Dole pushes fund-raising, and garners endorsement

Associated Press, April 28, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Dole picked up $500,000 and the endorsement of former UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick at a fund-raiser yesterday.

The total was modest compared to the efforts of George W. Bush, who has taken in nearly $300,000 a day in the first 28 days of his campaign, not bothering with expensive, time-consuming fund-raising events.

"She's starting slow," said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas. "If she's not able to raise sizable chunks of money to come within one-half or one-third of what George W. Bush has raised, people might start raising questions about her viability."

The questions are being raised, even among Dole supporters. The former American Red Cross president plans to answer them with more than a dozen fund-raisers in the next two months.

"You have to put it in context," Dole said in an interview before the fund-raiser, which also featured her husband, and the 1996 GOP nominee, Bob Dole. "I worked on a nonpartisan job at the Red Cross and wasn't allowed to fund-raise. When you're in a position to have a turnkey operation, a campaign in waiting, you have an advantage."

She was alluding to Bush, who raised $7.6 million in the first quarter of 1999 from his Texas network and allies of his father, former President Bush.

Dole's weak first-quarter showing contrasted with Dole's strength in public opinion polls, most of which put her comfortably in second place behind Bush.

Kirkpatrick adds weight to Mrs. Dole's foreign policy portfolio and comes with a political bonus: Like Dole, Kirkpatrick is a former member of President Reagan's Cabinet.