WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Hanford Dole advanced her campaign to break the ultimate glass ceiling in America yesterday by forming an exploratory committee for the Republican presidential nomination.
If she runs, Dole's would be the most competitive presidential try ever by a woman. Early polls show her leading Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic front-runner, and running well ahead of every contender for the GOP nomination except Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
At a rally in Iowa, scene of next February's presidential caucuses, the former head of the American Red Cross told supporters she wants to restore faith in the power of the individual and rekindle a spirit of personal responsibility.
"We make an announcement that may be historic," she said of the exploratory committee's filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Reprising one of her favorite techniques, Dole, 62, stepped from the stage of the Des Moines Convention Center and, like a daytime TV host, strolled among supporters as she spoke. The device won considerable praise at the 1996 Republican National Convention, where she used it to deliver a testimonial for her husband, former Sen. Bob Dole.
The 1996 GOP nominee was back in Washington yesterday as his wife, attired in a bright red suit, announced her plans before several hundred friends and supporters and a national cable television audience. She laughed nervously and sounded breathless, particularly at the outset of her half-hour appearance.
"Now, what would I, as a woman, offer our country?" Dole asked rhetorically at one point. "I'm not a politician and, frankly, I think that's a plus today." That line drew cheers and loud applause, though she did not return to the theme of a woman president.
At the same time, however, she signaled plans to campaign on her resume and decades of experience as a Washington insider.
"I'm not a seat-warmer, you know? I want to get in there and make a difference," said the North Carolina native.
"If there is one over-arching theme to my 30-plus years in public service, it is that I place service over politics, consensus over confrontation," said the former Cabinet secretary in the Reagan and Bush administrations. She also served as a White House aide and Federal Trade commissioner under Richard M. Nixon.
Breaking new ground
Dole has obvious path-breaking potential as a candidate, but the agenda she outlined is virtually indistinguishable from the other Republican hopefuls: better schools; lower taxes; more military spending, especially for missile defense; and a stepped-up war against illegal drugs.
Speaking without notes, she closely tracked the text of an infomercial her committee has begun airing across Iowa and New Hampshire, the first primary state. In the video, she takes an indirect poke at President Clinton, who defeated her husband in 1996, remarking that America has "been let down -- and by people we should have been able to look up to."
Late last year, Dole disclosed that she was considering a run for the presidency and in recent weeks has begun hiring a campaign staff.
She said she's been "inspired by the enthusiasm" of overflow crowds that have greeted her, but associates say privately that she has not made up her mind to run.
"It is very clear that this is an exploratory effort," said one longtime adviser, speaking on condition he not be identified. "She now really wants to go forward in a very visible and public way and start to see whether she can connect with voters."
However, her pollster, Linda DiVall, says she is "100 percent convinced" that Dole intends to become a candidate. DiVall said it is "premature" to say when a formal announcement might come. Others close to Dole say there is no timetable.
Though she has yet to name a finance chairman, Dole has the advantage of being able to tap her husband's extensive list of past contributors. But some Republican strategists say she's already lost valuable time needed to raise the millions needed to finance a national campaign. They also wonder if she is already encountering the same organizational problems that disrupted her husband's first two presidential efforts.
Trailing Bush
A new poll of likely caucus-goers in Iowa, released this week, shows Dole in second place among Republican candidates, far behind Bush but well ahead of her other potential rivals.
Perhaps one indication of her potential strength as a candidate is sniping that has erupted from the conservative wing of the party over Dole's hiring of DiVall and strategist Kieran Mahoney, both of whom support abortion rights.
Dole is a strong opponent of abortion and a popular speaker among conservative Christian organizations. In the 1996 campaign, she was her husband's most effective envoy to religious and social conservatives.
Aides say Dole can draw votes from all factions of the party. But her strongest appeal may be to moderate voters and to independents, especially women who have been repelled by the Republican Party's identification with the aggressive anti-abortion stance of its more conservative elements.
"She has a terrific opportunity to draw in younger, working women and increase the breadth of the party," said DiVall, her pollster.
Dole made no mention yesterday of abortion, or any other issues of particular importance to social conservatives. That could prompt a new round of complaints from conservative activists.
"Elizabeth Dole has enormous potential only if she can make serious headway with the conservative elements of the party, which I think she can do," said Scott Reed, who managed the '96 Dole campaign but is not involved in her campaign.
The success or failure of Dole's candidacy would be the strongest gauge to date of the progress made by women in politics. A Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll shows that 92 percent of voters surveyed said they could vote for a woman president, the highest figure in more than 60 years of polling.
But even her advisers acknowledge that some Republicans, especially older voters, will be resistant to the idea of a woman at the head of the national ticket. They add, however, that Dole is not just any woman.
"She's been on the campaign trail for more than 20 years," said DiVall.
Other Republicans, unaligned with any campaign, agree that Dole already has shown unusual potential for generating excitement in next year's campaigning. She recently drew more than more than 2,000 people for a speech at Iowa State University, considered a huge turnout for a politician.
Perhaps her biggest challenge, however, will be to adjust to the role of becoming a candidate, something she has never done before.
Dole has a reputation as a control freak who demands meticulous preparations for each of her public appearances. Those desires may prove difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy in the high-speed disorder of a national campaign, say critics.
Or maybe, as she ponders the biggest challenge of her life, the would-be candidate is undergoing a personality change.
"We like some spontaneity," Dole said, in an aside, as she asked the Iowa schoolgirl who introduced her at the rally to accompany her on her walk into the audience.
Pub Date: 3/11/99