And then there were two.

Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush have won their party nominations and will campaign for the next eight months to be elected President of the United States.

“When choosing a candidate,” sophomore Chris Avery said, “you have to look at who is going to be more popular, get elected, and have results in office.”

Despite the competition with Senator John McCain, Bush was able to secure the nomination. “McCain seriously hurt his party; Bush is wounded,” said Dr. Timothy Lomperis, Political Science Department Chair. “McCain left a diminished front-runner in place.”

Democratic candidate Al Gore received competition from Senator Bill Bradley, although Bradley won no primaries.

“All the candidates made mistakes,” Lomperis said. He explained that McCain made two major mistakes. First, he attacked the Christian right, a major factor in the

Republican party. Second, he made the campaign a moral issue, but he “wasn’t always a straight-talker.”

Although McCain was popular with many independents and some Democrats, Avery questioned this popularity. “Are they going to continue to vote for him in the fall?”

Several factors influenced Bradley’s loss, Lomperis added. “You have to say, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ It’s difficult to unseat an incumbent vice president who has ruled over a strong economy.”

One other factor that led to Bradley’s failure was his inability to connect with the people. “He came off as a frumpy, above-it-all, Adlai Stevenson while Gore remade himself,” Lomperis said.

The loss of the AFL/CIO endorsement was another major blow to the Bradley campaign according to Lomperis. “The Democratic Party is a party of groups and endorsements from those groups,”

Melinda Williams, a senior philosophy major, worked as a student coordinator for the Bradley campaign. She thought Bradley lost due to his opponent’s incumbency and his refusal to go negative. “Being the sitting vice president, gives you perks.”

With the campaign now down to the two major candidates along with any other third party candidates, the polls show a statistical dead heat between Gore and Bush as both candidates ply to receive the independent vote.

“Bush has a larger job ahead of him,” Lomperis said. He also expects that Bush can make more mistakes. “He’s going to have to come clean and layout all his dirt.”

Lomperis predicts the election will become a very dirty election as Bush attacks Gore on Clinton and fundraising with Gore retorting about Bush’s drug use and moral character.

In the recent primary, Rich Bergin voted for Al Gore because “it was an anti-George Bush thing more than anything else. There are no real strong candidates.”

“I’m looking for someone who can fairly represent me, someone who is honest and can handle pressure and someone with the same moral values as myself,” Avery said. For these reasons, Avery voted for George W. Bush in the primary.