Dole and Kemp Find Friendship on GOP Ticket

Jack Kemp was traveling from Dallas to Russell, Kan., earlier this month when he truly became a Bob Dole man. “The first one I ever wore,” Kemp had said as he put on a “Dole for President” pin.

Hours later, that gesture did not go unnoticed--or unappreciated--by Dole as Kemp entered through the kitchen door of 1035 N. Maple St., a tidy but unprepossessing brick house in Russell that was Dole’s childhood home.

“You look good. You got your Dole pin on,” the Republican presidential nominee said to Kemp as a television camera crew recorded the meeting.

It was at that point, campaign aides say, in the hours just after Dole had offered and Kemp accepted the second spot on the GOP ticket, that the bond between these two longtime rivals within the GOP began to cement.

Outsiders, of course, have only limited evidence on the private relationship between the two men. But as campaign aides tell the story, Kemp and Dole seem to have reached a comfort level with one another that few could have predicted, least of all the many veteran Republican strategists who know Dole and Kemp--and the history of bad blood between them.

“There’s really almost an intangible chemistry and energy between them that I didn’t expect. They are getting along famously, as are their wives,” said Charles Black, a GOP operative who has known both men for more than two decades.

“It’s growing every day,” added Scott Reed, manager of the Dole-Kemp campaign. “There’s a lot of warmth there.”

To be sure, the Dole-Kemp campaign is not exactly this year’s GOP replica of the Bill Clinton and Al Gore roadshow of 1992, when the two baby boomers clearly reveled in each other’s company as they barnstormed around the country in colorful bus trips following the Democrats’ New York convention.

Still, Dole and Kemp--in a three-day campaign swing together after the surprisingly harmonious Republican convention in San Diego--generated an electricity of their own--and some big, roaring crowds along the way.

That, along with their improving poll numbers, have prompted the Dole-Kemp camp to delay plans for the men to campaign separately. Instead, Dole and Kemp and their wives, Elizabeth and Joanne, will remain together for the time being--”to capture the energy coming out of San Diego,” Reed said.

The couples returned to Washington Sunday evening and took a day’s respite from campaigning. Today they travel in tandem to Louisville, Ky.

Dole is plainly thrilled by the public approval of his selection of Kemp as his running mate--endlessly calling Kemp a “15” on a scale of one to 10--a reference not only to the jersey number Kemp wore as a professional football player but also to Dole’s proposed 15% cut in income tax rates.

Dole was almost giddy at a rally in downtown Denver on Friday when he said: “I can hardly wait for the Gore-Kemp debate!”

“Dole has had a spring in his step since late last week,” John Buckley, the campaign’s communications director, said over the weekend. “And obviously part of that is accepting the nomination. . . . But part of it also is the excitement generated by Kemp.”

Dole also has been clearly touched by the praise Kemp has heaped on him. Kemp brought tears to Dole’s eyes during their debut together at an Aug. 10 rally in Russell on a muggy Saturday afternoon when he called the former Kansas senator an “American hero.”

In San Diego last week, Kemp himself came close to tears as he concluded a speech at a “celebration of small business” by saying of Dole: “He can’t throw a football. But I tell you what. . . . I can. I’m going to be at his right side. I hope to be his right hand, and I hope to make this country right for everyone.”

A key to the rapport developing between Dole and Kemp, Black said, is that “Jack Kemp intends to, and will, do a marvelous job at whatever role Bob Dole wants him to play.”

On Sunday, Kemp no doubt scored more points with Dole when about 7,500 enthusiastic supporters crammed into a 6,000-seat football stadium in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., to greet the ticket. Kemp once lived in Buffalo, where he quarterbacked the Bills and later was elected to Congress.

The gathering was the largest rally that Dole has seen on the campaign trail this year, and it left him slightly in awe. “There are more people here than in my hometown. . . . I can’t believe the size of the crowd,” Dole said unabashedly. “I’m pleased to be the man Jack Kemp brought to town today.”

Later, at the final rally of their maiden campaign jaunt, another large, enthusiastic crowd greeted Dole and Kemp in Pittsburgh’s scenic Pointe State Park. Both men doffed their jackets and delivered speeches that left the throng screaming for victory in November.

In stops on Friday in Denver and Saturday in Springfield, Ill., the crowds were smaller but no less enthusiastic.

That Dole and Kemp are getting along so well is something of a surprise because, until now, they have disagreed strongly over issues such as affirmative action and aid to immigrants. But since accepting the running-mate offer, Kemp has embraced Dole’s opposition to affirmative action and support for denying education to children of illegal immigrants.

Their most strenuous disagreement had been over supply-side economics; Kemp had long championed the theory that the loss in federal revenue caused by steep tax cuts would be compensated by a growing economy, while Dole derided that contention.

But two weeks ago Dole made the proposed 15% cut in income tax rates the core of his economic plan. And in Kemp he found an unsurpassed spokesman for that agenda.

Dole dismisses the history of sour relations between himself and Kemp. As he told a gathering of the Republican National Committee just before leaving San Diego on Friday: “We’re adults. We’re Republicans. . . . We’re not going to look back. We’re going to look ahead.”