Dole Challenged on Domestic Violence

Bob Dole found himself on the defensive Thursday at an event meant to underscore his empathy for abuse victims when a social worker challenged his assertion that the welfare system is a major reason for the nation’s domestic violence epidemic.

Dole singled out the present welfare system as contributing to domestic abuse and pushed his plan for reform during a round-table discussion staged for reporters at an elementary school in an impoverished southwest Chicago neighborhood.

“Let me tell you, domestic violence is the one thing that does not discriminate,” Berta Hinojosa politely interjected.

The woman, who counsels abuse victims, added: “The only color that domestic violence knows is the color purple [of bruises]--the purple color that I see in my clients.”

Her comments caused the presumed Republican presidential nominee to quickly backtrack. Dole agreed that domestic violence affects “all economic classes” and said he mentioned welfare reform as only “one way to address” the problem.

Hinojosa, who described herself as a political independent who supported President Clinton in 1992, said later that she found Dole’s elaboration unconvincing and suggested he take his anti-domestic violence message to upscale neighborhoods as well.

“He was saying domestic violence only affects people on welfare and that’s not the truth. If you go to [court] and you open the door, you’re going to smell Paloma Picasso and Chanel No. 5. . . . These are rich women, very rich women from suburbia.”

Meanwhile, Clinton on Thursday continued his bid to preempt Dole’s recent efforts to paint him as soft on crime by endorsing a teen curfew plan that he said would help keep youths out of trouble.

Speaking to a convention of church members in New Orleans, Clinton recommended that crime-plagued cities implement a plan that--while allowing numerous exceptions--would try to keep young people off the streets after 8 p.m. on school nights, 9 p.m. in the summer, and 11 p.m. on weekends.

Clinton said he was sure a lot of teens would consider the curfew proposal too strict. “But they must also know that it’s a dangerous world out there,” he said.

The curfew plan is consistent with Clinton’s strategy of suggesting reforms that involve no direct federal role or money. For instance, the president earlier this year urged schools to require school uniforms to help fight crime. And his program to foster “corporate responsibility” toward workers and communities largely rests on voluntary compliance.

Republicans have scoffed at these proposals, charging that they are designed to appeal to “family values” while masking Clinton’s true political leanings.

Reacting to Clinton’s embrace of the curfew plan, Dole said: “He must have taken a poll.” The event Dole attended in Chicago was staged at one of the five Illinois schools that participated in a prototype anti-domestic violence program launched in 1991 by Gov. Jim Edgar, the state’s Republican chief executive who has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate.

The program has been adopted by more than 400 schools throughout the state, and several experts were brought together to give Dole a private briefing on the domestic abuse problem. Afterward, reporters were brought into the classroom for the round-table discussion.

Edgar said domestic violence is “an issue that’s not new to Sen. Dole.”

Dole confessed that although he “probably should have known,” he was not aware until Thursday that in most cases of sexual assault, the assailants know their victims.

The campaign stop was intended, in part, to highlight an issue that might help Dole close the gender gap in public opinion surveys that finds Clinton enjoying a large lead over him among women voters.

For the second consecutive day, however, the Dole campaign focused on a topic that forced the candidate to explain his vote against the Clinton administration’s 1994 crime bill.

Clinton aides wasted no time accusing Dole of hypocrisy because of his vote against the crime bill, which contained provisions designed to strengthen laws against domestic violence.

Dole noted that he supported that portion of the crime measure, but ended up opposing the overall bill because it contained “so many other things that we couldn’t vote for.”

On Wednesday in Redondo Beach, Dole had touted a combined police-community initiative that succeeded in reducing criminal activity at a local park. But after the Dole rally at the park, local officials said financial aid provided by the crime bill was crucial to their success.

The exchange between Dole and Hinojosa also may have undercut the Republican’s effort to use the domestic violence issue to his political advantage.

The type of curfew plan that Clinton promoted Thursday has generated controversy and court fights in many of the communities where they have been adopted, which include 146 of the largest 200 U.S. cities.

Courts have ruled that curfews are constitutional if communities can prove they are justified by the level of crime and design them with the goal of curbing freedoms as little as possible.

The curfew plan pushed by Clinton would apply to those under 17 years old. As drafted by Justice Department officials, the plan would provide numerous curfew exemptions; it would not apply to young people going to work, school or church activities, or accompanied by parents.

“This is just like the old-fashioned rule most of us had when we were kids: ‘When the lights come on, be home,’ Clinton told a crowd of about 10,000 women at the Church of God in Christ, one of the nation’s largest predominantly African American congregations. “The evidence shows that wherever these curfews are in place, they are working.”

Times staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow and Sam Fulwood III contributed to this story.