From: John King/CNN
In: Washington
Posted 8-1-97

Subject: Budget Vote Impact On 2000

Hours after the balanced budget bill cleared Congress Thursday night, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich joined a Christian Coalition conference call to promote the agreement.

"It's the first Republican presidential primary," a Gingrich political lieutenant joked.

Others looked elsewhere for political insight from the budget vote. Several lawmakers with presidential ambitions bucked the trend and voted against the deal. Among them: House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry. Also: GOP Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

The recess gives those with presidential ambitions plenty of opportunity to test their appeal. Gephardt will be in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Saturday; Gingrich is visiting New Hampshire on Aug. 25; Gore is off to New Hampshire on Sept. 5. GOP Sen. John Ashcroft is visiting almost a state a day in August, including New Hampshire, South Carolina and Louisiana.

A host of Republican prospects, including Thompson, plan to attend a major GOP gathering in Indianapolis on Aug. 24. Others tentatively planning to attend include Kasich, Lamar Alexander, Steve Forbes and Govs. John Engler of Michigan and George W. Bush of Texas.

Gephardt and his allies are angry about the short-term impact of the budget agreement. Just a week ago, national polls showed Democrats with a slight advantage when voters were asked which party they were likely to support for Congress, but after a week of talk about bipartisanship and praise of the deal from the White House, a new national survey out Friday showed Republicans with a six-point edge on this so-called "generic congressional ballot" question.