Democrats Report Burglary at Rival Party’s Meeting Site

Will it become known as Stouffergate?

Democratic Party officials on hand as a “truth squad” at a Republican National Committee meeting reported a break-in at their hotel suite Friday, and said computer disks, research notebooks and some strategy files had been stolen.

Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Catherine Moore said the break-in occurred between 10:30 p.m. Thursday and 7:30 a.m. Friday, when her staff arrived and noticed the materials missing. After searching the room and their own hotel rooms, the staff notified security at the Stouffer Riviere Hotel, which called in Chicago police.

A crime lab team dusted for fingerprints Friday afternoon and said there was no sign of forced entry. Even some of the police officers at the scene made joking comparisons to Watergate, the break-in by Republican dirty tricksters at the Democratic national headquarters in Washington two decades ago.

Some of the Democrats on hand for the Republican meeting couldn’t help but make the comparison, in jest anyway.

“I would love as a partisan Democrat to say this is a typical Republican plot,” said Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who was on hand at the hotel to defend President Clinton’s economic plan against Republican attacks.

“But I think the reality is that no responsible Republican would do this,” Simon said. Still, he speculated that a “young, inexperienced, overzealous” GOP staffer or loyalist might have.

Moore was careful not to point fingers at the Republicans meeting on the two floors below. “I have no indication as to who did this,” she said. “That is the job of the police and hotel security. Speculation serves no purpose.”

Republican Party officials said the GOP had nothing to do with the break-in.