Rubber association officials guarded about tight election results

WASHINGTON (Nov. 8)—With Florida´s 25 electoral votes still hanging in the balance, spokespersons for rubber industry associations are giving guarded responses about the 2000 elections until they know whether Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore will be the next president of the United States. "We may not know until next week—it´s so close in many states," said Ross Kogel, executive vice president of the Tire Association of North America. "One thing we can say is that the margin of votes for either party is very narrow, so it will be very important for the industry to work with both sides of the aisle to accomplish any agenda items we have," added Ann Wilson, vice president of government affairs for the Rubber Manufacturers Association. "We could have some very interesting potentialities with a smaller GOP majority in the House, a deadlocked Senate, a Supreme Court split 5-4 and a president without a majority of the vote," said Roy E. Littlefield III, director of government affairs for the International Tire & Rubber Association.