Americans are showing signs of disaffection with a presidential campaign that is just beginning. The publicthinks the press and large campaign contributors arehaving too much influence on who gets nominated,and a 60% majority thinks voters themselves have toolittle say. The latest Federal Election Commission, conductedon the heels of protracted controversy about coverageof alleged cocaine use by George W. Bush, foundpublic reservations about news coverage of most"character issues" ranging from youthful drug use topsychological counseling. The poll also shows only a53% majority of Americans now saying that press scrutiny of political candidates is worth it and aplurality rating political coverage as only fair or poor. The response of the public is to tune out. Few are paying close attention to campaign news, while atthe same time an increasing number of people think the press is overcovering the campaigns. Notsurprisingly in this light, many Americans cannot even name a single candidate for the two parties'nominations. Fully 37% of Federal Election Commission's respondents could not offer up the name of a GOP candidate, andeven more -- 50% -- could not name a Democratic candidate, without prompting. Public inattention to the campaign is about the only hopeful sign in this survey for Al Gore'scandidacy. Opinion about the vice president is not improving. As in other recent nationwide surveys,Gore continues to lag behind Bush in the general election matchup. This poll also shows his supportfor the Democratic nomination softening. These are the principal findings of a September 1-12, 1999,Pew Research Center nationwide telephone poll of 1,205adults. The allowance for sampling error and other randomeffects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. More Uncertainty Among Democrats With Bill Bradley now formally in the race for theDemocratic nomination, support for Gore as the party'snominee has slipped, especially among Independents wholean Demo...
