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Focuses on super Tuesday primaries

Gore claims to be the best to keep economy growing

OLYMPIA (Wash.): Vice President Al Gore wrapped up a two-day, four-state campaign swing on Thursday night by presenting the case that he is the best presidential candidate to keep the robust economy humming.

"We are on a roll and we need to keep the prosperity going," declared Gore, drawing applause from an overflow crowd of several hundred people at Garfield Elementary School.

Gore said the Clinton-Gore administration turned the "biggest recession since the Great Depression" into the "strongest economy in history."

The vice president said they did so by pushing to balance the budget, pay down the debt and invest in the American people through upgraded education and health care.

He warned that all Republicans running for president favour "risky tax schemes" that would "turn back the clock" to failed policies of the past.

And the vice president charged that Democratic rival Bill Bradley's own domestic proposals would erase the surplus and undermine the economy.

"We have just begun to prosper if we make the right decisions," said Gore, who advocated maintaining the current fiscal course.

Gore spoke in Olympia, Washington, following a visit earlier in the day to California. He made stops in Ohio and New York on Wednesday, a day after beating Bradley in the New Hampshire primary. The vice president was scheduled to return to Washington early on Friday.

Gore is now focused on the next Democratic voting on March 7, when California, Washington state, Ohio, New York and 10 other state hold primaries and caucuses.

"On March 7, California will have a very decisive voice in picking the Democratic nominee and affecting who will be the next president of the United States," Gore said of the state that will send 434 delegates to the party's national convention.

Gore also addressed economic issues in a speech to employees at Digital Domain, a Los Angeles firm that does special effects for movies.

"I want your help in order to fight for you to keep this prosperity growing, to get the experience and skill in the White House that helps us avoid blunders that could bring an unnecessary recession, to invest in people and to invest in expanding health care, protecting the environment and above all by bringing new advances in education," he said.

The vice president has proposed more than $100 billion to upgrade standards, reduce class size, increase teacher pay and build new schools.

Gore has had tough exchanges with Bradley in the past week, but the vice president held his fire on Thursday, saying only that his rival was "a good man" who lacks a sweeping education plan.

"He has not made education a priority," said Gore, who has received the endorsement of the nation's major teachers union.

Gore was accompanied on his trip to California by Gov. Gray Davis and on his visit to Washington state by Gov. Gary Locke, both of whom have endorsed his candidacy.-Reuters