Hart to Take On ‘Womanizing’ Issue in Speech

WASHINGTON —  Gary Hart, whose campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination was thrown into crisis by a newspaper report that he spent the night in his Washington town house with a young Miami actress, plans to address the so-called “womanizing” issue directly today in a New York speech before the nation’s newspaper publishers.

An air of emergency gripped Hart’s campaign Monday as the Democratic front-runner held a hurried strategy session with aides, postponed a Monday night meeting with financial supporters in New Jersey and went into seclusion to work on what could be the most important speech of his political career.

Campaign officials continued to deny vehemently that Hart has had any personal involvement with the woman, identified as Donna Rice, an attractive actress and model Hart had known for two months. Rice--interviewed by reporters in Miami--also described their contact over the weekend as “all very innocent.”

Moreover, the Miami Herald, which asserted Sunday that Hart spent Friday night and much of Saturday in his Washington town house with Rice, acknowledged on Monday that Rice could have left the house unobserved between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Saturday, or between midnight and 5 a.m. if she had exited through a rear door.

Nonetheless, questions about Hart’s personal life, including his sometimes-troubled marriage, have been a recurrent problem for the former Colorado senator.

Critical Impact Seen

And, despite widespread criticism of the newspaper’s tactics in staking out the Hart town house, there was nearly universal agreement Monday among political supporters and opponents alike that the incident--and the way Hart handles it--is likely to have a critical impact on his quest for the presidency.

“How Hart responds to it is crucial,” said Geoffrey Garin, president of Garin-Hart Strategic Research, a Democratic consulting firm that is not active in the 1988 presidential race. “People will be looking to see how comfortable he feels with himself as he goes through this--whether there’s a sense of candor and openness, how much grace he shows under pressure.”

“His reaction is a lot more important than the story itself because people won’t know what to make of the story, whether it’s true or not and whether it’s in good taste,” said Garin, whose firm has no connection with the former Colorado senator.

Even longtime Hart friends said privately the report has dealt him a major blow. “He’s got to prove it’s false or he’s in great difficulty,” said a supporter who worked with him in George S. McGovern’s 1972 campaign and has been an informal adviser for his 1988 campaign.

Rice Gives Denial

Rice on Monday denied that she spent Friday night with Hart.

“I don’t know if he was attracted to me, but there was nothing between us,” the 29-year-old South Carolina native said in an interview. “I’m more attracted to younger men.” Hart is 50.

Rice, who had bit parts in “Dallas” and “Miami Vice,” told a group of reporters in Miami that “it was all very innocent. We had nothing to hide.”

“We were all just pals. If there had been something fishy, we would have been sneaking around,” she said. “That’s why I’m so surprised about this whole thing. It’s totally bizarre.”

Asked specifically if she had had sexual relations with Hart, Rice said: “No,” the Associated Press reported.

Earlier Monday, former Sen. McGovern, whose successful campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination was directed by Hart, told reporters that Hart needs to address the “womanizing issue head-on and make a very strong statement.”

Democrats working for other candidates refused to be quoted by name Monday, but several said they thought the blow to Hart’s campaign might be fatal. The Herald’s report raises anew the character issue that has dogged Hart since his unsuccessful race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, they said.

‘He’s Had It’

“He’s had it,” said a political consultant for a Democratic rival. The pollster for a Democratic rival said that the report, if true, could be “devastating.”

Recent polls show Hart far in front of Democratic rivals and a winner if the 1988 election were held today against either Vice President George Bush or Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole as the GOP nominee.

Hart’s lead may evaporate quickly, however, unless he puts on a convincing performance before the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. today and in subsequent public appearances when he will be called upon to address the character issue.

Hart will confront the issue “head-on” in an address today to the ANPA convention, according to Ron Elving, head of Hart’s Washington campaign office. The long-scheduled appearance was to have been devoted to economic policy, but Elving said: “We realize this report has got a lot of attention and he has to address it.”

The Democratic candidate has insisted Rice was with him at the town house for only a few minutes.

No Word From Wife

Although Hart has remained in seclusion in Washington, unavailable for comment, and there has been no word from his wife, Lee, in Denver, Hart campaign aides in both cities sought to shift the emphasis of the issue to the Miami Herald’s tactics and ethics. They suggested Hart had been the victim of a “setup.”

Elving, head of the Washington office, said: “The Miami Herald went out for a story and didn’t get it, but wrote it anyway. The Miami Herald has a lot (to) explain, reporting a story they didn’t have.”

The New York Post ran two photos of Donna Rice on Monday, one showing her in a scanty bathing suit, and a story under a headline that read: “Top Presidential Candidate’s Weekend With Blond.” Noting how quickly the photos were made available to the Post, Elving said: “It’s pretty clear somebody was out to do a number. Who it was and how far it goes, we don’t know.”

At Hart’s campaign headquarters in Denver, national political director Paul Tully called the Herald story “outrageous and inaccurate,” saying “the way the work was done on it guaranteed that it would be inaccurate.”

Report Called ‘Preposterous’

And in Washington, William Dixon, Hart’s campaign manager, called the Herald report “preposterous and inaccurate.” He accused the newspaper of obtaining the story by “hiding in bushes, peaking in windows and personal harassment.” The newspaper had engaged in “character assassination,” he suggested.

The Miami Herald, besieged by questions from other news organizations about its story and the methods used to obtain it, has staunchly defended its story, which was based on observations by a team of reporters who staked out the town house for much of the weekend after the newspaper received a tip that the Democratic candidate would be meeting with a Miami woman.

While acknowledging that Rice could have left the town house by a rear entrance that reporters did not have under surveillance between midnight and 5 a.m. Saturday, the newspaper noted that its reporters also saw Hart and the woman emerge from the house shortly after dark Saturday evening.

Paper Releases Statement

The newspaper released a three-paragraph statement defending the reporting but refused to comment further. The statement, signed by executive editor Heath Meriwether, said:

“Mr. Hart has not denied that he met this woman in southern Florida several weeks ago and that he made several long distance phone calls to her since that time. Acting on a tip, and because the ‘womanizing’ issue has been raised in Hart’s campaign, a Herald reporter flew to Washington on the same plane with a young woman who was later observed with Hart entering and leaving his town house. We reported those observations this morning . . . responsibly and accurately, along with Mr. Hart’s comments.

“As you know, Mr. Hart has suggested the press follow him to disprove the allegations on womanizing. We observed Hart’s town house, for more than 24 hours, from a respectful distance, and we conducted ourselves in a professional manner throughout. We never engaged in the tactics suggested by Mr. Dixon.

“The womanizing issue has become a major one in Hart’s campaign because it raises questions concerning the candidate’s judgment and integrity. That’s why we reported on this story.”

Rice, a former Miss South Carolina USA, said Monday that she was interested in working on Hart’s campaign and she had traveled to Washington because a friend was going to a job interview with William Broadhurst, a friend of Hart’s.

She said she spent Friday night at Broadhurst’s house, after having dinner with Hart, Broadhurst and Lynn Armandt at the Broadhurst residence.

Rice explained that reporters for the Herald spotted her when she returned to Hart’s town house at 11 p.m. to get a book. She said she left Hart’s house after a a brief stay and then returned to Broadhurst’s home.

She apologized to Hart’s wife and her own family for any trouble the visit to Washington might have caused.

Rice, who works as a saleswoman for Connecticut-based Wyeth Laboratories, said she first met Hart at a New Year’s Eve party in Aspen, Colo., when she was acting as hostess at the home of rock star Don Henley. Hart was one of the party’s guests.

In March, Hart showed up at a party aboard a yacht at Turnberry Isle, near Miami, and Rice said she introduced herself to the candidate, reminding him of their initial meeting in Colorado.

Invited Her on Boat Trip

A few days later, Rice said, Hart invited her on a day trip by boat to Bimini, an island off the coast of Florida, with Hart, Broadhurst, and Armandt.

“There was a boat trip over to Bimini,” Rice lawyer Thomas McAliley said later. “Mr. Broadhurst had a boat over there, that being among the reasons that they went over there.” Rice said the two women slept on one boat and Broadhurst and Hart slept on his boat docked in Bimini.

When asked to describe the relationship between Hart and Rice, McAliley said: “It’s nothing that you’ll lay awake at night worrying about.” He called it “extraordinarily casual.”

Also contributing to this story were staff writers Robert Gillette, Robert Shogan and Karen Tumulty.