Dole says her husband grabs fund-raiser role

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff, June 9, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Dole, continuing to run a distant second in the polls to Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush, said yesterday she has turned the corner in fund-raising with help from the most reluctant source she knows: her husband, Bob Dole.

Elizabeth Dole, who heads today to Boston and New Hampshire, said in an interview that her husband "never raised money for himself. He hates to ask people for money. And he didn't do it in his own campaign. But you know what he's doing? He's on the phone raising money for me. He's going to do four fund-raisers in June."

The emergence of Bob Dole as a financial focal point in Elizabeth Dole's campaign, while long anticipated by some, underscores the urgency felt by many candidates to have strong financial reports to file at the end of this month.

With a number of campaigns suffering from a monetary drought, Dole could strengthen her position significantly if she proves she has the financial muscle to fight Bush through the fall and winter. She told reporters and editors at The Boston Globe's Washington bureau that she has raised $500,000 in the past week. Now her campaign hopes that Bob Dole, who last month said it would be difficult for her to be a candidate if she couldn't raise enough money, will help erase any lingering doubt about his wife's staying power.

Also yesterday, Dole hired a new chief strategist, Tony Fabrizio, who was the pollster in her husband's 1996 campaign. Asked if she is positioning herself as the moderate in the GOP field, she responded, "I'm not the strategist." Instead, she called herself a "mainstream conservative" and a "change agent" who prides herself on taking "cutting edge" stances and looks for "the tough issues."

Dole, who started collecting money later than most candidates, raised $685,253 in the first quarter of this year. Bush, by contrast, collected $7.6 million in the first quarter.

"I'm suspending judgment until I see the figures for this quarter," political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said. "She better have raised $3" million "to $4 million."

By all accounts, Bush's fund-raising success is draining much of the financial oxygen out of the Republican race, making it difficult for most other GOP candidates to raise money. For example, Lamar Alexander recently laid off some aides because of financial problems, and two top fund-raisers for former Vice President Dan Quayle recently left his staff. An exception to the trend is publisher Steve Forbes, who is using his personal fortune and already is running television advertisements.

Throughout yesterday's interview, Dole emphasized that she believes she is gaining support from people outside the political establishment, especially from younger people. Enthusiastically recalling the crowds attending her events in college towns, she said, "It's not a strategy. It's what's coming to me."

In recent weeks, Dole has been on something of a political roller-coaster ride, bouncing from 24 percent in the polls in April to 14 percent in a Gallup survey conducted last weekend, far behind Bush's 46 percent support in the same poll.

Dole, known for years as a strong abortion foe, surprised some of her longtime associates by declaring that abortion should be a non-issue in the campaign. Then Dole told a New Hampshire audience she favors some gun-control measures, including safety locks on handguns, an announcement that garnered much publicity and seemed prescient in light of the Senate's subsequent approval of the proposal.

Dole signaled that one of the issues she will tackle is the environment. She said the most important legacy to be left to today's children is clean air and clean water. "Those who cause the pollution should pay for the pollution," she said.

Dole heads today to Massachusetts, where she once taught at Melrose High School and was a student at Harvard Law School. "Boston was a second home to me," she said. "I left part of my heart there."

Dole recalled that when she was one of about two dozen women at Harvard in 1962, she encountered a male student who questioned why she was there. "What are you doing?" Dole recalled his saying. "Don't you realize that there are men who could use a legal education?" Dole said this man is now a Washington lawyer who is petrified she will reveal his name.

Now, as the only woman in the presidential race, Dole said she doesn't feel at a disadvantage. To the contrary, she said, the country is ready for a woman president. "We are behind" other nations, she said, citing Britain's Margaret Thatcher and Israel's Golda Meir as women who have led a country's government.

After Dole speaks today at Harvard Business School, a speech that is closed to the press, she plans to go to Portsmouth, N.H. In a twist, Dole points to her husband's defeat in the state's primary in 1996 as evidence that she can beat Bush. At this time four years ago, the Dole campaign notes, Bob Dole was beating Patrick Buchanan by 51 percent to 10 percent but still lost the primary.

"Bush really hasn't gotten out of Texas," Dole said, suggesting that the front-runner will lose momentum as he heads to the campaign trail for the first time this weekend in Iowa and next week in New Hampshire. Asked when she will start heading up in the polls, she said: "Wait until next week!"