Role as Loyal Follower Poses Risks for Kemp

Ward Connerly had been beating on Jack Kemp for six months to support his ballot initiative banning racial and gender preferences. Finally he did, but not in the way Connerly had wanted.

“I don’t want him to just be a good soldier”--or, as Kemp would say, a “blocking back”--for Bob Dole, Connerly had told me Monday on the Republican convention floor before Kemp unexpectedly endorsed the measure.

“That discredits him. It’s a contradiction of what we think of as Jack Kemp--somebody who does his own thinking, marches to his own drummer. I don’t want him to come out right now and say, ‘I support [Proposition] 209 because the top of the ticket supports it.’ That doesn’t do him any good and doesn’t do us any good. I want him to arrive at the decision on his own and say, ‘This is what I believe.’ ”

Connerly added: “We shouldn’t be electing a guy a heartbeat from the president who doesn’t have convictions of his own.”

Then a couple of hours later--two days after being announced as Dole’s running mate--Kemp told NBC-TV anchor Tom Brokaw that “I am going to be a supporter of Bob Dole’s position on [209].” Simple and quick. There was little elaboration, except that “race-based quotas” aren’t necessary.

Commented Connerly on Wednesday, “I would have preferred that he take a little more time.”

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Connerly, 57, a Sacramento land-use consultant, member of the UC Board of Regents and an African American, is campaign chairman for what its sponsors call the California Civil Rights Initiative. It would ban racial and gender preferences in state and local government hiring, contracting and student admissions. A Times poll last month found that 59% of California’s registered voters favor the measure.

Dole’s a supporter, but until Monday Kemp--a longtime advocate of affirmative action programs--had been neutral.

Similarly, two years ago Kemp strongly opposed Proposition 187, the measure voters overwhelmingly passed to limit government services for illegal immigrants. One of its most controversial features was a provision removing illegal immigrant children from public schools and requiring teachers to report the names of parents suspected of being here illegally. Kemp asserted 187 would “turn teachers . . . into agents of the INS” and it “bother[s] my conscience.”

But Tuesday, the vice presidential candidate informed Times political writer Ronald Brownstein that he now supports expelling illegal immigrant kids. “It is achievable [without turning] America into a police state,” he maintained.

All of which raises a question about how much Kemp will be willing to subjugate his ideas--his principles--to Bob Dole in order to be a blocker and team player. “I might abandon an idea, but not an ideal,” Kemp told the Washington Post’s David Broder on Tuesday. “I can change politically without changing my principles.”

But will this subtle difference be detectable by the public? Or will it be viewed as just more flip-flopping by yet another expedient politician?

A ticket is not a tent, certainly, at least a big tent. Perhaps a pup tent, with room for two people if they’re very compatible. But as one GOP delegate and Kemp fan told me:

“Jack Kemp’s strength is that he is so passionate about what he believes. And if that passion ever is perceived to dim, it would hurt not just Jack Kemp, it would hurt Bob Dole. While he has to be a team player, it’s in Dole’s interest that Kemp not lose the magic that distinguishes him.”

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Connerly was pretty well convinced that Kemp ultimately would support 209. It was a matter of when and how.

Kemp had two major reservations, Connerly said. First, as a trustee of Howard University, he worried about the implications for fund-raising and admissions at all-black colleges if 209 caught fire nationally. Secondly, Connerly said, he was concerned about “motives” and “bigotry” among some 209 supporters.

Yet, he was moving toward a possible endorsement. Just before the eruption of last week’s veep speculation, at Kemp’s request, Connerly faxed him a long letter arguing for his support. Connerly wrote that if Kemp stood up for a color- and gender-blind society, people would listen.

But because of Kemp’s new desire to quickly become a team player for Dole, many people thought they were listening to political puppetry.

Historically, a running mate all but disappears three weeks after the convention and the race reverts to a contest between the presidential candidates. Dole has to hope it will be different this fall, that Kemp so excites voters they will compare him with dull Al Gore and rethink their support for President Clinton.

The odds are long. To beat them, Kemp can’t play blocker. He must be a running back. Dole can call the signals, but Kemp has to carry the ball in his own way.