Dole, Kemp Encourage Party to Expand Appeal : Pair Tell Platform Writers to Consider Disadvantaged Voters

Kansas Sen. Bob Dole and New York Rep. Jack Kemp, former Republican presidential rivals who are now considered leading prospects for the vice presidential nomination, both contended here Thursday that the GOP needs to strengthen its appeal to the disadvantaged and minorities if it is to retain the White House for another four years.

Dole, Kemp and some 60 or so others testified during daylong hearings conducted by the 1988 Republican Platform Committee. The seriousness of their remarks and the attentiveness of the panel members indicated that as Republicans regroup for the post-Reagan era, they are showing an interest in using their platform as a way to win new votes.

The Democrats, by contrast, who completed drafting their platform last weekend in Denver, seemed mainly concerned with keeping their platform brief and short on specifics to avoid controversy that they feared might cost them votes.

Seeks Increased Funding

In his appearance before the panel holding its final regional hearing at the Airport Marriott, Dole called for increased federal assistance for child care and for the homeless as part of an intensified effort by Republicans to help those who are “left out and down and out.”

“We want this party to grow for the right reasons,” Dole told members of the platform panel chaired by Nebraska Gov. Kay A. Orr. “We are a sensitive party and we do care about people and we want the American people to fulfill the American dream.”

Specifically, Dole called for establishing a program of child-care grants to the states aimed at benefiting low- and moderate-income families. To offset the cost of his proposal, he suggested phasing out the child-care tax credit for high-income individuals.

“This will target the tax benefit to those who really need it,” said Dole who was the most formidable challenger to Vice President George Bush, the prospective Republican presidential nominee, until a series of defeats forced him out of the race.

To aid the homeless, Dole called for increasing partnership arrangements with state and local governments, nonprofit groups and business “to assure that no American who wants and needs shelter is denied it.”

Urges Job Creation

Kemp urged support for what he described as “plant opening” legislation designed to create new jobs, which he contrasted with plant closing measures backed by presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis aimed at aiding workers who are about to lose their jobs in factory shutdowns.

Kemp’s plan, embodied in proposed legislation, would cut the tax on capital gains, as proposed by Vice President Bush, would repeal scheduled increases in the payroll tax and the federal unemployment tax and would provide tax incentives for employers to aid education and job training for their workers and for working and investing in poor rural and urban areas.

If Republicans can promote and enact such legislation, Kemp predicted, “it won’t be long before we find that at least 25% of the Republican Party is made up of Hispanics, blacks and Asian Pacifics and other folks who want for themselves and their children what we’ve always called the American dream but no doubt is a universal dream of people everywhere.”

Seeking to exploit the Democrats’ “damage control” approach to their platform, which is less than one-tenth the size of their 1984 document and contains only a few specific pledges, Republican National Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. said: “The Democrats seem as if they are trying to hide their true policies behind a bland and featureless statement of good wishes and good will.”

The GOP platform will be drafted by the 106-member platform committee meeting in New Orleans next month, a week before their August convention opens. Party leaders have said they expect it to be close in length to the 30,000-word 1984 document.

Try to Be Noncommittal

Apart from the substantive points Dole and Kemp made in their testimony, their appearances drew attention because both have been mentioned as possible running mates for Bush, the man who bested them both in the contest for the nomination. Asked about that possibility Thursday, both tried to be noncommittal. Dole said he would prefer to be Senate majority leader and Kemp said he did not expect to be selected.

Though Thursday’s hearing, the third conducted by the committee, was devoted mainly to economic policy, the panel also heard testimony on drugs from Assistant Los Angeles Police Chief Robert Vernon and Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block.

Vernon made one of the most controversial proposals the committee heard during the day when he told the committee: “We should link as many public privileges as possible to testing drug free” and gave as examples licenses for driving an auto, teaching school, practicing law and medicine and running a business.

Asked by reporters about the idea of making drug testing a requirement for business licensing, Sheriff Block said: “I would not generalize to that degree. Many businesses don’t require a license.” In his testimony before the committee, Block called for a “multi-faceted approach” to the problem, including cutting off foreign aid to drug source countries around the world, cracking down harder on users, and expanding education and prevention programs starting at the fourth-grade level.