Dole’s State Spared In Base Closures

The Clinton administration’s draft base closure list spares Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole’s home-state Army base while making less dramatic cuts than expected a year ago, military officials said Friday.

Defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Fort Riley, Kan., was spared from the closure list that Defense Secretary William Perry is expected to make public next Tuesday.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the Maine-New Hampshire border also is absent from the administration list. New Hampshire is site of the first presidential primary.

In another apparent bow to politics, California, a state vital to President Clinton’s re-election chances, receives a smaller blow than the last round two years ago.