ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991                   TAG: 9103230103
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

GEPHARDT DENIES 1992 CANDIDACY

Candidate-hungry Democrats got a taste of rousing campaign rhetoric from Rep. Richard Gephardt on Friday, less than two hours after the Missouri congressmen told reporters he was not running for president.

"We've got the right message, we've got the right ideas, we've got the right values," Gephardt told members of the Democratic National Committee at its two-day meeting.

He was interrupted repeatedly with applause as he called for passage of civil rights legislation vetoed last year by President Bush and of a bill to outlaw hiring of permanent replacements for striking workers.

Both bills were part of a need to "change attitudes in this country about how we treat people," he told party activists battered by opinion polls that show Bush with record approval ratings a year and one-half before the 1992 election.

But not two hours before he spoke to the DNC, Gephardt met with a group of reporters and was asked if he was running for president.

"I am not running," he replied. Gephardt's speech, with its emphasis on civil rights, job security, and health care was part of a Democratic campaign to turn public attention from the triumph of U.S. military strength in the Persian Gulf to signs of economic weakness at home.

"When the American people feel economically insecure, they turn to the Democratic Party for leadership," said party chairman Ronald Brown.

Keywords:
POLITICS 


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