Elizabeth Dole to take step toward seeking presidency

The Washington Post

Elizabeth Hanford Dole will announce next Wednesday she is forming an exploratory committee as a step toward seeking the Republican presidential nomination, aides said Thursday.

The former Cabinet secretary and wife of 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole will declare her intentions in Des Moines, Iowa. The first delegate selection caucuses will be held in that state 11 months from now. Although she is a latecomer to the race, her early poll standings stamp Dole as the most serious female presidential aspirant in history. The exploratory committee will allow her to begin formal fund-raising and organizing efforts. Dole, who stepped down two months ago as president of the American Red Cross, also announced the hiring of several veteran GOP operatives to head her first venture into elective politics. Thomas A. Daffron, until recently chief of staff to Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., will manage the exploratory committee. Ari Fleischer, until now the spokesman for House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas, will be the campaign communications director. Kieran Mahoney, a New York campaign consultant, will be a senior adviser to the committee, and Linda DiVall, who has polled for many Republican congressional candidates and for the 1996 presidential nomination campaign of Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, is the pollster. Dole, who campaigned extensively across the country in her husband's three bids for the White House, enters the race bracketed with Texas Gov. George W. Bush as the early leaders in the polls. Bush is scheduled to announce his exploratory committee on Sunday. "Everyone recognizes Governor Bush is a strong candidate," Daffron said Thursday, "but we hope to be competitive. We are starting a little late, but there is a lot of support out there." The USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll taken last month said Dole matched Bush with an 88 percent favorable rating among Republicans and led him, 75 percent to 69 percent, in favorability among all voters. Dole has drawn large crowds at "non-political" appearances in New Hampshire and Iowa since she left the Red Cross and disclosed she was considering a presidential race. Aides said hundreds of people volunteered at those events to work for her if she runs. Daffron said he was struck by Dole's "ability to create enthusiasm in a lot of different pockets, both regionally and ideologically."

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