CAMPBELL SAYS HE WILL BUCK STATUS QUO

SACRAMENTO -- Silicon Valley Rep. Tom Campbell on Tuesday tried to turn
doubts about his unconventional views into a winning campaign message,
arguing that voters are ready to embrace straight-talking candidates who
challenge the mainstream of political thought.

Speaking to a luncheon at the Sacramento Press Club, the Republican
candidate for U.S. Senate said he interpreted the ``remarkable McCain
phenomenon'' -- the presidential candidacy of Arizona Sen. John McCain -- as
evidence that voters are looking for something different this year.

``You can't look at McCain and come to the conclusion that voters are
comfortable and happy with the status quo,'' Campbell said.

While acknowledging he ``might be wrong'' on that account, Campbell is
banking on it in his challenge to Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has
been elected to her seat twice and leads Campbell consistently in statewide
polls.

Campbell did not break new ground in his remarks, but used the occasion to
emphasize what he called the ``unusual and a bit iconoclastic'' views he
espouses.

On foreign policy, he called for an end to embargoes on Cuba and Iraq and
the elimination of U.S. assistance to the International Monetary Fund. He
also reiterated his opposition to Chinese entry into the World Trade
Organization -- a position for which he noted he's received criticism from
Silicon Valley CEOs -- because he said it's impossible to know whether
Chinese industry is competing fairly or is subsidized by its government.

Campbell argued foreign aid decisions should be based on the economic need
of people, not the role their nations play in world politics or how strongly
they support the United States.

He argued against U.S. military support for a drug eradication program in
Colombia, which passed the House last week, saying the drug problem in the
United States is one of demand by users, not supply by foreign nations. ``If
you say that, somebody will accuse you of being soft on drugs, so let it
be,'' Campbell said.

Money spent in Colombia would be better directed toward treating addicts, he
said, repeating his call for local governments to be given the chance to
experiment with providing drugs to users to reduce black market demand and
wean them from their addiction.

On other domestic matters, Campbell reminded his audience that he supports
taxing sales on the Internet because he also supports a national 20 percent
sales tax as a substitute for personal income taxes, and exempting the
Internet would undermine that idea.

Campbell wants to end income taxes to protect the privacy of citizens,
saying people shouldn't have to give the government the sorts of information
about their incomes and lives that must be revealed through their tax
returns.

On the same note, he criticized the U.S. Census Bureau for ``inquiring into
matters that are not necessary for the government to know,'' but he
encouraged people to fill out the forms as long as the law requires them to
do so. It's up to Congress to rewrite the law to make the census less
intrusive, Campbell has said.