Donations of Faithful Few Keep Dornan Going

Though he lives in the heart of Bob Dole country, Rick Doty doesn’t have any reservations about supporting the other Bob running for president.

Doty, owner of Big Rick’s Barbecue Sauce in Wichita, Kan., believes Rep. Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove is the only true conservative in the dwindling pack of Republicans fighting for the GOP presidential nomination.

“I think Dornan is intelligent. He’s running on a platform of family and faith,” said Doty, who donated $500 to Dornan’s presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Doty says he lost faith in Dole’s conservative convictions when he saw pictures of the Senate majority leader having lunch with First Lady Hillary Clinton. “A good Republican boy from Kansas shouldn’t be doing that,” he said.

Doty is one of a handful of contributors who donated a total of $237,402 over the past year to the longest of long-shot presidential candidates. (Dornan loaned his campaign another $42,000.) In a campaign year when presidential war chests swell to the tens of millions, Dornan’s donors have dutifully doled out contributions of $25, $50 and $100.

Several Dornan supporters acknowledged that the congressman doesn’t have a chance of capturing the presidency, but said they sent in their hard-earned cash because they like the man and his message.

Heather Partis, a 38-year-old mother of two in Rochelle Park, N.J., said she was turned on to Dornan after watching a debate from the Florida straw poll held in December.

“He seems very moral, brave and courageous,” she said. “He’s got a charismatic way about him. He looks good and sounds good.”

Partis gave Dornan $250, knowing he probably wouldn’t stay in the race. Now that the end of the Orange County congressman’s campaign seems near, Partis is thinking about throwing her support to former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander.

“I’m looking for someone who has good character, who is moral and who sees the broad picture,” she said.

A convincing letter from the candidate motivated Barbara McCoy to send Dornan $240. The retired homemaker from Easton, Pa., said she agrees with most everything Dornan says.

“It’s just common-sense things,” she said. “This liberality bit is not my thing.”

McCoy said it is too bad Dornan hasn’t generated the support he deserves, but speculated that the large number of GOP candidates has not helped his cause.

“There are so many of them running, it gets confusing,” she said.

While Dornan has focused fund-raising efforts on direct-mail solicitations, some contributors have contacted the campaign themselves after watching the congressman on C-SPAN or hearing him on the Rush Limbaugh show. Dornan is a fixture on C-SPAN, known for his fiery speeches given at the end of the day during the House’s “special orders” period.

Edward Nitenson, a regular C-SPAN viewer, says he feels as if he knows Dornan personally after watching the congressman come into his living room several times each week.

“I’m tied to him like a knot,” said the 70-year-old retired engineer from St. Louis. “He says it like it is.”

Nitenson gave Dornan a total of $350, all in $25 increments. As long as Dornan stays in the race, Nitenson said, he’ll keep sending money.

“I feel bad that he doesn’t get the support,” he said. “When he speaks, it sends a tingle up your back. If Dole could speak like Dornan, he’d be in like Flint.”