hollywood as well as 
policy experts to get attention," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior 
associate at the Claremont Graduate University.

At the opening proceedings, it was McCain who grabbed the spotlight, 
attracting a full house of 800 people to an auditorium at the University of 
Pennsylvania, decorated by red, white and blue balloons and a stage 
backdrop that included a huge U.S. flag.

Yet McCain sounded as much like a regular Republican as a reformer. He 
devoted almost as much of his time to praising Republican presidential 
contender George W. Bush as he did to calling for a ways to limit the 
influence of money in politics, his signature issue.

"It is quite clear that he is the candidate of change and that the vice 
president is the candidate of the status quo," McCain said, saying that 
Bush wants to reform public education, military spending and Social Security.

The Arizona senator's kind words for Bush were met with boos that became so 
intense he threatened to walk away from his speech at one point. He did 
cancel a scheduled question-and-answer session with the audience.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D