Democratic Party platform writers drafted a middle-of-the-road platform tailored for Bill Clinton Saturday, but Clinton rival Jerry Brown threatened a fight at the Democratic convention a month away.
At the closing session of the two-day meeting, platform writers called for "revolutionary" change to revamp government to restart the economy they said was stalled by President Bush's policies.In a speech to the 16-member platform drafting committee, Brown noted that the platform writers talked about the need for "a revolution in government" but the former California governor told them "this is not a revolutionary document."
He scolded them for not having specific goals.
"Are you going to bite the bullet or are you going to gum the marshmallow?" Brown asked, urging them to list a seven-point, $35 billion spending program for cities that was advocated by big-city mayors.
He said he would wage a fight over the platform at the Democratic nominating convention in New York in mid-July in an attempt to put in proposals he advocated in his presidential campaign - from opposition to the free trade treaty with Mexico, tax simplification and $100 limits in campaign contributions.
Clinton has enough delegates to the convention to assure his nomination but still must go through the voting formalities.
Bush must be nominated at a similar party convention, and the whole November election picture has been muddied by likely independent candidate Ross Perot.
"We have 600 delegates there, and they're not going there to watch a television show," Brown said. "I don't believe they are going to New York to be extras in a B political movie. They want to be participants in a live debate on the platform."
Democratic officials said Brown may threaten a floor fight but they doubted he could muster the 37 delegates from the full 186-member Platform Committee to bring a minority slate of platform positions to the convention for a vote.
The platform was not completed Saturday but will undergo further rewriting to include changes in a working draft in Santa Fe before it is submitted to the full Platform Committee at a June 27 meeting for expected approval.
The Democratic platform writers appeared free of the dissension that dominated platform writing meetings of earlier years.
Democratic Party National Chairman Ron Brown told reporters the platform was drafted to appeal to middle-class voters and disaffected voters who have left party ranks and seen Democrats lose five of the last six presidential elections to Republicans.