Tuesday, April 20, 1999
Gore soothes tornado survivors
Campaign gets boost at fund-raiser
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Vice President Gore hugs Kay Buckler, whose mother lost her apartment in the tornado.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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Vice President Al Gore mixed tornado damage tours and a talk-show style forum on long-term care with presidential campaign fund-raising in a six-hour visit to Cincinnati Monday.
The vice president, now the front-runner for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination, had been scheduled to come to Cincinnati for more than a month for a fund-raising luncheon at the Westin Hotel downtown.
But tacked on to the politics was some official business, with the vice president holding an hourlong session on the Clinton administration's long-term care plan at the Jewish Community Center in Roselawn and a short visit to tornado-damaged areas in Montgomery and Blue Ash.
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Gore, second from left, inspects damage at Blue Ash Industrial Park with Blue Ash Mayor James Sumner, Rep. Tony Hall, Rep. Rob Portman and Montgomery Mayor Richard Tuten.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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Some had expected Mr. Gore to come to the tornado-stricken area and announce that there would be Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds available for uninsured losses to homeowners, renters and businesses.
But the announcement did not come.
“We expect that there will be word from FEMA early this week,” Mr. Gore told a group of about 30 tornado victims, volunteer workers and local officials who gathered at Millington Court in Blue Ash, where eight businesses were wiped out by the April 9 tornado.
The state of Ohio applied for FEMA aid last week.
U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, who represents the tornado-damaged area, accompanied the vice president on the tour. Mr. Portman said that he “would have been disappointed if the vice president had come here just to raise political money and not to talk about federal aid.”
Mr. Gore walked through the Blue Ash Industrial Park and stopped to talk to residents and business owners.
“You can all be very proud of the response to this tragedy and the way your communities have come together,” Mr. Gore said.
The vice president's motorcade stopped at the corner of Cornell Road and Valleystream Drive in Montgomery, where about 20 houses in the Montgomery Woods subdivision were destroyed.
With Montgomery Mayor Richard Tuten, Mr. Gore stopped and talked to Laurie Arshonsky, a Valleystream Drive resident, as she and her sister picked through the rubble of the Arshonsky home. Mrs. Arshonsky and her husband, Steven, were thrown 30 yards from the home and were hospitalized for their injuries.
Mrs. Arshonsky showed the vice president some of her daughter's jewelry and trinkets that she had found in the rubble.
“I'm really sorry for all you have been through,” Mr. Gore told Mrs. Arshonsky. “All of you have suffered a lot.”
After touring the tornado damage, traffic was closed on southbound I-71 so the Gore motorcade could go downtown to the Westin Hotel, where 80 Democratic supporters waited for a fund-raising luncheon hosted by attorneys Stan Chesley and Richard Lawrence.
The Gore 2000 campaign expected to raise nearly $500,000 from the lunch. Mr. Gore is being challenged by former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley for the nomination.
Democratic political figures such as Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls and Democratic council members Todd Portune, Minette Cooper, Paul Booth and Tyrone Yates were at the luncheon to endorse Mr. Gore's candidacy, along with U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, D-Dayton, and former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan.
At the fund-raiser and throughout the trip to Cincinnati, it was clear that the vice president was trying to establish himself as a political figure in his own right.
Mr. Gore did not mention President Clinton all day, even in the fund-raising speech.
At the Westin, Mr. Gore defended U.S. involvement in the NATO bombing campaign over Yugoslavia.
“There are risks involved, but I would rather have had the United States in the position of having acted to stop this brutal aggression in Kosovo rather than standing by and doing nothing,” Mr. Gore said.
After the fund-raising event, the vice president moved on to Roselawn, where about 200 invited guests sat in a circle around the vice president in the Jewish Community Center's auditorium as Mr. Gore talked to them about the Clinton administration's long-term care plan.
Earlier this year, the Clinton administration sent to the Republican-controlled Congress a $6.2 billion program for long-term care. The program includes a $1,000 tax credit for people caring for ill or disabled relatives and would set up a nationwide support program for caregivers.
After the forum, the vice president's motorcade went to Lunken Airport, where Mr. Gore boarded Air Force Two for a flight to Chicago, where he was scheduled to hold another fund-raiser Monday night.
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