President Bush Plans First Visit to California

After months of steering clear, President Bush has scheduled his first California visit, planning a town meeting in Los Angeles and a stop in San Diego for Memorial Day week.

Although the White House declined Wednesday to confirm the dates or the president’s itinerary, Republican strategists said Bush was prepared to discuss trade and education in Los Angeles and military affairs during his San Diego appearance.

The California visit will be the first since Bush took office Jan. 20. His absence has prompted many to suggest the president was writing off the state after losing California in a landslide to Democrat Al Gore in November.

But aides to the president deny any such thing. One White House official said Wednesday that Bush’s travels have been dictated almost entirely by efforts to push his budget and tax plans through Congress, which sent him to the home states of several wavering lawmakers.

Still, California Republicans were delighted at word of Bush’s intended visit. Several have been quietly urging the White House to pay more attention to the state and its energy crisis.

“I’m very glad to see him come,” said Ken Khachigian, a veteran GOP consultant, said after being told of the president’s plans. “I would have loved to have seen him earlier.”

“By coming out, it takes the sting out of whatever criticism there has been the previous 3 1/2 months,” Khachigian added. “Appearances are important, so if it appears that he’s ignoring California in favor of other states, that’s going to cause some discussion.”

Democrats, eager to fuel that talk, have repeatedly compared Bush’s largely hands-off approach to the energy mess with the close attention former President Bill Clinton paid to California’s problems. Clinton paid his first visit to the state about a month after taking office.

“If we had a President Gore, he probably would have established residence in California to solve the crisis,” said Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party.

“Unless the president is going to put caps on the wholesale price of energy, what’s the point of the visit?” Torres said. “That’s the immediate need we have here as we’re getting ready for the summer.”

Even staunch allies say the White House has been too politically passive in handling the energy crunch.

At a meeting Wednesday between Vice President Dick Cheney and House Republicans, Rep. John Doolittle of Rocklin suggested Bush and the vice president visit California to counter Democratic efforts to blame the GOP for the energy problem.

Doolittle said he told Cheney: “I keep hearing that the Bush administration hates California. . . . I know that’s not true, but I think it would be important for you and the president to come out to California soon to help dispel that.”

Since becoming president, Bush has visited 26 states, mostly to promote his education and tax cut plans. Starting today, he will hit the road to promote his comprehensive national energy plan, starting in Minnesota and Iowa. His California visit will mark the first time Bush has traveled west of Montana.

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Times staff writers James Gerstenzang and Greg Miller contributed to this story.