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

DATE: MONDAY, April 8, 1991                   TAG: 9104080008
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BUSH TEAM MAPS RE-ELECTION PLANS/ EDUCATION TO BE CAMPAIGN CENTERPIECE

White House Chief of Staff John Sununu lifted the ban on formal re-election planning and two weeks ago put in motion the first steps of the effort to return President Bush to the Oval Office for a second term.

According to administration Sununu and party sources, he called a March 25 meeting of the president's political brain trust at the White House to look at the possible time line for a formal re-election campaign, its potential structure, issues that will dominate this year's presidential agenda and the mechanics of filing deadlines, research efforts, fund raising and other campaign necessities.

The session came the evening before the White House announcement that the United States would not interfere in the civil war in Iraq. That decision has created a storm of criticism from some of Bush's conservative supporters, among others, and has threatened - as one who attended the campaign session put it - to "dim the luster" of the victory in the Persian Gulf War.

But officials said the late March session looked more at domestic than international issues, focusing particularly on education, which the White House hopes to emphasize as the centerpiece of Bush's 1991 domestic agenda.

Several administration sources said Bush plans to talk about "revolutionary reform" in the nation's education system throughout the year, using as a blueprint proposals supplied by new Education Secretary Lamar Alexander. The effort, an official said, "will inoculate us against charges we have no domestic agenda."

Alexander, a sophisticated politician with an avid interest in education, earlier this year presented the White House with more than three dozen proposals that could be part of a new education package Bush is expected to announce by the end of the month.

Alexander has begun assembling an Education Department hierarchy with "new thinkers" in education, and he has emphasized to the White House that he and Bush should serve as nationwide proponents of radical reform in education.

Sources said Bush's other domestic efforts are expected to focus on "what he is not for," including racial quotas and new mandates on business behavior.

A high-profile veto strategy, similar to the one Bush used in the first two years of his term, will be a major component this year as well. Vetos are pledged already for a Democratic version of civil rights legislation and for legislation that would require employers to grant unpaid parental leave and to rehire strikers.

Bush is not expected to announce his re-election bid until early next year. One official at the session said, "There was a consensus that it is far better to be leader of the Free World rather than a candidate as long as you can."

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB