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Governors stump Oregon for Bush photo by Bob Pennell By Dani Dodge Three Republican governors toured a Medford business Monday afternoon stumping for a fellow governor: George W. Bush of Texas. "We�re part of a team hitting 48 cities in 25 states in an effort to get Bush over the goal line," said Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci. The Bush "Barnstorm for Reform" tour brought Cellucci and Govs. Lincoln Almond of Rhode Island and Jane Dee Hull of Arizona to Medford for a tour of Answer Page and a press conference. The stop was one of three across Oregon and Washington Monday. Twenty-nine Republican governors are criss-crossing the nation in seven teams. The tour kicked off in Texas Sunday and continues through Wednesday. Cellucci said the governors are well-suited to be ambassadors for Bush because they know what it takes to be a good governor � and ultimately a good president. "George Bush has brought people together," Cellucci said. "He works with Republicans and Democrats to make things happen." But two hours earlier elsewhere in Medford, Jackson County Democrats called a press conference to paint a completely different picture of Bush�s tenure in Texas. Party leaders released a 10-minute video that criticized Bush�s efforts in Texas. The video features Texas residents complaining about problems with their state�s schools, environment, poor neighborhoods and health care system. The overall message: Bush doesn�t care about the poor or powerless. Democrats also said Bush�s tax plans would take the country back to the "dark days" of spiraling national debt and high unemployment, while Al Gore would continue to enhance the country�s prosperity. "We want to continue making sound investments in health care, education and paying down the nation�s debt, but George Bush�s tax cut would wreck the progress we�ve made," said Neel Pender, the Oregon Party Democratic executive director. "That�s unfair to Oregonians who in the �90s were asked to sacrifice and tighten their belts. Now that things are going better, George Bush wants to give it away to the wealthiest of the wealthy." The governors, of course, had a different view of Bush�s tax plans. Cellucci said 10 years ago Massachusetts was known as "Taxachusetts." He said he�s driven Massachusetts taxes down, as Republican Bush would do for the nation. "Gov. George Bush has a tax plan that will benefit everyone," Cellucci sad. "Gov. Bush wants lower-income families to become middle-income families." Almond said he believes that Bush will give states and citizens more opportunity to determine their own destinies. "We believe that George Bush will listen to the governors," Almond said. "And won�t have a one-shoe-fits-all-size policy." Hull, a former teacher, spoke about the success of Bush�s accountability measures in education in Texas, although one woman in the audience did ask her about the 40 percent drop-out rate in Texas. Arizonan Hull, also governor of a state with a transient population, said she wasn�t familiar with the Texas drop-out rate, but said the focus should be on the improvements in Texas education. "SAT scores have risen 10 percent under Bush," Hull said. "What you see is steady improvement." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.