4 Top Backers Abandon Dole Team for Bush

Sen. Bob Dole’s California campaign began unraveling Saturday with the defection of four leading backers to Vice President George Bush.

“We are Bob Dole supporters and fans. But we think it’s vital to this state and nation that we rally around our nominee,” said the leader of the group, state Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park).

The four appeared briefly with Bush as the vice president campaigned at the TRW Inc. aerospace research facility in Redondo Beach.

“We are going to have a tough fight in the fall and I’m grateful for your support,” Bush said.

Nielsen was honorary state chair for Dole. The other defectors were three of the Kansas senator’s four California co-chairs--Jan Anton of San Diego, John Harris of Coalinga and Trudy McDonald of Alameda.

The four signed a letter to Dole campaign chairman William E. Brock III sounding the theme of party unity. “Our decision to join the vice president is not based upon any lack of confidence in Bob Dole, but rather based upon the reality that it is time to come together and unite for the good of the Republican Party,” the letter said.

Bush for the second day declined to substantively address Dole’s public admission that the vice president’s nomination was “probably pretty much a foregone conclusion.”

In addition to campaigning at TRW, Bush made an unscheduled morning handshake stop at the Fairfax Avenue Farmers Market. Bush was enthusiastically greeted by the 150 or so people on hand at the open-air market, but many of them were German tourists and unable to help him in the June 7 primary.