Thread: Dole stumps, takes lumps

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/431913.html


Published: Apr 23, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Apr 23, 2006 05:44 AM

Dole stumps, takes lumps
GOP senatorial leader boosts vulnerable colleagues

Barbara Barrett, Washington Correspondent

BILLINGS, MONT. - The wind chased clouds of brown dust across the endless Montana landscape, a view so different from the rolling green of North Carolina's Piedmont.

Volunteers tacked up fluttering banners for a campaign rally, and aides to Montana's junior senator prepped for the big event -- a visit by GOP superstar Elizabeth Dole, senator from North Carolina.

Hours later, she would stand next to Sen. Conrad Burns, a man under attack for his ties to a lobbying scandal, and call him a man of integrity.

"There's nowhere I'd rather be today," she said into the microphone, a "Conrad Burns" button pinned above her heart. She smiled at her host. "He's doing such a great job."

What with an unpopular war, an ethics scandal in Congress and low approval ratings for the White House, these are tough times for GOP Senate candidates. Burns, with close ties to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is among the vulnerable.

And that means tough times for Dole, who is trying to get Burns and all the other Republicans elected come November.

Since the 2004 election, she has been chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a national platform she won by convincing GOP colleagues she could keep the Senate in Republican control. She is responsible for recruiting candidates and raising tens of millions of dollars to pass around in the 33 races across the country this year.

But for months now, Dole has been criticized for her performance. She failed to persuade top GOP choices to enter races in several key states. And reports filed last week show her committee remains behind its Democratic counterpart in raising money. Dole defends her record, saying that she's been successful at finding dollars and that the party has outstanding candidates.

"We're doing well in an environment that's. ... " She paused. "You know, it's been a tough environment."

Despite the demands of the post, Dole insists she is taking care of North Carolina's business.

"I'm doing everything possible to make sure I'm in the state as much as possible," Dole said. She was in Winston-Salem on Thursday for the opening of a nonprofit senior center.

In Washington, Republicans desperately want to hold onto the Senate, where they have a five-seat majority. Democrats want control just as badly, and many observers think the minority party will at least gain a few seats.

Control matters. The party in power elects the majority leader, appoints committee chairmen and decides which bills and judicial nominees move forward -- and which languish without action.

Beyond her control

Dole could be blamed for any losses, and that is unfair, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"The committee and Senator Dole cannot control Iraq, gas prices and the response to Katrina," Sabato said. "She has become chair in a very difficult year for Republicans."

Recruiting problems began to surface last year. Dole failed to persuade top choices to enter races in North Dakota and West Virginia. And she couldn't keep a GOP challenger out of the primary race in Rhode Island, hurting incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee.

In Florida, she couldn't find any Republicans beyond U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris -- she of the hanging chads in the 2000 presidential election -- to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Dole shunned Harris and tried repeatedly to find someone else to run.

"There's an example of a recruiting failure," Sabato said. "She [Harris] is going to lose, badly."

But he and others said Dole did find good candidates in the blue states of Maryland, Washington and Michigan.

Republican pollster and strategist David E. Johnson agreed that Dole has faced obstacles.

"The other thing recently hurting her has been raising funds," said Johnson, chief executive officer of Strategic Vision of Atlanta. "You could say that's been her one big drawback, and it's carried over into her Senate career."

Dole received the senatorial committee post days after Bush won re-election in November 2004. In a secret ballot among GOP senators, she defeated Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota by a single vote. At the time, Coleman argued that he could raise more cash.

But Dole, whose husband, Bob, was a senator from Kansas and a two-time presidential candidate, had plenty of experience and a vast Rolodex.

"People know her," said Mark Stephens, Dole's former campaign manager and a consultant from Raleigh, who now is the NRSC's executive director. "When her name's on the outside of the envelope, it gets opened. When her voice is on the other end of the phone, they take the call."

Fundraising seesaws

As chairwoman, she started a women's fundraising network, raised the committee's number of small-dollar donors through a direct-mail program and increased the committee's fundraising over the last election cycle. The committee has 33 percent more cash on hand now than it did at the same time two years ago, said Brian Nick, the committee spokesman.

Still, reports released last week show more money across the aisle. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says it raised $6.9 million in March and has $32.1 million on hand.

The GOP committee raised $5 million in March; it has $16.5 million in the bank, Nick said.

Dole tries to shake off the party's bad news on the war and approval ratings.

"I've said, 'Put the blinders on. Stay focused,' " she said, holding both hands by her eyes. "We know what our goal is."

She has visited more than half a dozen states, focusing on the tight races, and she will travel more as November nears.

Her job officially puts her in the Senate GOP's inner circle, which meets at least once a week and routinely with staff at the White House. That gives her the chance, she said, to push state issues and strengthen Senate relationships.

Just recently, Dole pushed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to schedule a long-stalled vote on a judicial nominee from North Carolina, Terrence Boyle. Frist is now considering a vote in May.

Bill Peaslee, chief of staff for the N.C. Republican Party, sees Dole earning political chits through her national role. And if she keeps the Senate in Republican hands, he said, she's helping North Carolinians.

"Elizabeth Dole doesn't have to be in North Carolina to be serving North Carolina's interests," Peaslee said.

If the job gives her access and influence, it also puts her in the position of standing up for characters whom other politicians might not want to be associated with.

Burns' liabilities

Burns, her Montana host, took more money from fallen lobbyist Abramoff and his associates than any other member of Congress, according to reports. Burns, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for the Interior, recently returned the money. But he is under scrutiny from federal investigators.

Last week Time magazine named Burns one of the nation's five worst senators, calling him not only questionable ethically but ineffective as well.

Newsweek just ran a feature on the three-term senator's ties to Abramoff. The former lobbyist has pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including conspiracy to bribe public officials, and he is cooperating with investigators.

Abramoff told Vanity Fair magazine in its April issue that he "got every appropriation we wanted" from the subcommittee Burns heads. Burns insists that Abramoff has "lied to anybody and everybody."

Despite the publicity, Dole flew on a corporate jet earlier this month to Billings, Montana's largest city with a population of 100,000. The sprawling city of gridded streets is 90 miles northeast of Yellowstone National Park, tucked in a valley carved out by the Yellowstone River and bordered by a towering stone bluff called the Rimrocks.

She was there 24 hours working for Burns, whom she calls an "old friend." She spoke at a $250-a-plate buffet luncheon before more than 100 guests, her smile a near-constant, her Piedmont drawl mixing with the western twang of those in the audience.

She toured a pair of health clinics. She did live interviews on television and spent an hour on a radio show usually devoted to agricultural news. At the campaign rally, she ignored the dozen protesters outside.

If she knew that a statewide poll by SurveyUSA put Burns' approval rating at 38 percent, she didn't mention it. Instead, she talked about how the Democrats are pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into Montana because of the inexpensive advertising there.

"It is just so offensive," Dole said repeatedly. "It is wrong."

"It goes with the job, and she knows that," said Johnson, the GOP pollster. "She's got to figure out a strategy to elect Conrad Burns, and she's doing what she has to do."

Burns sure appreciated it.

"Oh, I love her," he gushed between handshakes. "She's a superstar. We're a team, and we're all concerned about the November election."
Washington correspondent Barbara Barrett can be reached at (202) 383-0012 or bbarrett@mcclatchydc.com.

I'm sending her and Burr both a new Fax today so when they get to Washington tomorrow it will be waiting on them.We the people are watching: NO Amnesty, Build the fence, Enforce the laws, Charge the employers of illegal invaders.

Well, my faxes to Dole and Burr have been sent to their DC offices.

Good Job COI, I'll have to send a few more of my own. I sent some yesterday, but Heck, I'll be sending them everyday.