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An early and vocal supporter of Ronald Reagan, Campbell has attempted to position himself as a nondoctrinaire conservative. Though he sides with the right against abortion and for school prayer, he has linked himself to issues like education and the environment. In a state whose per pupil expenditures rank near the bottom nationally, Campbell has helped increase state funding for schools. He has also provided money for public health programs to combat infant mortality.
Campbell has known Bush since the early 1970s. A man who can spin some of the funniest shaggy-dog stories ever heard around a cracker barrel, he has the shoes-up-on-the-coffee-table style that the President likes. More important for a campaigner, he's a relaxed and confident speaker in public.
He could still be vulnerable over lingering charges that he exploited anti- Semitic sentiments during his 1978 congressional campaign, in which the Democratic candidate was Jewish. Campbell angrily denies the charge, though there remain suspicions that his unofficial campaign adviser, the late Lee Atwater, may have done some underground Jew baiting on Campbell's behalf. A more immediate problem for Campbell is that he's an unknown to most voters. Then again, so was Dan Quayle in 1988.