Campaign Budget Is Tight

Talk about pinching pennies. Bob Dole has just $2 million left to get his presidential campaign through the next four months, his aides said Friday.

With 15 weeks to go before the Republican National Convention in August, where the Senate majority leader is certain to be nominated, that comes to $133,333 a week, or just under $20,000 a day.

In the expensive world of presidential campaigns, that’s not much. Dole will have to run a pretty tight ship, observers said. He can’t spend more than $2 million without exceeding a $37 million cap stipulated by federal matching fund rules for preconvention spending.

“It’s a marginal cushion, it’s not much,” said Herbert Alexander, a campaign finance expert and political science professor at the University of Southern California.

President Clinton, meanwhile, is rolling in the dough. The Clinton-Gore ‘96 Primary Committee has $21 million to spend between now and August.

After the conventions in August, Clinton and Dole each will be able to spend up to an additional $62 million on the general election campaign.

According to preliminary figures provided by Dole’s campaign, the Kansan pulled out the stops in March, spending $5.3 million, twice what he spent in February.