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Inside Politics
Interview with Vicente Fox; Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift Bows Out; Passing of the Republican Torch; Has the Ballot Card Punch System Improved?
Aired March 19, 2002 - 16:00 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Judy Woodruff in Washington. Ahem. Excuse me.
A shake-up in the Massachusetts governor's race. Incumbent Jane Swift bows out before fellow Republican Mitt Romney got in.
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bill DeLaney in Boston. A look at the passing of the Republican torch and the Democratic attempts to come to blow it out.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeff Flock at a polling place in Chicago. Today is Illinois primary election day and I'll have a look at whether the ballot card punch system here in this state has really been improved.
KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Snow on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are set to grill the commissioner of the INS about a stunning slip-up after September 11th.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Washington, this is INSIDE POLITICS WITH JUDY WOODRUFF.
WOODRUFF: Thank you for joining us.
Less than half an hour ago, Salt Lake Olympic chairman Mitt Romney made his widely anticipated announcement that he is a candidate for Massachusetts governor. The surprising part: he has the support of the woman he was preparing to challenge for the GOP nomination, the acting governor, Jane Swift.
Speaking outside his home, Romney praised Swift, even as he made his own intentions clear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), MASS. GOV. CANDIDATE: I want to indicate that, out of respect for her and her decision today, that I'm not going to make a formal announcement in front of a band, with confetti and a lot of cheering spectators. Instead, I want this to be Governor Swift's day.
I want to note, however, that lest there be any doubt, I'm in. The bumper stickers have been printed, the Web site is going up tomorrow morning, the campaign papers are filed today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOODRUFF: CNN's Bill DeLaney has more from Boston on the Massachusetts governor's race and Swift's exit from it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DELANEY: Seemingly surprising even herself, and a decision she said she made just in the past 24 hours. Acting governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift, not in the running.
GOV. JANE SWIFT (R), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you very much. I am announcing this afternoon my decision to end my campaign for governor. I believe that this is in the best interest of our state, as it will allow the Republican Party's best chances of holding the governor's office in November.
DELANEY: That best chance, just-retired Salt Lake City Olympic chairman, venture capitalist billionaire, Mitt Romney, who returned just over the weekend to snowy Massachusetts after three years in Utah.
Credited with saving the scandal-plagued Games, now poised to save the governor's office the Republican Party has held for 12 years, in hugely Democratic Massachusetts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone in town gave me this pair of running shoes and they told me to present it to Mitt. Run, Mitt, run.
DELANEY: Recent polls showed Swift with the support of 12 percent of Republicans, and losing to all Democratic contenders. More than 70 percent of Republicans supported Romney, and he beats the Democrats at this point. Besides all that, the mother of two young children also said a bruising primary race, on top of being governor, too much.
SWIFT: Having said early on the time with family was non- negotiable, something had to give.
DELANEY: Democratic Party sources deny they were Jane Swift's biggest fans, with her low poll ratings, insisting they saw her as an underestimated strong, combative, personable campaigner. As for Mitt Romney, though, it's already lock and load.
At Democratic Party headquarters just outside Boston, we told spokesperson Jane Lane about the acting governor's plans.
JANE LANE, MASS. DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Wow.
DELANEY (on camera): What do you make of this?
LANE: It just takes you aback. It really does.
DELANEY: She regained her footing quickly, though. Focused now on Mitt. LANE: He's not a great fit for Massachusetts. This is, you know, an anti-choice, anti-gay, fiscal conservative that just doesn't fit right with the liberal state of Massachusetts.
DELANEY: Romney ran a reasonably competitive race against Senator Ted Kennedy in 1994. He was for abortion rights then, but last summer told a Salt Lake newspaper he didn't like being labeled on the abortion issue. As for gay rights, hard to get specifics from Democrats on how they'll attack on that. But an indicator it won't be pretty.
They'll call the Mormon, away for the past three years, a political opportunist, too, jumping in against a weak acting governor. But with Jane Swift now going quietly, the name Mitt Romney is now echoing all over the place. Bill DeLaney, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: And longtime Massachusetts political reporter David Nyhan is here. He is now with the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. David Nyhan, just yesterday Jane Swift was endorsed by the former governor, Bill Weld. Today she's out. What happened?
DAVID NYHAN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Well, the poll numbers were in a free fall for her, Judy. She was like one of Mitt Romney's downhill skiers. She was just going down and down. You began to wonder if it could become a negative number.
She had no chance of winning against any of the Democrats and I think she had always been overwhelmed by the office since she came in. She was not an experienced, savvy politician when she came in. She governed poorly. And I think with Romney, the Republicans have rescued their chances from seeming sure defeat. Now he's the odds-on favorite.
WOODRUFF: So, it's on to Romney. Right now his poll ratings are way up there, something like in the 70s. Is this something that he can hold on to, David, in a state that's mostly Democratic?
NYHAN: Well, we've had Republican governors for 12 years here, so it's not that infertile a ground for the GOP. He comes off this tremendous glow of the Olympics, waving the red, white and blue, the flag and so forth. Naturally his numbers will come down.
He showed, in his campaign against Ted Kennedy eight years ago, that he can be a formidable campaigner. He's good looking, he's smart. He's learned a lot. You can see he's at ease with the press, in the clip you just showed.
But one of the Kennedy advisers said to me yesterday that Mitt has shown that he's got a little bit of a glass jaw. And I think some of the Democrats -- I don't know which one it will be -- will try and exploit that. So Mitt is in for a rough time over the next seven months. WOODRUFF: And I should say, the ratings -- when I cited his ratings in the 70s, that's among likely Republican primary voters. David, does the fact that -- go ahead, yeah.
NYHAN: Well, I was going to say, I think even Democrats have a positive view of Romney. He did not hurt himself badly in the run he made against Kennedy eight years ago. He introduced himself to the state. And while, as a Mormon, as a conservative and as a venture capitalist, he might not reflect the demographics of Massachusetts, his managerial skills and his extremely good skills in presenting -- he's handsome, he's articulate, he's bright, he's successful.
So, he has this aura of success that people like in a politician, even if it's of another party. So I think he's a very formidable candidate. He's the man to beat.
The one downside I see for him, Judy, is that, to be a venture capitalist in this post-Enron era is not necessarily an unmitigated asset. I think that, if there are some horror stories in his career as a venture capitalist, if some people got thrown out of work or some tough decisions were made, I think that could come back to haunt him.
WOODRUFF: We don't know that yet. You're just suggesting that that's out there.
NYHAN: No, I don't know it at all. Right now he looks terrific.
WOODRUFF: David, the fact that Jane Swift is out, does that affect any of the Democrats more one way or another? You've got Bob Reich in there.
NYHAN: I think the person it benefits probably slightly is Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, who was for a while in danger of not even making the 15 percent of the state convention delegates he needs on June 1 to get on the primary ballot.
I think Reich has a little bit of star power. He's known around the country. He has some Hollywood money. He's not Bill Clinton's favorite candidate. Clinton is for former Democrat national chairman, Steve Grossman.
The front runner in the Democratic side, organizationally, would be another woman, State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, who is organizationally, and in terms of delegates, way ahead of Reich. But the disappearance of Swift from the scene, I think probably diminishes the pressure on the Democrats to nominate a woman to run against a woman.
WOODRUFF: Very interesting.
NYHAN: In sum, I would say it probably benefits Reich slightly, in that Romney star power, the Democrats may feel they need somebody not from Massachusetts, not from the state house.
WOODRUFF: Sounds like the race may be over on the Republican side, but certainly not on the Democratic side. David Nyhan, thanks very much. Good to see you again. We appreciate it.
NYHAN: Thanks, Judy.
WOODRUFF: Mitt Romney has joined an elite but expanding club of rich men running for governor. Ron Brownstein of "The Los Angeles Times" looks at the members of that club, their cash and their political clout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RON BROWNSTEIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES" (voice-over): When Mitt Romney was handed the Republican nomination for governor in Massachusetts Tuesday, he put an exclamation point on what may become the year of the tycoon. Business executives who have never held elected office are bidding for the governor's chair in nine states, fully 1/4 of all the states electing governors this fall.
Romney has effectively captured his party's nomination. Democrat Tony Sanchez in Texas, and Republican Bill Simon in California have already won primaries. Six others are running strong in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Colorado, Rhode Island, Oklahoma and Alabama.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have to do things that stimulate job growth. Don't you think?
BROWNSTEIN: Across party lines the business candidates are trumpeting their experience creating jobs in the private sector.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, POLITICAL AD)
ANNOUNCER: He's helped create over 70,000 jobs. As governor, he'll bring that expertise to help small businesses expand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWNSTEIN: And portraying their lack of political experience as a virtue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, POLITICAL AD)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're tired of the noise in politics, I think it's time to get things done. I hope you'll make room on your refrigerator for my can-do list.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWNSTEIN: One advantage for the business candidates is they haven't cast a lot of votes that opponents can pick over and attack. Instead, their opponents usually try to raise question about their business records, as Romney discovered when he ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, POLITICAL AD)
ANNOUNCER: Romney. In business he made $11 million in two years while his largest company provided no health insurance to many workers. The company pays for it for employees overseas, but not for thousands in the U.S. $11 million for himself. No health insurance for American workers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWNSTEIN: The business candidates benefit from a belief among many voters that they can bring a fresh eye and a bottom-line perspective to government. But in many cases these candidates benefit most from being able to spend record-setting sums of their own money to overwhelm their opponents with television ads.
If anything, many experts believe that the campaign finance reform law Congress is about to pass will create even greater advantages for candidates who can fund their own campaigns. Which means the road from the board room to the political cloakroom may grow even more crowded in the years ahead -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Ron Brownstein, fascinating stuff. See you soon. Thank you.
And now a picture that many Al Gore watchers have been waiting to see: the former vice president clean-shaven once again. Now, Gore insists that his return to his old look was a signal to his wife, and not a sign that he's running for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I wanted to demonstrate my support for her in case she decided to run.
TIPPER GORE, FMR. SECOND LADY: He was being a supportive spouse, and before I made the final decision he shaved his beard and came in. I really thought it was cute. I was laughing a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is speculation that you're gearing up for another run by shaving the beard.
A. GORE: I haven't made any decision on whether I'm going to run for president in 2004 or not. I was focused on Tipper's decision on whether she was going to run for Senate in 2002, and I wanted her to know that I was clearing the decks, so to speak, for whatever she wanted to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOODRUFF: We're not sure what that means. I guess it means if you have a beard, you're not supportive of your spouse. But in any event, the Gores were speaking in Nashville yesterday, one day after, as we reported, Tipper Gore decided not to run for that Senate seat given up by retiring Republican Fred Thompson.
The INS has some explaining to do. Ahead on INSIDE POLITICS, many lawmakers are angry that the visa notices for two suicide hijackers were delivered six months after September 11. We plan to go live to a House hearing, where the INS commissioner is scheduled to testify.
Also ahead, what does Mexico's President Vicente Fox hope to achieve in his upcoming meeting with President Bush? Fox will go "On the Record" about U.S.-Mexico relations and some setbacks prompted by September 11th.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOODRUFF: One of the federal government's most maligned agencies these days is front and center on Capitol Hill this afternoon. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, the INS, is under fire following a story first reported last week by CNN's Mark Potter. The arrival of student visas for two of the September 11th hijackers, exactly six months after the men carried out the terrorist attacks.
Our Congressional correspondent Kate Snow reports many lawmakers want Congress to play a role in reforming the INS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW (voice-over): If there's one thing that puts Democrats and Republicans on the same page, it's a snafu at the Immigration and Naturalization Service: the approval of student visas for two dead hijackers delivered six months after the attack.
REP. THOMAS TANCREDO (R), COLORADO: I'd call it the Mickey Mouse Club of federal agencies, but that's an insult to the Mickey Mouse Club.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: For the life of me, I can't understand how something like that could happen. It's a major embarrassment. And it's a recognition that we still have a lot of work to do.
REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R-WI), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: This fiasco is indicative of the enormous mismanagement at the INS.
SNOW: Sensenbrenner is pushing for drastic changes at the INS: split the agency in two, one to handle immigration services, one to handle border enforcement. The Republican chairman of the judiciary committee says the INS can't mend itself.
SENSENBRENNER: Every immigration commissioner, for as long as I've been on the judiciary committee, which is almost 24 years, has always restructured the agency. And things have gotten worse rather than better.
SNOW: Democrat Bob Graham says it's time to change the way the U.S. monitors student visas.
SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D), FLORIDA: We need to fix the technology within the INS system so that they don't let people with expired visas into the country, and they can follow people who are here legally, but who might become illegal because they drop out of school or they violate the conditions of their visa. SNOW: Fellow Floridian Dave Weldon says the average fourth grader knows Mohammed Atta should never have been let into the country. Weldon plans to introduce a bill that would put a moratorium on visas and immigration on countries known to sponsor terrorism, like Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq.
REP. DAVID WELDON (R), FLORIDA: Most of these terrorists have been selected from a select group of countries, and we're going to say nobody can come in from those countries until we can verify that we have the person we believe we have. And also, we need a machine- readable passport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SNOW: Many of these points about what to do about the INS are likely to come up this hour at a hearing that's under way in a House immigration subcommittee. They are hearing for the first time from James Zigler, the INS commissioner, asking him about what went wrong last week at the INS.
They're also hearing from the head of Huffman Aviation, the place that received those visas in the mail, and then also from the contractor who did the paperwork who sent out those visa records that arrived last week, six months after the terrorist attacks.
And then finally, one other person they're going to hear from is INS special agent Michael Cutler -- not someone you've likely heard of before. But, Judy, he's important because he's someone inside the INS who has been a real critic of the way the INS handles things. He's going to suggest ways to reform the INS. And you can bet that they brought him here today knowing that he'll speak very honestly. He's retiring very soon from the agency -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Kate Snow at the Capitol. And as you point out, it was a private contractor who was specifically responsible for sending those student visas out. Still under the umbrella of the INS, but they had brought in a private contractor to do the work. All right, Kate Snow. And we will be coming back to you later on.
Earlier I spoke with the immigration subcommittee chairman, Republican Congressman George Gekas of Pennsylvania, and the committee's ranking member, Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. And I started by asking both of them what they think is wrong with the INS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. GEORGE GEKAS (R-PA), SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The first and foremost is the absence of full accountability for all of the different duties, responsibilities and actions taken by the Immigration and Naturalization Service over the past decade. So the plan that we have for bifurcation and reorganization can meet some of those problems.
WOODRUFF: And, Representative Jackson Lee, what's the main problem, in your view? REP. SHIELA JACKSON LEE (D-TX), RANKING MEMBER: Judy, we are absolutely in the last 10 days on a crisis alert. With 600,000 students in the United States, 10,000 in training schools, the most egregious part of the INS problem is its inability to rapidly repair itself. All of the moneys that have been thrown at it. All of the interest now that has gotten the United States of America, and the INS still cannot internally restructure its infrastructure. And that means that we've got act immediately in the United States Congress.
WOODRUFF: Well, Representative Gekas, the White House, the Bush administration, as we know, is now proposing to combine the INS with the U.S. Customs Service, into one larger agency. Is that the right solution?
GEKAS: We don't know yet. But we're going to welcome the ideas like that as part of the planned bifurcation and reorganization that we have in mind, through a statute. It may well be that this combination of efforts by the White House and the Department of Justice and the current INS can fit nicely into the mold that we will be presenting to the Congress after the recess.
WOODRUFF: But you're talking about splitting it. The White House is talking about combining it with the Customs Service.
GEKAS: That's correct. Combining can be just as much a part of reorganization as separating certain functions. We will welcome these kinds of ideas for the final reorganization that we have in mind.
WOODRUFF: Representative Jackson Lee, is the Bush administration idea the right way to go?
JACKSON LEE: Judy, first of all, we welcome any ideas. But you know what? I don't think we can withstand any more speculation. That's what's happened to the INS: one idea after another and no action. I believe there are certain initiatives that are already on the table. I have HR1562, that restructures the INS. Congress has to act and we have to act now. If we take time to deliberate over one more idea, we will see another issuance of a visa to a dead terrorist.
WOODRUFF: But who's to decide, Congressman Gekas, whether it is better to divide the agency into separate areas or put it together and make a larger agency
GEKAS: Well, the Congress will be the ultimate decision-maker in that regard. It will propose, through our bill, a bifurcation, two lines of authority, each headed by a deputy attorney general. All of the ideas that have been expressed by the White House and the INS and the Department of Justice to date, will be tried to be heard and considered, as we restructure. And it will come at the hands of the Congress, in consultation with the Department of Justice, in consultation with the White House. And with the view to covering all of the bases so that all of the errors cannot recur.
JACKSON LEE: You know, this has to be a bipartisan effort. Democrats, Republicans, have to work together. Two independent agencies is not the way the INS works. They have to be coordinated. The services aspect of the bureau's responsibilities, which was what the visa was all about, must be coordinated with the enforcement. So I want the Congress to act immediately, but it must be bipartisan and we must understand that two separate entities would not make the INS work better.
WOODRUFF: Let me ask you both about a comment from an expert with the Center for Immigration Studies. He's putting a large part of the blame on Congress. He said that Congress routinely increases the workload of the INS, but it doesn't give it either the budget or the manpower to carry these things out. Congressman Gekas, is that legitimate?
GEKAS: That is not an accurate characterization, because at almost every call of the INS for new funding, for increased funding, for increased help, over the last 10 years, the Congress has responded positively, for the most part. And still we see the flaws that pile upon one on the other.
JACKSON LEE: We have to use our money smartly, I believe, Judy. And that's what the problem has been. For example, we gave millions of dollars for the student tracking system. But what happened was, because of outside pressures from universities -- and I understand their issues -- we slowed the process down. Our money has to be used smartly. It has not been used smartly by the INS. And that's the key, or the crux of some of their problems.
WOODRUFF: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Representative George Gekas, respectively, the ranking member and the chairman of this subcommittee we are monitoring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
As we just told you, that's Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee and Congressman George Gekas. They've gone on. That subcommittee hearing is under way right now. We're monitoring it. And as members of the committee begin to question the witnesses, we will carry parts of that live. This is a picture of the hearing room there at the Capitol.
Coming up, Illinois voters head to the polls. Just ahead, a closer look at the sometimes bitter ad war in the primary race there for governor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOODRUFF: Today is primary day in Illinois, where voters are choosing party nominees for governor, as well as a high-profile House race. Attorney General Jim Ryan is among the Republicans seeking to replace current Governor George Ryan, who is not running for reelection. Lieutenant Governor Korin Wood and state senator Patrick O'Malley are also looking for the GOP Nomination.
On the Democratic side, Congressman Ron Blagojevich is leaving the House to run for the governor's office. He is facing former Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas, and former State Attorney General Roland Burris. Former Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel is in a tough race for a Chicago House seat. The campaign was marred in its final days by personal attacks and accusations of anti-Semitism.
Well, for more now on primary day in Illinois and some new technology in use at the polling places, let's turn to our Chicago bureau chief, Jeff Flock. He's on the city's north side -- hi, Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF: Judy, hello to you from the 48th Ward, 11th precinct here on the north side of Chicago.
And all of those names may be part of the story of Illinois primary day 2002, but also technology, as you point out. Take a look at it. This is the new vote tabulation system. You know, in the 2000 presidential election, there were more spoiled ballots in Illinois than there were in Florida. So Cook County has invested about $25 million on new technology to make certain that doesn't happen again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): Today in Chicago, after you mark your choices on the punch card, as always, you put your ballot into something called the Precinct Ballot Counter 2100. If there are no problems with it, it sails through and you get a "Thanks for voting" message.
But if there is a problem, say you vote for more than one candidate for the same office, or skip a race, or leave a hanging or perhaps pregnant chad, it kicks the ballot out, tells you what you did wrong, and gives thank you a chance to correct it.
TOM LEACH, CHICAGO BOARD OF ELECTIONS: It would have been very useful for the presidential election, because I think we could have alerted thousands of voters to the fact that they undervoted or overvoted. And they could have corrected that ballot.
FLOCK: Nearly 4 percent of ballots were spoiled in the last presidential race in Illinois. Florida had less than 3 percent. Here in Cook County alone, 123,00 votes were lost, the second worst rate among the largest U.S. counties, only to Palm Beach County's infamous butterfly ballot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, you undervoted. You wanna leave it like that, or you want to change it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you do mean? I leave it like that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLOCK: As you can see, the voting continues here. And if you, for example, do make an error and would like to correct it, you see perhaps the voter correction booth off to the side where a special provision is made for you to be able to do that.
Some people, Judy, had been concerned about lines out here, but so far that has not materialized, everything going very smoothly at this, my precinct, where, I must tell you, I will soon be casting my own ballot.
That's the latest from Chicago -- back to you.
WOODRUFF: All right, Jeff Flock, getting ready to vote himself, we appreciate it. Thanks very much.
Well, the Illinois campaigns for governor included a slate of Republicans who ran away from the GOP incumbent that they were trying to succeed.
More on all that from our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider -- Bill.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Judy, do you know the last time Illinois elected a Democrat for governor? It was 1972. My goodness, that was the McGovern era. Well, this year, Illinois has a deeply unpopular -- that's unpopular -- Republican governor, George Ryan, who's chosen not to run for reelection. So Democrats think they have a shot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): The three-way Democratic campaign for Illinois governor has gotten pretty lively. You have got Chicago Congressman Rod Blagojevich. What's that name again?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROD BLAGOJEVICH (D), ILLINOIS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Rod Blagojevich. My name is Eastern European. My story is American.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: You have got former State Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas. Mr. Vallas, you're on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL VALLAS (D), ILLINOIS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: TV is expensive, so I'll talk fast. I started as a kid, but overcame it, working in my family's restaurant. I live here with my beautiful wife and my three great boys.
It is a little bit crowded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Last week, Blagojevich hit Vallas hard with complaints from Chicago school employees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paul Vallas made my life very hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He lowered our wages, cut our pension.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Mr. Vallas, you're on again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VALLAS: Rod Blagojevich is what's wrong with politics in Illinois.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: There's a third alternative: former State Attorney General Roland Burris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROLAND BURRIS (D), ILLINOIS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be an advocate for the people of this state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: You have also got three candidates slugging it out in the Republican primary. Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood is making abortion an issue. She's appealing to non-Republican voters in a state where there's no party registration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. CORINNE WOOD (R), ILLINOIS: So if you want Illinois to have a pro-choice governor, take a Republican ballot in the upcoming primary and vote Corinne Wood for governor, because it is your choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Meanwhile, Attorney General Jim Ryan is attacking Wood for her association with unpopular Governor George Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Corinne Wood was George Ryan's full and equal partner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Wait a minute. Isn't Governor Ryan a Republican? Yes. "So what?", says the third GOP candidate, Pat O'Malley. A Ryan is a Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: George Ryan used $155,000 in bribe money to run for governor. The U.S. attorney had to prosecute because Jim Ryan didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE) SCHNEIDER: The polls show a tight Democratic race among all three of those candidates, but Ryan in the lead on the Republican side. Now, that's Jim Ryan, not George Ryan. But you can bet that, if Jim Ryan is the GOP candidate, the Democrats are going to say "A Ryan's a Ryan."
WOODRUFF: And they can come back and say, well, but we can't help what her name is.
SCHNEIDER: Well, they can try.
WOODRUFF: No relation.
(LAUGHTER)
WOODRUFF: All right, Bill Schneider, thanks very much.
Well, INSIDE POLITICS is on the move. Up next: Is relocating a good way to break into politics? Jeff Greenfield revisits the carpetbagger question.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOODRUFF: Checking the headlines in our "Newscycle": The case of a San Francisco couple whose dog attacked and killed their neighbor has gone to the jury. The couple is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Defense attorneys argue the couple had no way of knowing the dogs would attack.
One of Osama bin Laden's half brothers says his family has information that the al Qaeda leader is alive. And they say he is not suffering from kidney disease. Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed also told CNN's Rula Amin he does not think Osama bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks.
Salt Lake City Olympics chief Mitt Romney today ended weeks of speculation and entered the Republican race for governor of Massachusetts. Hour earlier, acting Governor Jane Swift made a surprise announcement that she would not run for a full term in office.
Well, the launch of Mitt Romney's campaign for governor got our Jeff Greenfield to thinking about location, location, location.
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST: If you want to get involved in politics these days, Judy, maybe the best way would be to work for a moving company. Elizabeth Dole has gone home to North Carolina to run for senator. Mitt Romney, who ran the Salt Lake Olympics in Utah, is going home to Massachusetts, as you just heard, to run for governor.
Question: When is it going home and when is it carpetbagging?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): You know what a carpetbagger is, of course. It comes from Reconstruction days, when ambitious politicians packed their belongings into a carpet bag and moved down south to run for office in a state they'd never lived in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the candidate for the United States in New York, Robert Kennedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: Some states don't seem to mind this at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT KENNEDY: Again, if it's going to be judged on who has lived here...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENFIELD: Robert Kennedy won a Senate seat in New York in 1964 even though he lived there only briefly as a kid.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: Down here on Long Island...
GREENFIELD: Twenty-six years later, Hillary Rodham Clinton won there, having never lived in New York at all. What voters do mind very much is if you've already been a candidate in a different state. A textbook case: Jim Buckley, who lived in Connecticut, won a Senate seat in New York, of course, in 1970. He was defeated six years later, then tried to run back in Connecticut. He got clobbered.
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BILL BROCK: I've come today to announce my candidacy for the United States Senate in Maryland.
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GREENFIELD: And former Tennessee Senator Bill Brock suffered the same fate when he resurfaced in Maryland.
Sometimes past deeds can protect you from the carpetbagger charge. When John McCain first ran for Congress in Arizona, opponents said he was a new arrival. Actually, McCain replied, "The place I lived the longest was the 'Hanoi Hilton' in North Vietnam." He won big.
Maybe that's what Mitt Romney, who lost a Massachusetts Senate race against Ted Kennedy in 1994, could argue now, "I went to Utah to serve my country at the Olympics," he could say. "Now I'm coming home." And Romney could also argue from precedent. Daniel Webster, the great Massachusetts senator, once served in Congress from New Hampshire.
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GREENFIELD: Now, one argument that Elizabeth Dole could use is rooted in that traditional distrust of Washington: "I didn't really live anywhere else in America," she could argue. "I was living in Washington, you know, that foreign country, where I was looking out for you." If the folks in North Carolina won't buy it, well, there is a New York Senate seat up in just two years.
And, Judy, my arithmetic was off. Hillary Clinton was elected senator 36 years after Robert Kennedy, which just shows you what old age can do to your math skills.
WOODRUFF: We are glad you straightened that out.
And wait a minute, Jeff. If Washington is a foreign country, what's New York?
GREENFIELD: The Heartland.
(LAUGHTER)
WOODRUFF: OK, Jeff Greenfield, we'll see you tomorrow.
Give us your opinions on today's show and more. You can go to CNN.com/INSIDEPOLITICS. And plus, don't forget to e-mail Bill Schneider with your ideas for this week's "Political Play of the Week."
Coming up, we'll continue to keep an eye on those congressional hearings looking into problems at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
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WOODRUFF: We're going to check in once again with our congressional correspondent Kate Snow. She is on the Hill.
We want to get an update, Kate, on those INS hearings under way, the House Judiciary Committee. Bring us up to the moment.
SNOW: Right. Judy, the Immigration Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee hearing now from the INS commissioner, James Ziglar. It is his first time to really come up before the Hill since last week and that big snafu that happened in Florida, when, you recall, two visa notifications arrived at the aviation school where two of the now-known-to-be hijackers had been training.
That was really considered a huge mistake -- Mr. Ziglar now explaining how that was able to happen. He's taking a little bit of the blame. And he's explained just a few minutes ago why it is that they sent out this notification to the aviation school so late.
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JAMES ZIGLAR, INS COMMISSIONER: I think it is useful to clear up some of the facts of the case from last week. Contrary to some reports, the INS did not just recently approve the applications for Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi to change their nonimmigration status in order to take flying lessons. What we had here -- I'm trying to find an analogy -- what we had here is similar to buying an item with a check. You go into a store. You buy an item with a check. Get the item and then you don't receive the canceled check for six months, the receipt for the check.
Simply put, Huffman Aviation International was receiving its file copy of paperwork that they originally prepared on behalf of Atta and al-Shehhi, and that's it. No new visas were issued. And no new decisions were reflected in the documents sent to them. However, we should have intercepted these I-20s at the contractor, and we did not.
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SNOW: The I-20, of course, referring to what he refers to as sort of a like a canceled check. You buy an item with the check, you get that canceled back in the mail. That's what that I-20 form is that went to Huffman Aviation.
We're also going to be hearing from the owner of that Huffman aviation school in Venice, Florida, Judy, also hearing from the contractor who sent out those notifications, and then finally from what's been described as a whistle-blower to some extent, a man who is currently a special agent with the INS, who is going to talk about some of the changes he sees from the inside being needed to that agency -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Kate Snow, I'm sure there are more questions than the committee has time to ask or to get answers for. Kate Snow at the Capitol, thanks very much.
Well, among the headlines now we want to look at in our "Campaign News Daily,": A campaign reform group has filed suit over contributions to John Ashcroft during his 2000 Senate reelection campaign. The National Voting Rights Institute wants the Federal Election Commission to rule on a claim that Ashcroft accepted and failed to report a contribution that exceeded federal fund-raising limits.
With the Senate poised to send campaign finance to the president's desk, Democrats are using soft money to build a new headquarters building. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe tells the "L.A. Times" one contributor has given several million dollars toward the $32 million fund-raising effort. The donor and the amount are expected to be made public in disclosure reports next month.
A New York health workers union with strong ties to Democrats has endorsed Republican Governor George Pataki. The Service Employees International Union represents more than 200,000 mostly minority workers. The union's leader, Dennis Rivera, is considered one of the state's most powerful Hispanic leaders.
Well, President Bush says he feels a special kinship with Mexico. Just ahead: How far is he willing to go to help Mexico's president, Vicente Fox? I'll ask President Fox what he hopes to get from Mr. Bush when the two men are face-to-face later this week.
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WOLF BLITZER, "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS": I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
Coming up at the top of the hour, the CIA director, George Tenet, says al Qaeda remains a serious threat and may be working on a crude nuclear bomb. We'll have details. And I'll talk live with Senator Bill Frist about the bioterror facing the country. Also, are those two missing Oregon teenage girls still alive? I'll ask John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted." That is all coming up at the top of the hour right after INSIDE POLITICS.
WOODRUFF: Thanks, Wolf.
Coming up right after this break: my interview with Mexico's president, Vicente Fox.
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WOODRUFF: Joining us now from Mexico City: Mexico's president, Vicente Fox. He will be meeting with President Bush later this week, this week an international development conference being held in Mexico.
Mr. President, thank you for joining us.
You have 171 countries, 50 world leaders coming together. What, in simple words, do you want to come out of this meeting?
VICENTE FOX, MEXICAN PRESIDENT: Well, I would love to see resolutions and ideas that will help the poor countries to go into a process of development, that we could, by joining efforts, reduce poverty in the world, which is 1.2 billion poor throughout the world.
And I think financing is a key ingredient for them to come out of that state of poverty and for those countries to start a development process.
WOODRUFF: You have called for developing countries to give a combination of investment credit and loans equal to about 1 percent of the gross domestic product. The Bush administration, the United States, is proposing less than one-sixth of that percentage in the U.S. Is that enough?
FOX: Well, first of all, a great outcome of this meeting is that the small countries, the poor countries now understand that development is on their hands and it is their responsibility.
But, of course, they need support. They need help. They need financing. They need access to markets. And they need education and technology. And, fortunately, the leading economies of the world now understand that, without that support and that help, those countries will not come along.
So, I understand that there is an agreement of countries at the millennium meeting for granting a 0.7 percent of gross product to be transferred to those smaller economies. The United States is making an effort. President Bush has recently announced a $5 billion fund to be transferred to these smaller countries. And Europe just announced a $4-billion-a-year support for countries.
So, the confidence is moving. And I hope we will come with new commitments and with this new spirit of solidarity, working together everybody in the world.
WOODRUFF: When you see President Bush later this week, will you tell him that this percentage from the U.S. is enough?
FOX: Well, that's not exactly one of the issues that we will deal with in the bilateral conference. But, certainly, if I have the opportunity, I will tell him that we must all be and have solidarity with the rest, because part of the violence and part of the problems that the world confronts is because we have so many poor and so many families excluded from development.
But I think it is a moral -- it is a moral obligation for everybody to try to help and contribute to this better being of the whole world.
WOODRUFF: Mr. President, different subject: When you saw President Bush in Washington last September the 6th, he said that he would make 100 percent effort in 2001, last year, to come up with a framework for an agreement for a guest-worker program, for an immigrant program that would work for both sides, that both sides could support.
Obviously, September 11 pushed many things to the back burner, but did the president raise expectations too high in that regard?
FOX: Well, I guess, before September 11, we did have a very close position on getting that problem going and solved. But, unfortunately, September the 11th presented itself and we had to open this parenthesis of not dealing with the issue. We're back to the problem. We've back to negotiations. We're back to talks. And certainly I would expect an effort from his side, as well as we're doing on our side.
We have this program called Partnership for Prosperity on which we are working on trying to build up opportunities for young people in Mexico so that they will stay within our country and in their community, because they would have a job and they will have an opportunity to go to a school, to go to university.
And that sounds to a goodwill that is being an effort of the U.S. government. And I hope, also, that we can do something for those paisanos or Mexicans that are working in the United States, that are doing decently with productivity and that are important contributors to the growth of the U.S. economy.
So I hope that we will take a step further on the direction of solving the migration problem between Mexico and the United States.
WOODRUFF: Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, we thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it. And we hope to see you again soon.
CNN's coverage continues now with "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." Thanks for joining us. I'm Judy Woodruff.
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