Corporations Flying High On Elizabeth Dole Forms Reveal 27 Trips For Candidate’s Wife

Some of Bob Dole’s longtime financial supporters paid for his wife, Elizabeth, to fly across the country for speeches and Red Cross duties last year as Dole was campaigning for the presidency.

Dole’s financial disclosure form, released Friday, disclosed that 27 trips by Mrs. Dole in 1995 were paid for by corporations, universities or others.

Political watchdog groups complain that such favors for political spouses are a way for corporations to cozy up to lawmakers. Election laws prohibit corporations from making outright donations to campaigns.

But Nelson Warfield, Dole’s press secretary, dismissed any suggestion of impropriety. “If everyone in this campaign was as vigilant as Mrs. Dole, there would be many fewer stories about scandal,” he said.

Most of the 1995 trips were related to Mrs. Dole’s Red Cross post, from which she began a one-year, unpaid leave last November to devote her time to helping her husband campaign.

Several trips were to give speeches. Mrs. Dole reported four speeches for which she received $20,000 apiece. Her attorney, Robert Davis, said Mrs. Dole contributed 52 percent of that money to the Red Cross.

As Dole was campaigning for the Republican nomination, American Financial Corp. flew his wife to Manchester, N.H. - site of this year’s first presidential primary - to give a speech last October.

Mrs. Dole also listed two trips for speeches in New Hampshire earlier in 1995, paid for by New Hampshire College and the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce.

The Iowa Hospital Association flew her to that state, which holds a key early presidential caucus, for a speech in April 1995.

MCI flew Mrs. Dole to Oklahoma City to inspect damage after the bombing of the federal building there. Federal Express flew her to tour flood damage in New Orleans and on to Tulsa, Okla., for a Red Cross convention.