Dole Sends Donation Back To Gay Group But Letter Says His Campaign Earlier Sought Gop Group’s Help
Scrambling to enhance relations with conservatives, Sen. Bob Dole’s presidential campaign said Saturday that it was returning $1,000 from a gay Republican group.
The campaign said it had accepted the June donation by mistake, and would never have taken money from an organization that supports positions Dole opposes, like allowing homosexuals in the military.
But correspondence produced Saturday by the president of the group, the Log Cabin Republicans, showed that Dole’s national finance chairman had sought the group’s help in raising money as recently as May.
The returned donation is the latest sign that Dole is intensifying his yearlong drive to court conservative Republican groups in the aftermath of his humbling tie with Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas in an Iowa straw poll last weekend.
Nelson Warfield, Dole’s spokesman, said that the campaign had accepted the donation from the Log Cabin Republicans, a nationwide organization with more than 40 chapters, only because of “a financial screw up.”
“It’s our policy that we won’t accept contributions from groups that have a specific political agenda that’s fundamentally at odds with Senator Dole’s record and his views,” he said.
But Richard L. Tafel, the president of Log Cabin, said he had dealings with several senior Dole campaign officials who had solicited his organization. He also said he prominently wore a Log Cabin lapel button as he discussed AIDS budget allocations with Dole at one of the senator’s fund-raising events.
Tafel made available a letter he received from John A. Moran, the Dole finance director. “Per our discussion,” Moran wrote, “I am attaching a list of upcoming Dole for president fund-raising events. Senator Dole and I would appreciate any assistance you could give us in turning out your members at each event. I am looking forward to working with you.” The letter, dated May 24, closed, “With all good wishes. Cordially, John.”
Asked about the letter, and other conversations between Log Cabin and the campaign, Warfield said, “That communication was not authorized.” He said Moran had since been told by Scott Reed, the campaign manager, to “exercise more caution” in his fund-raising appeals.
And Warfield suggested that Log Cabin made the contribution for publicity, saying, “They’re struggling for credibility.”
Warfield said that the campaign had returned donations that violated campaign finance laws, but that the Log Cabin contribution was the first one returned for ideological reasons.
For months, Dole has sought to demonstrate that he is as conservative as Gramm and his other competitors for the nomination. But as Senate majority leader, Dole often has to cajole and compromise to get legislation passed, which makes it tough for him to take ideologically pure stands.
As Dole put it earlier this month in an interview, “I’m not one of those ‘in your face, it’s got to be my way or no way’ kind of conservatives.”
Last week, Gramm continued to make the most of his tie in the straw poll, which Dole, from neighboring Kansas, had been widely expected to win. He called Dole a “proud, effective moderate.” Patrick Buchanan, a commentator who is popular with conservatives, placed a respectable third in the poll.
Dole has also seen his frontrunner’s standing erode in some recent polls, including one released Saturday by Time Magazine and CNN that shows that among the Republican field of candidates, Dole has declined to 35 percent, a slip from 42 percent in July. But most of the lost support is going to the undecided column.
“Dole’s getting messages from the straw poll that he’s not right wing enough, then he gets word that he might be the first presidential candidate to accept money from a gay organization,” Tafel said in an interview from Cincinnati, where his group is holding its annual convention. “So they panicked and said, ‘We don’t know who they are and we’re going to give the check back.”’
He added, “The issue really is integrity. What will a person do to become president?”