Dole Not 'Writing Off' States, RNC Chief Says

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Oct. 19) -- Bob Dole is not sandbagging some states in his presidential campaign to concentrate more heavily on electoral-rich states like California, Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour said Saturday.

Appearing on CNN's "Evans and Novak," Barbour denied reports that Dole is refocusing his campaign by eliminating some states from the campaign plan and says the GOP candidate has and will continue to campaign in all states up until election day Nov. 5.

"Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire -- I mean there are states all through the East and Northeast, particularly in the industrial Midwest, where Dole has just been campaigning, continuing to campaign. I've just been up in that part of the country myself," Barbour said. (20 sec./216k WAV sound)

CNN reported on Friday that Dole's strategy in the remaining two weeks of the campaign is to allocate resources and most advertising dollars on California, Ohio, Michigan and most of the Rocky Mountain West, while "writing off" New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Northeast.

When asked specifically about Dole's dropping efforts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Barbour said the question would be better answered by the Dole campaign, but also pointed to recent RNC efforts in the states. "We've been making spending plans in both of those states as recently as late yesterday afternoon."

California boasts a whopping 54 electoral votes, a prize for either presidential candidate. Recent polls indicate Dole has closed the gap between him and Clinton to 10 points there, down from the 22-point Clinton lead last month.

"California's an important state. We've been in California since day 1, we're going to be in California right up to November 6th," Barbour said. "We've got 26 Republicans and 26 Democrats in the U.S. Congress and we think we can take a majority in that delegation."

Barbour also denied that GOP congressional candidates have given up on Dole, running instead as an alternative to a Democratic White House. Barbour said he fears what would happen if Clinton is re-elected and Democrats control Congress. (14 sec./149k WAV sound)

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