ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO POLITICS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
In a dramatic bid to revive his White House campaign, Bob Dole dispatched his top aide Wednesday to urge Ross Perot to quit the presidential race and endorse the Republican ticket, GOP and Reform Party sources said.
Dole campaign manager Scott Reed made the urgent entreaty at a meeting with Perot in Dallas, according to several sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Neither Dole nor Perot had immediate comment. Shortly before the meeting, a Reform Party source said it was highly unlikely Perot would agree to abort his candidacy. Separately, Perot spokeswoman Sharon Holman said she was not aware of any Perot-Reed meeting but said emphatically: ``Mr. Perot has no intention of quitting the race, no intention whatsoever.''
Clinton aides cast Reed's mission as proof of Dole's desperation and suggested the former Kansas senator was out of step with Perot voters. ``We believe that on the issues that are most important to Mr. Perot - the deficit, campaign finance reform - we have a stronger record,'' said Clinton campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart.
The entreaty was evidence of the deep frustration within the Dole camp as the 1996 campaign entered the final 12 days with Clinton comfortably ahead in national polls and enjoying a similarly lopsided advantage in state-by-state electoral vote counts. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, for example, had Clinton at 52 percent, Dole at 35 percent and Perot at 6 percent.
In the view of some Dole advisers, a Perot endorsement could swing several states in Dole's favor, especially in the Mountain West. And in Texas and Florida, traditionally Republican states where Clinton and Dole are running neck-and-neck, Perot garners roughly 6 percent in the polls.
More significantly, the GOP sources suggested such a dramatic development would throw what has been a stable race into sudden turmoil, perhaps giving Dole one last chance to overtake Clinton. Ironically, it was Perot's decision to quit the 1992 race just before the Democratic convention that helped boost Clinton from third place to first. Perot later rejoined the race and ran third with 19 percent.
Dole decided to go forward with the entreaty despite Perot's unpredictability and recent bad blood between the Dole and Perot camps. Dole's campaign insisted Perot be excluded from the presidential debates, drawing sharp criticism from Perot and Reform Party running mate Pat Choate.
Just what the Dole camp had to offer Perot was unclear; one Dole adviser noted the GOP candidate recently proposed a commission to draft a sweeping rewrite of campaign finance laws, and said perhaps Perot could be offered a leading role.
While surprised to hear of the entreaty, several Republicans suggested Reed would not have traveled to Dallas unless he had some reason to believe Perot was open to his proposal. But Holman's comments suggested otherwise. ``Ross Perot is in the race to stay,'' she said.
Indeed, as Dole campaigned in Jacksonville, Fla., Wednesday, a small plane buzzed overhead trailing an American flag and the message: ``Don't Export Jobs - Vote Perot.''
One Dole adviser said Perot might be open to the idea because he is facing the embarrassing prospect of getting less than 10 percent of the vote four years after he was a major campaign force.
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