DATE: Saturday, September 27, 1997          TAG: 9709270391

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   89 lines

EX-SEN. BRADLEY PUSHES CAMPAIGN REFORM

Congress will never tame the power of big money in politics until there's a wider demand by citizens, Bill Bradley, a former senator from New Jersey and a potential presidential candidate, said Friday.

``The only way to get a handle on it is to have a grass-roots movement out there,'' Bradley said.

So Bradley, with former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, will soon give Congress petitions with 1.2 million signatures of citizens seeking campaign-finance reforms.

The signatures will be presented within two weeks, Bradley announced Friday as keynote speaker to the Virginia State Conference of the Hampton Roads Society for Human Resource Management.

``We need something to shake us out of our lethargy and to give us some sense that we could make . . . politics more responsible,'' Bradley said.

The signatures were collected under Project Independence, organized earlier this year by two public-interest groups, Common Cause and Americans for Change.

Project Independence has not proposed how to clean up the murky mix of politics and money, but is urging Congress to make an effective campaign-finance law, Bradley said.

Business corporations ``could play a very important role in this,'' if more of their executives will sign, Bradley said. He said many retired CEOs have committed, but only a few who still head companies.

Bradley also praised General Motors for declaring that it will no longer give ``soft'' money to political campaigns. ``Soft'' money comprises donations legally targeted for broader issues that often wind up helping candidates.

He called on others to follow and ``put their names and companies on the line, urging Congress to reduce the role of funding.''

Bradley's remarks were in response to a question from a human-resource manager in the audience at the Omni Waterside Hotel. The 600 people who attended included about 300 members of the management society and many business leaders and citizens.

One man, Michael Boyd of Portsmouth, presented a basketball for Bradley to autograph. He said he came despite learning that the conference might be sold out.

The 6-foot-6 Bradley was a star with the NBA's champion New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973, and an All-American with Princeton University.

He won his first six-year term in the Senate in 1978 but declined to seek re-election in 1995. At his retirement announcement, Bradley painted a picture of a broken political system in which neither the Democratic nor Republican Party or the news media speak ``to people where they live their lives.''

Although out of the Senate, Bradley continues to meet citizens across the country and speak out on public affairs. He says he has not made a decision on running for president in the year 2000 but has ``not ruled it out.''

On Friday, Bradley returned to the theme of citizen participation several times, including when he discussed how America should lead the world.

``Leadership has to be by the power of our example. And what might that example be of?'' he asked, and then answered: ``Of a pluralistic - meaning multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural - a pluralistic democracy where people don't only vote but actually participate in the affairs of their community.''

Bradley called on politicians, citizens and news media to be more creative in solving the problems of American society.

``The media has got to give us a context to help us think about our decisions on public issues'' instead of dwelling on the sensational or negative, he said.

``Politicians have to step forward'' and honestly state ``their core convictions,'' not tailor policy pronouncements to messages generated in market-oriented focus groups, Bradley said.

Several people who asked Bradley questions left the lecture pleased with the answers.

Brian Shea, 20, a student at James Madison University, sought solutions to declining voter-turnout rates.

``It has to start with somebody at the top who does it in a different way,'' not one who tells voters only ``what they want to hear,'' Bradley said. ``The result of that is that people are always skeptical about the language of politicians because they believe they are fundamentally manipulative.''

Joanne Bryant, a human-resources manager with the Newport News Daily Press newspaper, asked about the greatest challenges America faces as it moves to the year 2000.

``The challenge for America is to generate more good jobs with good benefits,'' Bradley said. ``To find unity among our diversity.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, was the keynote speaker

Friday morning at the Virginia State Conference of the Hampton

Roads Society for Human Resource Management. He urged greater

involvement in political reforms.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu