Barbour Denies Campaign Shake-Up By Elizabeth Dole

Aired May 13, 1996

JUDY WOODRUFF, Anchor: Now, an up-close and partisan view of Campaign '96 - Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour joins us on Inside Politics. Thanks for being with us, Haley.

HALEY BARBOUR, RNC Chairman: Judy, thanks for having me back.

WOODRUFF: All right. There's a new Time- I'm sorry- CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll out today that shows 20 points separating President Clinton and Senator Dole. Does this make someone like you, the head of the party, concerned?

BARBOUR: Well, not particularly. There was a CNN/Time magazine poll out two days ago that showed Dole down 12. The good news for us is the election's in November, not May. Come September, I would be concerned about the polling, but between now and the convention, over the next three months - and it is six months to the election, three months to the convention - we have to start showing people why Bob Dole ought to be president, let them know why this election is important.

WOODRUFF: What the polling experts are saying, though, is what makes a difference here is there isn't much change. Both in the CNN/Time poll- there wasn't a lot of change from the previous poll. The CNN/Gallop poll with USA Today- the numbers haven't changed since early April. In other words - no movement despite various efforts on the campaign's part to get things moving.

BARBOUR: No, Judy, I don't think that's surprising. Since August of last year, the labor unions, primarily, spending about $40 million - all in compulsory union dues, by the way - and the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign have run about $60 million of advertising attacking Republicans. Republicans have just started our own advertising to make our side of the case. Frankly, when you talk about a $60 million unanswered campaign- attack campaign, almost every bit of it negative, I'm- it doesn't surprise me that Dole would be down, that the Republicans are down some. But the important thing is, you know, Mark Twain said one time that a lie could get half way around the world before the truth could get its boots on. We just figured the truth doesn't need but six months between now and the election for us to be back and win the election.

WOODRUFF: Michael Duffy writes in Time magazine this week that Elizabeth Dole has gone to her husband with your backing and with the backing of Speaker Gingrich to urge him to put somebody older and wiser, so to speak, at the center of his campaign. What is that all about?

BARBOUR: Well, it's news to me. Let me say, first of all, Liddy Dole hasn't talked to me about that. And she's- by the way, she's wonderful, and what a great asset is to our party and to Bob Dole's candidacy-

WOODRUFF: - You don't know anything about this effort?

BARBOUR: Not- not at all, and I think Scott Reed has done a very good job of running that campaign. Obviously, when you go from a primary to a general election campaign, the campaign gets bigger. You have the opportunity to bring in more people, just as we at the National Committee have brought in people from Gramm's campaign, from Alexander's campaign, plus a large number of people from Dole's campaign. But it's- I am totally unaware of Mrs. Dole-

WOODRUFF: - So, the names that have popped up here - Vin Weber, Ken Duberstein, even Carroll Campbell - none of these people are people you've talked to or the campaign talked to?

BARBOUR: Those are people I talk to all the time, but I never have talked to about running Bob Dole's campaign for president. They are very strong supporters of Senator Dole's, but I haven't had a conversation with any of them about running that campaign.

WOODRUFF: Do you think there is a need to put someone into the campaign who has a little more experience, is maybe more of a peer of Senator Dole's? The article pointed out that so many of the people in the campaign, while they're working hard and doing a good job- they're in their 30's, and Senator Dole maybe needs some people who've been around and won a national campaign before.

BARBOUR: Well, I think always part of going from the primaries to the general is you do expand. You're able to reach out to more people, people that were for other candidates, people who can't take two years off like presidential campaigns are today. But I don't see any change in the basic structure of that campaign. I think it is well-structured.

What we're going to see, though - and we're starting to - see is Bob Dole increasingly become a candidate for president of the United States to the exclusion of all else. It's, it's- you know, he went for several months to win the nomination. I thought he did remarkably well. You know, he took everybody's best shot, got up off the canvas, brushed himself off, and won 29 primaries in a row. But now, he's starting to get more and more focused totally on the presidential race, which is right because it's six months from now.

WOODRUFF: So, when would you say is the point that he would become focused only on the presidential race?

BARBOUR: I think during this month of May, when we're six months away from the election, you will start seeing that happen. You can't wait till the convention - nobody thinks you can - just as we can't wait till the convention to tell people why this election's important, to tell people why the issues should be paramount and the differences between Dole and Clinton. Senator Dole increasingly becomes a candidate for president of the United States as opposed to the very heavy duty he's carried for a long, long time in the Senate.

WOODRUFF: This Time article I mentioned talks about Mrs. Dole talking to her husband about this - does she have considerable influence with him? What would you describe as her- as her role in this campaign?

BARBOUR: Judy, I'm really not the right one to ask that. But I can tell you, she is a fantastic resource for the campaign and for Senator Dole. She's so bright and articulate. She's got a career of public service- bipartisan public service and now non-partisan public service with the Red Cross. She's just a huge, huge asset to him, and I know she'll be very, very visible and active in the campaign. But as advisory - I- I'll just confess to you, I'm not the right one to ask about that.

WOODRUFF: All right. Well, Haley Barbour, we appreciate you're being with us on Inside Politics.

BARBOUR: Judy, thank you very much.

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