Financial Backers pressure Gore to run again next year

Former Vice-President Al Gore is coming under pressure from political supporters and friends to jump into the 2004 presidential campaign even though he ruled himself out in December.

Gore’s spokesperson denied that there was any change of plans, but a former Democratic National Committee official close to Gore told The Hill he believes the former vice president may enter the Democratic primary this fall.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll released yesterday shows that no more than 20 percent of the voters likely to pull the Democratic lever back any of the declared candidates.

The fluid situation has apparently kept a core group of Democratic fundraisers who played key roles in Gore’s 2000 campaign to remain aloof from the current candidates despite being courted intensely.

A former Gore campaign aide who surveyed fundraising data on politicalmoneyline.com noted that nine Gore supporters — eight of whom served as finance chairman, or deputy finance chairman at the DNC during the 2000 election — have by and large sat out of the Democratic primary.

Two of the three persons who had served as finance chairmen at the DNC in 2000 have contributed to presidential candidates, but otherwise remain uninvolved.