Trading Barbs Over Campaign Contributions

Candidates head Northeast for more campaigning

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, October 20) -- The Democratic and Republican nominees for president took their campaigns into the Northeast today, while their allies pressed their cases on television's Sunday morning news shows.

Meanwhile the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup tracking poll showed that last week's debate and Bob Dole's stepped-up attacks on the President's character have not significantly altered the race. Poll results released late Sunday projected Clinton winning by 54 percent among likely voters, with Dole at 35 percent and Ross Perot at 6 percent. That margin is almost identical to tracking poll results released one week ago.

At issue: $425,000 in contributions from an Indonesian couple with ties to an Indonesian business conglomerate. Republicans, charging that the contributions are illegal, pushed the president to answer questions about them.

"I am suggesting that the president tell the American people the truth, and the press ought to press him on this issue," GOP vice-presidential nominee Jack Kemp said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Vivo movies of Jack Kemp on CNN's Late Edition

The Democratic National Committee has called on the Federal Election Commission to investigate, and removed its vice president for finance --- John Huang, a former official with the Lippo Group conglomerate in Indonesia -- from fund-raising duties.

The Democrats fired back, accusing the Dole campaign of accepting $2.4 million in contributions from U.S. subsidiaries of international companies. And the Boston Globe on Sunday reported that Dole finance committee Vice Chairman Jose Fanjul is a Cuban citizen whose company receives federal sugar-price supports.

Dole staffers denied that the Fanjul situation was similar to the Indonesian connection. Clinton allies countered that the campaign contribution flap was a smokescreen for Bob Dole's failures as a candidate.

"We've got two weeks to go until the election," said White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Here's Bob Dole, a major candidate for president of the United States, who is not talking about the American people about what he wants to do the next four years ... he's engaging in a negative attack on the president and it's not working." (16 sec./175K WAV sound - Courtesy of NBC)

But Dole campaign Chairman Donald Rumsfeld, also on NBC, said the American people need to "feel proud of their president."

"They want to feel that their vote was a good one," he said. "... It's a referendum on the Clinton administration and their conduct of office, including their stewardship of the offices of the White House, and it's a pretty sorry situation."

Buchanan: Dole's a 'long shot'

With many polls continuing to show Dole making no progress toward surmounting President Bill Clinton's lead in the race for the presidency, former Republican candidate Pat Buchanan declared the GOP nominee "a long shot."

"(Dole) is going to need some breaks, but I think the aggressive campaign that he is running right now ... is the right approach," Buchanan said Saturday at a fund-raiser for Michael Petyo, a Republican congressional candidate in Indiana.

"I support the Republican ticket because there's only one chance," said Buchanan, who has been less than enthusiastic about the Dole-Kemp ticket since the GOP convention. "We got a chance, but it's pretty much of a long shot of removing Bill Clinton from the Oval Office."

Kemp, however, argued that the race was not yet over.

"We believe with all our hearts that this is winnable," Kemp said. "The American people have not yet made up (their) minds, despite what the polling tells you."

Clinton deputy campaign manager Ann Lewis said on CNN's "Sunday Morning" that Dole's recent focus on the campaign contribution controversy was a sign the Dole camp knew they were losing.

The Dole group, she said, "is trying desperately to change the subject. They really cannot talk about President Clinton's record of achievement and they don't have a record or vision on their own candidate to talk about."

Dole makes campaign stops today in New Hampshire and Delaware, and is likely to continue pushing the Clinton campaign on ethical issues.

The president hit the campaign trail Sunday morning, attending services at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, before addressing a Democratic Senate campaign rally in Teaneck and a presidential fund-raiser tonight in New York. He will continue the jaunt Monday, eventually reaching at least 12 cities during eight days of campaigning through Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia.

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