PRESIDENTIAL RACE

CLINTON LENDS HIS VOICE TO KERRY CAMPAIGN

SANTA FE, N.M. – Even though President Clinton’s recovering heart means he can’t personally hit the campaign trail to help out John Kerry’s election effort, he is using his voice to help in the final weeks of the race.

Mr. Clinton regularly phones Mr. Kerry and his aides to offer advice, and he plans to tape a phone message that will be sent into voters’ homes. Campaign officials say it’s likely he’ll also record radio advertisements, but his slow recovery from heart surgery is making it questionable whether he’ll be able to do any physical campaigning.

Democrats who have spoken to Mr. Clinton say he is eager to get more involved, but his doctors and his wife are not sure he is strong enough to travel five weeks after he underwent quadruple bypass surgery.

One senior Democratic official who recently saw Mr. Clinton said the former president looked wan and reported that his recovery had been harder than he had expected. But Mr. Clinton told the official to begin planning a couple of events for the final days of the campaign.

Another Democrat who has talked to Mr. Clinton said that may be wishful thinking, and it’s unclear whether there will be any appearances.

A Clinton spokesman, Jim Kennedy, said there have been no decisions about whether he’ll be able to campaign.

– Associated Press

BUSH TO SKIP AARP GATHERING OF 25,000

President Bush and 25,000 AARP members will be in Las Vegas at the same time this week, but the Republican incumbent won’t drop in on the organization that gave a boost to last year’s Medicare prescription drug law.

The 35 million-member AARP invited Mr. Bush and Democratic rival Senator Kerry to speak at the Las Vegas meeting. Mr. Kerry, who opposed the Medicare law, is on tomorrow morning’s schedule, AARP spokesman Steve Hahn said yesterday. The Bush campaign said it is dispatching first lady Laura Bush to the AARP meeting. The president had three previously scheduled events – all re-election rallies, said a campaign spokesman, Scott Stanzel. One of those rallies will be in Las Vegas. The executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, Ed Coyle, said public-opinion polling shows the law is unpopular among older Americans. “No presidential candidate wants to risk being booed off stage by thousands of seniors. This drug benefit is not the victory for seniors the president plugs it to be, and the president and his handlers know that to be true,” said Mr. Coyle, a critic of the law.

– Associated Press

LOCAL ELECTIONS

MAYOR, FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES, QUITS RACE

SALT LAKE CITY – The mayor of Utah’s most populous county, facing criminal charges of misspending taxpayer money, announced yesterday she was withdrawing from the election for health reasons. The move by first-term Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman prompted criticism from rivals that the Republicans were manipulating election law so they could put another candidate on the ticket.

“My doctor has strongly advised that, in his opinion, with the extraordinary stress of the ongoing prosecution, I cannot continue a political campaign without unreasonably compromising my health,” Ms. Workman said in a statement, without specifying the exact nature of her health problems.

Her campaign spokesman, Dave Owen, said she would use a provision of Utah law allowing candidates to remove themselves from a ballot because of a medical disability. Ms. Workman has been placed on paid administrative leave while she faces two felony charges for allegedly taking $17,000 in health department funds to hire a bookkeeper at a boys and girls club where her daughter was a top financial officer. She did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

– Associated Press