A Bush and a Dole, Once Again

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —  For more than a generation, members of the two families have vied for prominence in Republican politics, with either a Dole or a Bush serving on every GOP presidential ticket since 1976.

On Wednesday, the family interests dovetailed as President Bush traveled to North Carolina to help raise money for the Senate candidacy of Elizabeth Hanford Dole, his erstwhile rival for the 2000 presidential nomination and wife of 1996 GOP nominee Bob Dole.

“Elizabeth is going to make a great United States senator,” Bush said at a luncheon fund-raiser.

Bush broke with tradition in backing Dole. Several other Republicans are vying for the GOP nomination to succeed Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, who is retiring, and presidents rarely wade into intraparty contests for open seats.

Bush’s decision to do so was a measure of the importance of the November elections, when Republicans hope to overturn the one-seat Democratic advantage in the Senate (as well as retain their narrow House majority).

Dole’s GOP opponents are little-known and she is heavily favored to win the May 7 primary. “The Republican elite [in North Carolina] has very much galvanized behind Dole,” including Helms, said Andrew J. Taylor, a North Carolina State University political scientist.

Bush, with his appearance Wednesday, was doing his part to spotlight the general election campaign, when analysts anticipate that Dole will face a formidable opponent in Erskine Bowles, a former top aide to President Clinton who is expected to win the Democratic nomination.

Polls have given Dole substantial leads over Bowles. “Those numbers suggest she’s doing pretty well,” said Taylor. “But people really aren’t focused on the race at the moment.”

Nor is Dole without some political troubles. In her early campaigning, she has been struggling between wooing the state’s die-hard Republican conservatives, whose backing is indispensable in the primary, and its more moderate general electorate, whose vote she needs to prevail in November.

She also has some baggage that she must shed. For instance, she attended a fund-raiser in Houston just nine days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when nearly all politicians--including Dole herself--had declared a moratorium on politicking. She later explained that she didn’t know it was a fund-raiser (which netted her $20,000). To make matters worse, the luncheon’s host was Kenneth L. Lay, the now discredited former chairman of Enron Corp.

And Dole faces criticism of being something of a carpetbagger. Although born and raised in North Carolina, she spent nearly her entire career in Washington, including a stint as Labor secretary in the administration of Bush’s father.

At Wednesday’s event, Dole introduced the current president, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek both before and after his remarks.

Bush lavished praise on the candidate, telling his audience, “I can’t wait to work with Elizabeth Dole. It’s important for this state to send her to Washington, D.C.”

He added: “She’s been a long-time friend. I trust her judgment. I know the integrity she’ll bring to the office. . . . She’s always loved North Carolina and she’s going to represent you with class and dignity in the United States Senate.”

As has been the case at other GOP fund-raisers he’s attended recently, Bush avoided any overt criticism of Democrats and stressed his commitment to pursuing the war on terrorism.

But he touched upon questions that have been raised about how vigorously he should work to defeat Democrats who have stood squarely behind him in the war effort. And in his answer, he defined the stakes in this year’s vote.

“Somebody said to me the other day, . . . ‘Do you think it’s all right for the president to go campaign?’ Yes, I do. I think it will be a lot easier for me to accomplish what I want to accomplish with [J. Dennis] Hastert (of Illinois) as speaker of the House of Representatives and Trent Lott (of Mississippi) as majority leader of the United States Senate.”

The luncheon Bush attended was expected to raise more than $1 million for Dole, Rep. Robert “Robin” Hayes (R-N.C.) and the state Republican Party, with the lion’s share going to Dole.

Bush’s support for Dole annoyed two of the other Republicans seeking the GOP’s Senate nomination, Jim Snyder and Jim Parker.

Snyder, an attorney, wrote the president a letter that said he was “backing a candidate who was soft on gun control and abortion.”

Parker, a physician, said it was “unfair” of Bush to use his “well-deserved popularity to coerce the people. . .to support a candidate who lacks the core conservative values they seek.”

Charlie Black, a Washington-based Republican strategist, said such comments are unlikely to hurt Dole, who not only enjoys widespread name recognition in the state but has about $2.5 million in her campaign war chest--before today’s fund-raiser and Bush’s enthusiastic endorsement.

“There are no guarantees in politics, but it sure looks like she going to win at this stage of the game,” Black said.

In the race for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination, Dole at one time was considered Bush’s major challenger. But her campaign failed to generate much support, and she dropped out in late 1999.

Her husband, then a senator from Kansas, gained national prominence when he was selected as President Ford’s running mate in the 1976 campaign. The GOP ticket lost to Jimmy Carter.

Both Bob Dole and the elder George Bush sought their party’s presidential nomination in 1980, with Bush ultimately becoming Ronald Reagan’s running mate.

In 1988, Bob Dole and the elder Bush waged a bitter fight to succeed Reagan.