Moderate New Jersey Governor Supporting Dole But Whitman Still Rejecting Notion Of Being Running Mate

To the surprise of hardly anyone, Gov. Christie Whitman has decided to join Sen. Bob Dole’s campaign for president.

Whitman’s popularity and reputation as a tax-cutter and government-streamliner has caused several Republicans in the race to seek her support, but her backing of Dole, the Senate majority leader, was long expected.

She will endorse Dole at a new distribution warehouse in Edison on Monday. And she will assume an active role in the Dole campaign organization, said Carl Golden, Whitman’s chief of communications.

“She feels that now is the appropriate time, that Dole is the best possible candidate that the party could nominate,” Golden told a group of reporters.

Republican leaders here and in Washington regard Whitman’s support, and her pledge to campaign actively, as a coup for Dole, who already is the front-runner. Whitman is the only female Republican governor in a political landscape in which women are far less likely than men to vote Republican.

Republican leaders are also hoping that her moderate views will influence other middle-of-the-roaders - Republicans and Democrats alike - who have watched a deeply conservative Republican field force Dole’s campaign to the right.

There had been speculation about Whitman’s prospects as a vice-presidential candidate, but she has steadfastly denied any ambitions in that direction, and has on several recent occasions spoken of her plans to run for a second term, in 1997.

Whitman supports abortion rights without any of the policy hedging that many other Republicans have adopted. And her support of affirmative action, gay rights and environmental protection measures is similarly at odds with the dominant Republican message in Congress.

More than half of the nation’s Republican governors have already endorsed Dole.