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Bush, Gore clinch nominations in presidential race

AUSTIN (Texas): Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush wrapped up their parties' U.S. presidential nominations on Tuesday, setting the stage for a bitter, contentious and lengthy election campaign.

Democrat Gore and Republican Bush gained the required number of delegates to their parties' conventions by easily winning their respective primaries in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Gore immediately fired off an electronic message to Bush, congratulating him on his victory and inviting him to hold an initial debate in two weeks.

He also urged Bush to agree to a ban on unregulated "soft money" contributions to both campaigns and said he had ordered the Democratic National Committee not to spend any soft money on TV advertisements until the Republican Party did so first.

Bush declined the offers on CNN's "Larry King Live," saying it was too soon to start national debates between the prospective presidential candidates.

Bush also said Gore had "no credibility" on campaign finance reform after his controversial appearance at a fund-raising event at a Buddhist temple in California during the 1996 campaign.

Both men effectively had won the Democratic and Republican nominations last week with their victories on "Super Tuesday," which forced their main rivals, former Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, out of the race.

It was the earliest date in modern U.S. political history that both party nominations were decided, leaving the nation facing an eight-month campaign leading to the Nov. 7 election.

Gore and Bush made it official on Tuesday with easy victories over their absent rivals. As vote counts proceeded, Bush was beating McCain 73 percent to 20 percent in Florida; 79 percent to 10 percent in Oklahoma; 76 percent to 16 percent in Tennessee; 82 percent to 10 percent in Louisiana; and 87 percent to 10 percent in Texas. A third candidate, radio talk show host Alan Keyes, was scoring in single digits in each state.

Gore beat Bradley 79 percent to 20 percent in Florida; 69 percent to 25 percent in Oklahoma; 79 percent to 18 percent in Texas; 73 percent to 19 percent in Louisiana; and 92 percent to 5 percent in his home state of Tennessee.

Bush held a huge celebration at a Jewish Community Centre in Austin, Texas, at which he pledged once again to "restore honour and dignity to the White House" -- a phrase that quickly is becoming a campaign mantra.

"With this victory comes a sacred duty. Americans want a leader who will raise our sights. Americans want a president who will keep his oath and his honour. And this is a charge that I will keep," Bush said.

He also drew a contrast between his position and Gore's on education, which Bush hopes also to make a central campaign issue.

"I want to solve our education problems; Al Gore wants to subsidise them. I believe that failing schools are unacceptable; Al Gore believes they are inevitable. I will challenge the status quo; Al Gore is the status quo," Bush told the cheering crowd in the Texas capital.

Gore, who voted earlier in Tennessee, travelled to Florida for his victory declaration and said he aimed to repeat President Bill Clinton's feat by carrying Florida in November, despite the fact that Bush's younger brother Jeb is the state's governor.

"With tonight's victories in Florida, in Tennessee and Louisiana and Mississippi and Texas, with tonight's victories we have now won enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, and I thank you," Gore told a cheering crowd at Tallahassee's Leon High School. "Tonight is the night that we cross the delegate threshold, and I wanted to symbolise by my presence here that Florida is a key battleground state in the November elections," Gore said.

In the past week, both men have focused on the coming general election battle, which promises to be an exhausting eight-month marathon. A new Gallup poll published on Tuesday showed Bush leading Gore by 49 percent to 43 percent.

The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points, showed Bush winning more McCain supporters than Gore, including 80 percent of the Republicans who supported McCain. Among independents who backed the Arizona senator, 46 percent said they now favoured Bush while 37 percent supported Gore.

Bush needed to win 1,034 delegates to the Republican National Convention formally to wrap up his nomination and Gore was aiming to reach the magic number of 2,169 delegates to the Democratic Convention.

With 341 Republican and 566 Democratic delegates at stake on Tuesday, both men went over the top on Tuesday. According to an unofficial estimate made by CNN, Gore had secured 2,575 delegates and Bush 1,099.

Turnout was very light since the presidential nominations already had been decided. The Republican chairman in Louisiana labeled the day "Stupid Tuesday" -- a pale shadow of last week's decisive "Super Tuesday" vote in 16 states.-Reuters