Dole to Take First Serious Steps Toward Candidacy

In a dramatic entry into the crowded Republican presidential race, Elizabeth Hanford Dole plans to take the first formal steps toward a candidacy--and broadcast her first televised campaign messages--Wednesday, sources close to her said.

“The gun has sounded,” said one senior Dole advisor.

Dole, the former president of the American Red Cross, plans to announce in Des Moines, Iowa, on that day that she will form an exploratory committee to examine a bid for the presidency.

She also plans to buy television time Wednesday in both Iowa and New Hampshire--the two key states at the front of the electoral calendar--to broadcast a 15-minute version of her announcement speech, sources in her campaign said.

Buying television time almost a year before voters in those states will go to the polls is unusual. When asked why the campaign plans that step, the advisor said flatly: “We are trying to win.”

After appearing in Iowa, Dole also plans to travel next week to New Hampshire and Arizona (also home to an important early primary) and her home state of North Carolina.

Dole, the wife of 1996 GOP nominee Bob Dole, instantly will become the most serious female contender for the presidential nomination of a major party. Recent polls, both nationally and in the key early states, consistently show her running second to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who plans to announce his own exploratory committee in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.

Dole, 62, has served in a procession of high-ranking Washington jobs for 30 years--including Cabinet positions under Ronald Reagan and George Bush--but she has never before sought public office. Aides caution that the exploratory announcement does not mean she has irrevocably decided to run, but all indications are that she is planning a full-fledged campaign.

Dole has assembled a well-regarded campaign team that includes strategist Kieran Mahoney of New York, campaign manager Tom Daffron (a former top congressional aide), veteran GOP pollster Linda DiVall, and communications director Ari Fleischer, who now holds the same post for the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee.

With her announcement, Dole will bring to 11 the number of Republicans seeking the party’s nomination. Others planning to run include Arizona Sen. John McCain, New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, former Vice President Dan Quayle, 1996 contenders Patrick J. Buchanan, Steve Forbes and Lamar Alexander, House Budget Committee chairman John R. Kasich of Ohio and social conservative activists Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes.