Gore suspends his campaign; won't endorse Jesse, Dukakis

WASHINGTON Sen. Albert Gore Jr. halted his campaign forpresident Thursday, but kept his candidacy formally alive to preventany of his delegates from going to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson orMichael S. Dukakis before the Democratic National Convention.

Gore insisted he was not interested in the vice presidency andhinted he might run again for president.

He said he had "no present plans to endorse before theconvention," adding that either Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis orJackson, the remaining two challengers, "is going to be and ought tobe the nominee."

"Technically, I shall remain a candidate for the nomination, butonly to enable my delegates to go to the convention so they canrepresent my point of view," Gore said.

He said Jackson and Dukakis "are quite comfortable" with hisdecision. Neither would benefit by his withdrawal, he maintained.

"I want no part of a Stop Jackson or Stop Dukakis movement,"Gore said. "The only man I want to stop is George Bush."

Of the 490 delegates and super delegates Gore claims to havewon, only 78 at-large delegates would be affected if he officiallywithdrew, he said. And they would be divided "almost exactly evenly"between Jackson and Dukakis, he said.

The Tennessee senator sought to distinguish his situation fromthat of Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who was criticized by Jacksonbackers after similarly suspending his candidacy. The Jacksonsupporters have pressured Simon to pull out of the race completelybecause their man would get all 47 Illinois at-large delegatesalloted to Simon but yet to be chosen.

Though Gore's announcement occurred two days after his dreadfulthird-place showing in the acrimonious New York primary, his campaignmanager conceded only one error: Gore's decision to invest heavily inthe Illinois primary to beat Simon.

Fred Martin, the Highland Park, Ill., native who ran Gore'scampaign, said his decision to spend substantially on televisioncommercials in Illinois was "a miscalculation by us." Simon won inIllinois, and Gore got only 5 percent and no delegates.

Several Gore advisers thought "there might be an opening inIllinois and the support for Paul Simon might not be as sustainableas his campaign thought," Martin said. "We were wrong about that, andso was the Dukakis campaign. In hindsight, we could have saved somemoney and some time."

On the other hand, Martin defended the decision to skip for themost part the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, and not jumpinto the race until the March 8 Super Tuesday states, largely in theSouth. Gore won five Southern states and Wyoming and Nevada.

His withdrawal speech was sprinkled with humor, and he even madea little fun of his youth. "Now I know how a lot of folks in Americafeel," he said. "I was doing great until I turned 40," a reference tohis recent birthday.

"I lost this race and it was a disappointment," he said. "Butsome things matter to me more than winning: helping my party, servingmy country, knowing when to keep fighting and knowing when I've beenlicked."

Asked whether he might run again, Gore said, "Oh, I don'tknow." He said it would be "arrogant" to rule out taking thevice-presidential nomination, but he said he "genuinely andsincerely" has no interest in it.

The presidential nominee should have "a free hand" to pick hisown running mate, Gore said.