Stakeout Links Hart to Woman; Absurd, He Says

The Miami Herald reported Sunday that a news team that staked out Democratic presidential front-runner Gary Hart’s Capitol Hill town house determined that a young woman from Miami spent Friday night and Saturday with him while his wife was in Denver.

Hart, whose campaign advisers have been debating for three weeks how to deal with questions of alleged “womanizing,” denounced the story as “preposterous” and “inaccurate.”

Hart said he is the victim of “character assassination” by unethical and “outrageous” journalism that is “reduced to hiding in bushes, peeking in windows and personal harassment.”

The paper, which spread the story across the top of its front page, said that a team of five Herald and Knight-Ridder reporters kept the front and rear entrances of Hart’s town house under surveillance for more than 24 hours from Friday evening until Saturday night. They said they saw Hart and the woman enter the house about 11:15 p.m. Friday and saw no one leave or enter until Hart and the woman came out at about 8:40 p.m. Saturday.

Approached by the reporters later Saturday night, Hart denied having any “personal relationship” with the woman, denied that she had spent the night at his house and said that she had come to Washington to visit friends.

He said that the woman, identified by the Hart campaign as Donna Rice, was in his town house for only a few minutes and that she and a female friend from Miami had stayed at the home of William Broadhurst, a Washington attorney and friend of Hart’s. Telephones at Broadhurst’s office and home were not answered Sunday.

Called Several Times

Hart told the reporters, however, that he had called Rice in Miami several times in the last two months from campaign stops around the country. He described the calls as “casual, political,” and said he did not know what her occupation is.

“The story in its facts and in its inferences is totally inaccurate,” Hart’s campaign manager, William Dixon, said in a statement. “Gary Hart will not dignify it with a comment because it’s character assassination. It’s harassment. He’s offended and he’s outraged. He’s furious. He’s a victim. Someone has got to say at some point that enough is enough. . . .”

“As you know, Mr. Hart has suggested the press follow him to disprove the allegations on womanizing,” Herald Executive Editor Heath Meriwether replied in a statement. “We observed Hart’s town house for more than 24 hours from a respectable distance and we conducted ourselves in a professional manner throughout. We never engaged in the practices suggested by Mr. Dixon. The womanizing issue has become a major one in Hart’s campaign because it raises questions concerning the candidate’s judgment and integrity. That’s why we reported on this story.”

The story appeared just three weeks after Hart formally announced his candidacy. During that time, he was faced with questions about womanizing and his unpaid $1.3-million debt from his 1984 presidential race. His advisers had hoped that the focus would move on to substantive issues.

Coincides With Poll

The story’s publication also coincided with an Iowa Poll showing that Hart has increased his enormous lead over rivals in that state, which will hold the first 1988 presidential caucus. His share of the vote increased to 65% from 59%, followed by Jesse Jackson with 9%, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) with 7% and Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts with 3%.

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine also featured a cover story about Hart that quotes him on the womanizing issue: “Follow me around. . . . I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.”

Hart supporters speculated that a great deal now depends on the reaction of Hart’s wife, Lee, from whom Hart was separated in 1979 and 1982.

“If it’s true, it’s incredibly self-destructive because it means he’s been womanizing all the time he was denying it,” said one supporter and contributor.

“It’s potentially devastating because the skidding may not stop,” said another Democrat. “People could be coming out of the woodwork, an airline stewardess here, someone else there.”

Expresses Confidence

Dixon, Hart’s campaign manager, expressed confidence that the voters would see the story as false and react accordingly.

“If fair people are given the opportunity to reach a fair conclusion, then we’re not afraid of it,” he said. “This raises the whole question of journalistic ethics. It raises a question of at what point the question becomes character assassination.”

Dixon said Sunday that Hart apparently met Rice last New Year’s Eve in Aspen, Colo., at a party hosted by Don Henley, a member of the Eagles rock group. He said that Lee Hart was with Hart at the party.

Hart and Rice met again in March--March 1, according to the Miami Herald--when Hart and Broadhurst were in Miami, where Hart had a fund-raising event. They were on a chartered boat, and Rice and a friend, Lynn Armandt, came on board for about an hour, Dixon said. He said Hart did not remember Rice from the first meeting, so she said to him, “Hey, I know you, you’re Sen. Hart.”

At the time, Armandt told Broadhurst that she was looking for a job in Washington and he offered to interview her as a caretaker for the town houses he owns on Capitol Hill, Dixon said. Armandt came up last Friday for the interview and asked Rice to accompany her because she was not comfortable staying alone in the home of a stranger.

Arrival Called Coincidence

According to Dixon, Armandt’s job interview took place mid-afternoon Friday, then Broadhurst drove her to the airport to meet Rice. Coincidentally, Hart flew in to National Airport about the same time and the four of them drove back to Broadhurst’s house, where they had dinner together.

At about 11:15 p.m. the four walked to Hart’s Capitol Hill town house, which is about three blocks away on 6th Street S.E., according to Dixon. He said they wanted to see a deck being built on the top of Hart’s town house; then Broadhurst, Armandt and Rice returned to Broadhurst’s apartment while Hart stayed at his house alone.

This statement contradicts the Herald report.

The Herald said it was told by a “confidential source” that Hart was interested in a Miami woman and that she planned to go to Washington for the weekend. The Herald did not know Rice’s name and had no information beyond a general description of her as an attractive blond actress in her late 20s, according to Jim Savage, a Knight-Ridder editor who was on the surveillance team.

Investigative reporter Jim McGee boarded Eastern Airlines Flight 996 last Friday afternoon and saw two women on the plane who met the general description. One was “lovingly” met in Washington by a boyfriend, and McGee lost track of the second. After checking in with the Knight-Ridder bureau, he went to Hart’s house and saw the second woman emerge with Hart at about 9:15 p.m., according to Savage.

‘Information Minimal’

“We almost didn’t send anyone up to Washington because our information was so minimal,” Savage said. “It was just an informed coincidence that Jim was on the same plane, and that’s what got us charged up.”

Herald reporter Tom Fiedler said the Herald team had the front and rear entrances to Hart’s Capitol Hill town house under surveillance from about 9 p.m. Friday to about 10 p.m. Saturday.

The Herald surveillance team included reporters Fiedler and McGee, editors Savage and Doug Clifton and photographer Brian Smith.

“We had three cars that we parked legally on the street, where we had a view of the front and rear entrances of the town house,” Fiedler said. “There were a minimum of two people who watched through Friday night and five of us at various times on Saturday. We spent the time in the cars, walking about, but we had both entrances under surveillance at all times.”

‘Clear Vantage Point’

The Herald reporters parked one of their cars across the street from Hart’s town house. “We had a clear vantage point of his front door,” Fiedler said. The second car was parked in the alley driveway that runs by the rear door to the town house, he said. A third car was parked near the corner of 6th and E streets, he said.

At 9:30 p.m., according to Fiedler, McGee saw Hart and the Miami woman leave Hart’s town house. McGee saw the pair return to the town house at about 11:17 p.m. Friday.

The team of McGee and Clifton remained on surveillance until about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, when they were relieved by Fiedler, Savage and Smith.

McGee and Clifton, after napping and eating, returned to the Hart town house at about 4 p.m. Saturday, Fiedler said.

“All five of us were there when Hart and the girl emerged at about 8:50 p.m. Saturday,” Fiedler said. The pair left by the rear entrance and walked around the block toward Hart’s car. But instead of getting into the car, the two returned to the town house by the front door.

Walked Nearby Streets

Hart came out alone about 30 minutes later, drove around the block, parked and walked several nearby streets.

Fiedler said that Hart apparently became aware that he was being watched Saturday evening when he came out of the town house with the woman. “That is when he seemed to get very spooked and dashed back into the house, instead of getting into the car,” Fiedler said.

At about 10 p.m. Saturday, as Hart was about to re-enter his town house, he was met by Fiedler, McGee and Savage. “We didn’t go inside,” Fiedler said. “We stood outside and interviewed him.”