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CNN Live Today

Tipper Gore Considers Run for Senate

Aired March 15, 2002 - 13:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Tipper Gore may, repeating, may, follow in the footsteps of former first lady Hillary Clinton, now a U.S. senator from New York, you know that. There is speculation Tipper may run for U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee vacated recently by the -- or soon to be, anyway, Fred Thompson. Several sources telling CNN that Tennessee Democrats hoping to persuade Gore to run for the Senate seat once held by her husband. It is not clear, however, if she wants a political career of her own.

All good questions. Let's go to Candy Crowley to get some answers, if we can, in Washington. What's the buzz on this, Candy?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's a fun thing to talk about, it's a Friday, things are sort of politically pretty slow. Look, here is what we know. Exactly what you said, that there are some people in Tennessee that would love to see her run. Why? Because the person the Republicans are putting out, at least one of them is Lamar Alexander, and he has very high favorability in the state. What the Democrats want, they'd like to get that seat back. It used to belong to Al Gore, went to Fred Thompson. So what they need is, you know, a pow, a wow, and certainly Tipper Gore would be that.

The question, of course, is how would Tipper Gore feel about this? And that's the one thing we haven't been able to answer. We have been only told by people very close to her that she is considering it, which of course is what you say when someone asks you, hey, would you consider this. She is not known as particularly loving the political life. On the other hand, there is a lot of appeal to this. She is definitely charming. She is someone that brings -- brought a lot of pep to the campaign trail and to her husband in the 2000 election.

So it has certainly caused some buzz here. Our producer, Dana Bash (ph), talked to Senator Hillary Clinton earlier, who said that she talked to Mrs. Gore this morning, and that if Mrs. Gore chose to run, she would support her. I will also tell you that Harold Ford, who is a congressman from Tennessee, who has been eying that race, said that if Mrs. Gore got in, he wouldn't. What we're missing here is how Mrs. Gore feels about it.

HEMMER: Yeah, no question. Is this somewhat of a trial balloon possibly, see how the public reacts to this? CROWLEY: Oh, you know, I don't know. I mean, it's so hard to tell because you are getting it from all sides. Certainly, they didn't knock it down.

Look, one of the things that we know about the former vice president is that he himself is contemplating another run for the presidency in 2004. He and the people around him have been on this, what they call a to be seen but not necessarily heard campaign. So they have him out there, and you have seen him increasingly over the past couple of months. This is another way to have him out there. I'm not suggesting that they are the ones, they're making it up, but what's the harm in thinking about this, and certainly the people around the Gores are delighted, saying, oh, can you imagine, we'll have a Clinton and a Gore in the Senate, you know, that kind of thing. So it's hard to know exactly what the motivations of all involved are.

HEMMER: Candy, do you have a gauge of the popularity level for the Gores in Tennessee? We know they bought a house recently in Nashville. And we also know that Al Gore failed to win his home state while running for president back in the year 2000. Curious to know if you have been able to pick anything up on that?

CROWLEY: Look, you know, one of the things that the former vice president said in his concession speech in 2000, is, look, I have some fence mending to do. I need to go back home. It was a huge disappointment to them. He was one of only two, I believe, presidential nominees who lost his own state. The other was Senator George McGovern who lost South Dakota. So that is a huge embarrassment, and it hurt him. I mean, the attention was on Florida, but Tennessee was sort of a personal blow.

So Gore has spent a lot of time down there. He is teaching down there. He has gone across the state. He has met in little groups with former supporters. He has done some fund-raising. So he is trying. I mean, as one of his -- the people around him said to me, look, if you can't win your home state, how can you run for the presidency. So there has been a definite major effort, as promised, by Al Gore to be in his home state of Tennessee and mend some fences.

HEMMER: Yeah, well, clearly since we are in the land of speculation right now, I'm just getting word, Candy, you may be aware of this, that Tipper Gore apparently has canceled her appearances today travelling in California. She is going to go back to the state of Tennessee. Who knows.

CROWLEY: Who knows? It's fun to talk about it. And she may -- again, as I say, you know, the problem is she has never shown a lot of great passion for the political world. So it's hard to know what she is thinking.

HEMMER: Hey, thanks, Candy. Makes it interesting, right?

CROWLEY: Absolutely. Absolutely.

HEMMER: Candy Crowley live in D.C. Many thanks.

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