Dole Begins Big Statewide Push for Votes

Barreling through the San Joaquin Valley by bus, Bob Dole launched a do-or-die California campaign swing Saturday, energetically cultivating votes in the agriculturally rich region.

The Republican presidential candidate stopped in half a dozen communities along California 99, using each opportunity to continue to express his “outrage” at what he called President Clinton’s “abuse of power on a daily basis.”

By contrast, at a morning send-off rally in Visalia, Dole called himself “a man of my word” and vowed to be a president that “you can be proud of.”

Along the 160-mile route, small but enthusiastic crowds greeted the Kansan as he hammered away at his opponent. As in recent days, Dole devoted the bulk of his remarks not to his own agenda but to attacking Clinton.

And despite the sparse crowds, Dole appeared energized. Concluding a rally in Merced, Dole thundered that Clinton “thinks he’s got California wrapped up. He thinks it’s in the bag. It’s not gonna happen, Mr. President. People are outraged. The people are waking up all over America.”

By nightfall, as his motorcade rolled into Stockton, what the crowds had seen was vintage Bob Dole.

At times, he fairly scowled; other times, he let his droll humor reign. More than once, he stumbled over words and made obscure, stream-of-consciousness references that seemed to baffle listeners.

But always, on issue after issue, from ethics to economic policy to illegal immigration to affirmative action, Dole sternly criticized Clinton, drawing sharp distinctions between himself and the president.

Dole’s 10-bus “Rally the Valley” caravan also made stops in Selma, Fresno and Modesto. The GOP nominee has appearances scheduled today in Sacramento and San Diego.

Although he trails Clinton in most polls by double digits, including surveys in California, Dole is staking his White House bid on capturing the state’s 54 electoral votes. He declared at the start of the bus trip: “I smell victory in California!”

On the issues, Dole reminded voters that he had supported Proposition 187 long before it was adopted by voters and that Clinton had opposed the 1994 ballot initiative that denies public benefits to illegal immigrants.

Dole accused the president of not doing enough to stop illegal immigration, stepping up the charge at a rally in Selma.

“Suddenly now in an election year, President Clinton is moving all these [immigration] agents from other states into California trying to make it appear he’s really going to get tough,” Dole said.

The GOP nominee also reiterated his support for Proposition 209, this year’s initiative to end government affirmative action programs, saying: “There should be no discrimination in America. But there should be no preferences and no quotas in America.”

Dole was most animated when he denounced Clinton for having declared a “war on California.” He explained:

“From raising taxes to raising the white flag on drugs and immigration, and a dozen of other ways, Bill Clinton’s war on California families has hurt California farms and businesses--from San Diego to the Oregon border.”

In Fresno, Dole added that defense cuts under the Clinton administration have cost California 500,000 jobs. Then criticizing Clinton for not serving in the Vietnam War, Dole said: “I’ve never said anything about the president’s record in the service . . . or the lack of record, put it that way.”

At one point, Dole alluded to his own hard-scrabble prairie upbringing and to his 39-month recovery from World War II injuries, and said: “Nothing has ever come to me except the hard way. Nothing comes easy in life that’s worthwhile.”

For the most part, however, Dole sounded upbeat, often using humor to temper his harsh words. Chiding Clinton for getting a $200 haircut aboard Air Force One in May 1993 as it sat on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport, for instance, Dole shouted: “And he’s going to get another haircut on Nov. 5!”

But outrage, for the third straight day, was uppermost on Dole’s mind as he lambasted the Clinton administration for what he called a series of ethical transgressions, including receiving illegal political contributions from foreign interests, the controversy surrounding the firing of White House travel office staffers and the misappropriation of FBI files by the White House personnel security office.

“We’ve had enough ‘gates’--Filegate, Travelgate. We’ve had enough ‘gates.’ It’s time for us to show them to the door and out they go, back to Arkansas!” Dole said.

Dole was accompanied on his bus trip by a host of GOP luminaries, including Gov. Pete Wilson, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren and former Gov. George Deukmejian. Elizabeth Hanford Dole, who has spent much of the campaign stumping for her husband on her own, delivered the GOP’s weekly radio address and then left to make her own campaign stops in Monterey, Santa Barbara and Chico.

In her radio remarks, she accused the president of “trying to frighten seniors into believing that Bob’s economic plan will threaten Medicare. That’s not true--and the president knows it.”