Dole to announce step toward 2000 run, aides say

By Michael Kranish, and Mary Leonard, Globe Staff, March 5, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Dole, ending weeks of uncertainty that had concerned many supporters, will announce Wednesday in Iowa that she is forming a presidential campaign exploratory committee, her aides said yesterday.

The announcement will be followed by television commercials in Iowa, which holds the first caucus, and New Hampshire, which holds the first primary, in which the former head of the American Red Cross will lay out the rationale for her possible candidacy.

"She feels tremendously confident about the support she has seen out there," said Dole spokeswoman Joyce Campbell.

It had been expected since Elizabeth Dole appeared before the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce in New Hampshire last month that she would form an exploratory committee. But doubts about her bid began to surface a week ago in political circles. New Hampshire supporters became particularly concerned that she was losing an opportunity to raise money as Texas Governor George W. Bush prepares to file papers Monday for an exploratory committee.

Dole also finalized plans for two key hires. Tom Daffron, a former top aide to Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee and a former senior vice president of the Baltimore Orioles, will be her campaign manager. Ari Fleischer, spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee, will be the communications director.

Stuart Stevens, a political consultant who worked for the 1996 presidential campaign of Dole's husband, Bob, said Elizabeth Dole would be "a terrific candidate."

"There is this sort of silly and snobbish intelligentsia that criticizes her for aspects of her personality," Stevens said. "They say she is scripted, she likes to be prepared, that she doesn't like to go into situations unless she understands all the elements. These are not bad things for someone running for president."