Campaign Trail

Dole fund-raiser illegal

LAS VEGAS

Last summer Bob Dole traveled to this neon oasis for one of the most successful fund-raising ventures of the presidential primary season.

Over lunch at a golf course owned by Mirage Resorts, Dole chatted with executives eager to punish President Clinton for briefly considering a tax on casinos. The senator from Kansas jetted away before nightfall, his campaign enriched by $477,000.

But an investigation by The Kansas City Star found some of those contributions appear to be illegal. If true, it would mark the second set of violations involving donations to Dole’s campaign in less than six months.

Workers at one of Nevada’s largest liquor wholesalers said the company supplied thousands of dollars to its managers, then asked them to make individual contributions to Dole.

“They gave us the money,” one contributor said.

Records confirm that on a single day last year, Dole’s camp collected at least $10,000 from executives and their wives at DeLuca Liquor & Wine Ltd.

Ray Norvell, vice president in charge of DeLuca’s Nevada operations, acknowledged that he knew federal law prohibited corporate contributions, so he boosted his workers’ pay to help them donate. “We are prepaying it, basically, in front,” Norvell said.

Liberal? What liberal?

FALL RIVER, Mass.

Branded as a liberal by Dole, President Clinton is turning to the offensive to prevent the label from sticking, if not to prove that it’s false.

He announced on Saturday a new plan to force more “deadbeat dads” to pay child support even as he defended in stump speeches his conservative credentials in fighting crime and drugs and pushing for a balanced budget.

Clinton is trying to document that he’s a conservative, but not too conservative. And it’s a delicate balancing act.

For instance, the president trumpeted the budget agreement with the Republican Congress on Saturday to show that he can work with the GOP, but also sought to demonstrate that he can soften provisions he considers extreme.