Dole Announces Decision to Run for President : Politics: Senate majority leader does not rule out commitment to serve only one term. Statements are in interview to be aired today.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said in an interview to be broadcast today that he has made the decision to run for President and has not ruled out the idea of serving for only one term.

Dole, 71, said in an interview with David Frost to be aired on Public Broadcasting Service stations that “we’ve made the decision” to run for the Republican nomination. He said his official announcement probably will be made in early April.

Dole’s statement was the most unequivocal expression of his intention to seek the White House, but it came as no surprise. Dole has moved steadily toward the race over the past month.

Asked if he would announce he would be a one-term President, the Kansas Republican said he had not ruled it out.

“It might be something that would be the correct thing to do, the right thing to do, whether or not it would be the politic thing to do . . . but it’s something we’ve talked about,” Dole said.

In mid-January, Dole announced a presidential exploratory committee that allowed him to immediately begin raising money and assembling his staff. Late last month he hired as his campaign manager Scott Reed, the executive director of the Republican National Committee and tapped as his deputy campaign chairman veteran GOP operative William Lacy.

In stature, national name identification and the capacity to raise funds, Dole begins the GOP contest as the front-runner, most party analysts agree. But in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination in 1988, Dole had difficulty organizing his campaigns, articulating a compelling message and curbing his temper.

His largest challenge in 1996 may be quelling the lingering suspicion among many conservatives that he is too willing to compromise with moderates and Democrats on issues from taxation to welfare reform.

Dole’s suggestion that he might limit himself to one term could represent an effort to deal with a second potential vulnerability: concerns about his age. Though still vigorous and extremely energetic, Dole would be 73 by the time he was sworn in, if elected in 1996.

In the GOP primary next year, Dole faces a field that will include Texas Sen. Phil Gramm and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, both of whom have been aggressively organizing support. Both plan to announce their candidacies later this month.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle is also planning to join the race this spring, and conservative columnist Patrick J. Buchanan also appears virtually certain to run. Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar indicated this week he would test the waters as well, and several governors, including California’s Pete Wilson, are still hovering around the starting line.

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In the interview, Dole said he believed President Clinton would be the Democratic nominee in 1996 but doubted that independent Ross Perot would repeat his 1992 bid for the White House.

Dole, who has been in the Senate 26 years, said he did not think that limits on the lengths of congressional service were “the answer,” but would vote for term limits because the American public wanted them as a “sort of quick fix.”

A term limits bill is part of House Republicans’ “contract with America.”