ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160165
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
note: lede
In a gamble to revitalize his chances of winning the White House, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas announced Wednesday he will resign his seat after 35 years in Congress and devote his full energies to the presidential campaign.
The stunning announcement, which came after earlier reports that Dole would stay on in the Senate but give up his day-to-day management responsibilities, caught Republicans and Democrats by surprise, rendered the White House temporarily mute and sent a bolt of energy through the ranks of the Republican Party.
``My time to leave this office has come,'' an emotional Dole said at a midafternoon announcement. ``I will seek the presidency with nothing to fall back on but the judgment of the people of the United States and nowhere to go but the White House or home.''
Dole, choking back tears as he spoke, was surrounded by many of his colleagues from the House and Senate - including a handful of Democrats. The room on the top floor of the Hart Senate Office Building, with a view of the Capitol dome that has been the senator's home for more than three decades, was packed to overflowing with Senate staffers and reporters.
Dole, who had told his Republican colleagues of the decision in private earlier in the day, spoke for only a few minutes and took no questions from reporters.
But in his brief time before the cameras, Dole made clear he was trying to recharge his struggling campaign by leaving the increasingly gridlocked Senate he once thought gave him the perfect platform with which to contrast himself with President Clinton.
Dole called the president just after noon Wednesday to tell him of his decision to quit the Senate. In a written reply to Dole, Clinton praised his challenger's service in the Congress and said he looked forward to ``a great national debate about how to move our country into the future'' in the fall.
Dole's campaign team said the extraordinary move signaled not only Dole's determination to become the kind of candidate he needs to be to unseat Clinton, but also the beginning of an intensive period of campaigning around the country.
One official said Dole already has plans for visits to 17 cities by July 4, including two multi-day trips to California. Those are intended to be a sign of the campaign's commitment to contest the nation's biggest state.
``Our campaign will leave Washington behind to look to America,'' Dole said.
``We have a hard task ahead,'' Dole said. ``We are gaining, but still behind in the polls. The press does not lean our way and many Beltway pundits confidently dismiss my chances of victory.''
Dole's resignation ends an extraordinary legislative career that encompassed eight years in the House and 27 years in the Senate. He has served 11 years as Republican leader, the longest ever. The resignation will become effective no later than June 11, he said. Dole is the first Senate majority leader to resign his post since Lyndon B. Johnson was elected vice president in 1960, according to the Senate historian's office.
The announcement was a closely held secret, but campaign officials said he has been moving toward it since he returned from his Easter vacation in Florida.
Dole's sense that he could not run for president from the Senate was reinforced, aides said, when Democrats threatened to tie up the chamber to frustrate Dole's legislative initiatives. ``That rattled him,'' an adviser said.
Once Dole decided to quit as majority leader, he concluded he should resign from the Senate ``on the grounds that it was unfair to the people of Kansas'' to skip votes to campaign for president, one Republican official said.
``I heard it on CNN like everyone else,'' said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah., a close adviser of Dole's. ``My initial reaction was shock, surprise, disbelief. Then when I had a chance to think about it for a little while I thought: smart, strong, bold, vintage Bob Dole. He's always had a superb sense of political timing and this was timed just right to get the focus back on his campaign efforts and away from the minutiae of the Senate.''
Clinton's re-election campaign issued a statement attempting to characterize Dole as driven purely by politics and a man who had just made the interests of the country secondary. Ann Lewis, deputy campaign manager for Clinton-Gore, said in a statement, ``President Clinton has said his first responsibility is to govern. ... Faced with a choice between the work of the Senate and his own political campaign, Bob Dole chose campaigning.''
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole gets a hug from hisby CNBwife, Elizabeth, after the announcement Wednesday. color KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT