July 2, 1999
Web posted at: 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT)

WASHINGTON (July 2) -- A Democratic political consultant and longtime confidant of Vice President Al Gore is being added to the vice president's campaign team in a move that several Gore insiders described as a clear rebuke of senior strategist Bob Squier.

Carter Eskew, who worked on President Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign and is a partner in the New York advocacy firm of Bozell Eskew, is joining the campaign team. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake also is being added to the Gore 2000 team to help hone its message on women's and family issues, campaign and party sources told CNN.

Mark Penn will remain as a campaign pollster.

Both new additions are causing internal tensions within the campaign as Eskew and Squier are former partners who had a bitter falling out. Penn and his partner Doug Shoen have often feuded with more liberal Democratic strategists like Lake over the party's positioning on issues like welfare, as well as budget and spending priorities.

Several sources familiar with the Gore campaign's inner workings said Eskew would take over as the campaign's lead strategist, and Squier would produce the campaign's television and other media spots while also continuing to be part of the strategy team.

Eskew and Lake were recruited by new Gore campaign chairman Tony Coelho and sources said they are but two of several veteran Democratic strategists Coelho has talked to in recent weeks as he tries to put his stamp on the Gore campaign.

Treasury Department official Lauren Choi also is joining the Gore campaign as a senior policy adviser, and several sources said at least one other major addition was imminent.

Former partners Eskew and Squier have had a tense relationship since Eskew left Squier's firm. His hiring by the Gore campaign comes despite friction within the Clinton administration over Eskew's leading role in an advertising campaign attacking federal anti-smoking legislation. The legislation was strongly supported by the Clinton-Gore administration.

Gore was described by aides at the time as miffed that his friend had agreed to take a leading role in such a campaign, and Squier was quoted as saying Eskew would not have been allowed to work for the tobacco industry had he remained at Squier's firm.

These sources said there was already internal tension about the move, but several likened it to the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign. Squier produced the ads then but was one of several senior campaign advisers who had tense relations with Dick Morris, who was the lead consultant until he was forced to resign during the Democratic convention in the midst of a personal scandal.

Gore faces former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley in the Democratic primary. Bradley has raised $11.5 million in the second quarter of 1992, which is enough to let him challenge Gore for the Democratic nomination in Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond. Gore will report raising more than $18 million.

Gore's political future also is complicated by the Republican candidacy of George W. Bush. The Texas governor has raised a record $36.2 million during the last quarter, swamping his GOP rivals. The money also means Bush may forgo federal matching funds and federal spending limits during the general election. Bush, the GOP frontrunner in opinion polls, also is handily beating Gore in head-to-head public opinion polls.

Friday, July 2, 1999

• Primary season: Don't blink or you might miss it
• Gore courts New Hampshire votes - in Washington
• Bradley to pick up Kerrey endorsement
• Bush discloses income of at least $2 million
• Orrin Hatch enters White House race
• Gore campaign shuffles staff
• House OKs financial privacy measure
• GOP Congress goes home with tax talk blueprint in hand
• Democrats climb out of debt
• Senate continues ban on buying federal employees abortions
• California state Senate sends gun-a-month bill to governor
• Analysis: For Clinton, scant credit for a foreign policy success
• Clinton plans to nominate commissioner for second term

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