Pledge to NRA Opens Rift in Dole Campaign

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole’s promise to the National Rifle Assn. that he will work to repeal the law banning assault-style weapons has created a rift among his supporters and some associates say that the senator realizes he made a major political mistake that could damage his presidential campaign.

The Kansas Republican apparently did not consult many members of his expansive circle of advisers before he made the vow in a letter to the NRA a month ago in which he referred to “the ill-conceived gun ban.”

One of Dole’s major contributors, calling the senator’s letter to the NRA “just terrible,” said: “Unfortunately, he always has some persons representing the extreme right around him and they get him in trouble. He tolerates them to try to get the nomination.”

Another longtime Dole adviser who opposed the letter described reaction this way: “We all climbed up and down on him about it. Everybody gave him a bad time. He realized it was a big mistake.

“I don’t know what drove him to do it,” the adviser said. “He could have just let the thing come up naturally on the floor, let someone introduce an amendment, instead of taking the lead on repealing the ban.”

Both Dole’s decision to promise an active role in the fight against the ban, which prohibits the manufacture and sale of 19 types of semiautomatic weapons, and the unhappiness his action provoked among many of his supporters reflect the pull and tug inherent in Dole’s position as he seeks his party’s presidential nomination.

By today’s standards, the Senate leader is a moderate conservative or traditional Republican--a position on the political spectrum that may have broad appeal among voters as a whole but does not satisfy the conservative activists who play a disproportionate role in choosing the GOP standard-bearer.

As a result, Dole’s strategy for winning the nomination includes bolstering his appeal to the GOP right wing, even at the risk of alienating less conservative supporters now and in the 1996 general election.

That strategy, both on gun control and on other issues such as affirmative action, has upset those among Dole’s advisers who want a more moderate line. These advisers point out that about 70% of those responding to public opinion polls favor the assault weapons ban.

Among Dole supporters said to be most upset about the letter are fund-raisers concerned that the issue may dry up some potential sources of contributions to his presidential campaign.

Dole, campaigning in the Midwest, stood by his letter to the NRA. Through a spokesman, he reiterated his support for the rights of gun owners. But he did not comment on the rift among his supporters or their comments that he now realizes he made a major political mistake.

“The senator thinks the letter speaks for itself,” Nelson Warfield, Dole’s campaign press spokesman, said in a telephone interview from Des Moines.

In remarks Tuesday night in Denver, Dole talked about his stand on crime, urging that parole be denied to violent criminals, that “frivolous” appeals in criminal cases be limited, that teen-agers who commit violent crimes be tried as adults--and that all this be done “without penalizing all those law-abiding Americans who want to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms.”

While Dole’s stand has upset some advisers, others point out that large numbers of Republican conservatives crucial to the party’s presidential nomination process oppose the assault weapon ban. In New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first primary, polls indicate that roughly 48% of potential GOP primary voters are gun owners and the NRA has about 25,000 members--this in a state where the total primary vote seldom exceeds 175,000.

Early polls show Dole far out front of other Republican candidates in New Hampshire. But Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), his best-financed rival, is a staunch opponent of gun controls and has a highly organized campaign.

In addition to creating division among his advisers, Dole’s pledge to the NRA has given energy to gun-control advocates and personalized an explosive issue that already promises to touch off a bruising fight in Congress.

Playing a prominent role in that fight could help Dole with conservatives, but some advisers fear that it also could distract him as he seeks to put his imprint on legislation passed as part of the House GOP’s “contract with America.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), author of the gun-control legislation passed last year, declared that since the NRA made Dole’s letter public “gun control and women-against-violence organizations” have been marshaling for a major lobbying effort to preserve the ban.

“People have reacted with disbelief (that) he would do that,” declared Feinstein, who has threatened to lead a filibuster, if necessary, to prevent repeal. “A coalition of police and victims of gun violence will stand together and help us beat this back. Republicans underestimate the power of those who fought for the ban and will fight to preserve it.”

In another bow to the party’s right wing, Dole also has spoken out strongly in favor of rolling back affirmative action, a process that he once favored as a means of redressing job discrimination. Gramm has been one of the most outspoken opponents of affirmative action.

“Somehow Bob Dole has this bizarre notion that he has to stand to the right of Phil Gramm on everything to get the Republican nomination,” said a longtime friend of Dole. “Most people who’ve carried Dole this far think that’s nutty strategy and won’t help him win.”

Though some of his advisers deplore the move, none expect the senator to renege on his promise to the NRA. For one thing, some conservatives in New Hampshire already are accusing Dole of being too willing to compromise with Democrats on conservative issues.

Last week, for example, the influential Manchester Union Leader, in an editorial branding Dole “Cut-a-deal Bob,” declared that the senator “doesn’t regard the GOP ‘contract’ as applicable to the elitist political prima donnas in the U.S. Senate” and “is already busy cutting some interesting deals with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.”

Dole, in his March 10 letter to Tanya K. Metaksa, the NRA’s executive director, said: “Repealing the ill-conceived gun ban passed as part of President Clinton’s crime bill last year is one of my legislative priorities.”

Dole wrote that the Senate will debate the gun ban in the near future “and I hope to have a bill on President Clinton’s desk by this summer.”

“Gun control,” Dole wrote, “is a completely ineffective approach to the lack of safety and security in our communities. Disarming law-abiding citizens only places them at the mercy of those who break the law.”

In January, Clinton declared that he would veto any legislation aimed at repealing the ban--a pledge that he repeated last week. The day after Clinton’s January statement, Dole indicated that the issue had become moot because there were not enough votes in the Senate to repeal it anyway. “It only takes 41 votes to block something,” he declared. “And my view is, there are more than 41 votes. That’s just the way it is.”

Sarah Brady, who chairs Handgun Control Inc., said that more than 95 national organizations, including such groups as the Parent Teachers Assn., National Education Assn., and American Medical Assn., have signed a resolution pledging to fight repeal of the ban.