Where Bush Is Banking on Votes

It's "California or Bust" for Gov. George W. Bush; the presidential candidate has promised to campaign "vigorously" there through November 2000. And he's made good on that vow so far, with an investment of more than $157,000 in California -- more than eight-and-a-half times what he has spent in Iowa, and 10 times what he has spent in New Hampshire. The Campaign Study Group, a Virginia-based bipartisan consulting firm, is currently analyzing Bush's California expenditures.

Judging from his allocations in other states, Bush also appears to be betting heavily on votes in Connecticut, where a recent poll of 502 voters gave him a 54% edge; Pennsylvania, the site of the GOP's national convention in 2000; in Florida, home of brother Jeb; Washington, D.C., where he hopes to make his future residence, and, of course, his home base of Texas, where he's spent over $86,000. Bush's penny-pinching in the other Southern states could indicate his belief that he'll win those states with little effort. -- R.B.