Corridor Whispering Has Dole Eyeing Kempthorne For Ticket Rumors Fly In Face Of Political Reality, But Candidate Seems To Like Ex-Mayor

The latest rumor swirling around Idaho’s congressional delegation has Sen. Dirk Kempthorne as a possible running mate for GOP presidential hopeful Bob Dole.

The blue-eyed, photogenic Republican from Boise wouldn’t bring much political capital to the ticket, and political observers say it’s unlikely that Dole even is thinking about a vice presidential pick this early.

But that hasn’t stopped the talk.

“It’s flattering to even have people speculating,” Kempthorne said Monday. But he said he has “no expectations that I would ever get that sort of a phone call.”

“It’s just rumors,” said Kempthorne’s press secretary, Mark Snider. “I don’t think they’re very well founded, either.”

Snider said his office has been getting calls from reporters about the rumor since Dole gave Kempthorne the rather unusual honor of designating the freshman senator’s prize piece of legislation, the unfunded federal mandates bill, as Senate Bill No. 1.

It was the first bill the Senate considered this session, and it quickly passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton. The bill orders the federal government to stop requiring local governments to start up costly programs without also providing funding.

Kempthorne, 43, has been railing against unfunded mandates since his days as mayor of Boise. Dole let his young colleague step into the limelight with the bill, at one point saying that he thinks every mayor in America should give Kempthorne the keys to his or her city.

“Sen. Dole has spoken very highly of Dirk,” Snider said. “They’ve worked very closely together on a number of things.”

The rumor got another boost last week when Dole and Kempthorne scheduled a joint press conference, then abruptly canceled it. Snider said the event was supposed to be Kempthorne’s formal endorsement of Dole’s candidacy. “It got postponed because we were in the middle of 35 roll-call votes that day,” he said.

Kempthorne ended up announcing his support for Dole when he introduced the Senate majority leader at a meeting of the National Association of Homebuilders Monday morning.

“I think his Kansas values are very similar to Idaho values,” Kempthorne said. “It’s a man that I have a great deal of respect for, and believe would be a tremendous leader for the country.”

Dole’s campaign office didn’t return a reporter’s call Monday.

Gary Moncrief, a professor of political science at Boise State University, said Kempthorne’s pluses as a vice presidential pick include his youth, which would balance Dole’s age (71); and his appeal to Western voters. Kempthorne’s minuses are his lack of national visibility and, most of all, Idaho’s lack of electoral votes.

A vice presidential nominee often is chosen with the strategy of pulling in a large state’s batch of electoral votes, Moncrief said. A recent example is Democrat Mike Dukakis’ choice of Texan Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.

Peter Fenn, a Democratic media consultant in Washington, D.C., said, “You’d want to put somebody on the ticket that you knew was giving you built-in support. Kempthorne wouldn’t be that kind of choice.”

But such traditional thinking sometimes has been tossed out the window in recent years. George Bush picked Dan Quayle because he wanted to. Bill Clinton picked fellow Southerner Al Gore because the two worked well together.

Fenn, who hadn’t heard the Kempthorne rumor before a reporter called, said there’s no telling where such things start.

“It didn’t come from this office,” Snider said.

Said Fenn: “Washington is the greatest rumor town in America.”

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