Posted on 05/28/2004 12:56:34 PM PDT by jern
RALEIGH, N.C. -- U.S. Senate candidate Richard Burr is getting his organizational chart across the state in place. He has enlisted the help of North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole as his campaign chairwoman.
Dole said she wants to help Burr with his campaign.
"[To] ensure that I have time to give to Richard as he sees needs that come up -- whether it be an advocacy role, speaking, fund-raising. In any way, I'll be there for him," Dole said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
liddy is a stand-up gal. Go get em...we need to get to 60.
By RAJU CHEBIUM, Staff Writer, Asheville Citizen-Times
May 23, 2004
WASHINGTON - Ask Sen. Elizabeth Dole if she'll run for president again and you will get a polite smile and this answer: "My focus is on just being the best senator I can be."
Ask the North Carolina Republican, who became a senator in January 2003, if she'll travel to Iraq to assess reconstruction efforts and the Senate Armed Services Committee member will tell you she'd rather travel to her home state. She'll go to Iraq later.
Arguably the best-known member of the Senate's class of 2003, Dole has avoided the political limelight and focused on learning how to accomplish her legislative priorities and help constituents solve problems with the government.
But some in her home state want Dole to assume a more prominent role in national affairs.
"I give her a B," said John Hood of the conservative John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, in grading her performance. "To get an A, you would need to be in a bit more prominent role. She hasn't been. But she also has not, as far as I can tell, done anything that would diminish the support she started with."
The 67-year-old Salisbury native has been a loyal Republican but also has differed mildly with her party's plan for the nation when that plan clashes with what she believes is good for her state.
And she has traveled across much of North Carolina to figure out what the problems are and what she can do about them.
Most of all, she is working to put her campaign promises in place one by one. That includes the most difficult one: getting the government to spend more than $10 billion to buy out farmers' tobacco allotments so they can grow something else or get out of the tobacco business.
Focusing on her home state
Assuming a nationally prominent role is not part of her plan.
"I'm trying to carry out my campaign promises and also to (put) North Carolina first," she said. "These are the people who elected me. So we try to be responsive in terms of carrying out all those commitments."
A longtime Washingtonian, Dole briefly ran for president in 2000, served as the nation's labor and transportation secretaries, was part of the White House policy staff, headed the Red Cross, and is wife of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, a 1996 presidential candidate.
She counts many senators and administration officials as personal friends. When Elizabeth Dole calls, high-level officials pick up the telephone.
But she has learned that knowing senators socially is one thing, but trying to get work done as a senator involves delicate politicking and building bipartisan alliances.
"The Senate is a world unto itself," she said.
"A number of the issues that I've selected as particular areas of focus are perhaps where people are hurting or have no voice," Dole said. "With all the problems in textiles and furniture, and you add tobacco on top of that, our state has really been hurting."
North Carolina's unemployment rate was 5.3 percent in April, according to the Labor Department, compared with 5.6 percent for the nation. But the state has lost thousands of jobs steadily every year in textiles and other manufacturing.
Pushing tobacco quota buyout
Sometimes Dole's goals clash with those of the president.
Though she supports free trade, she has been unsuccessful in pushing the administration to investigate whether the Chinese intentionally are keeping the value of their currency low to make their products cheaper than U.S.-made ones.
She also wants more low-income students made eligible to eat for free at school, but the administration failed to endorse her proposal. She used Senate rules to include her proposal, which would cost $140 million the first year, into a spending bill.
Her biggest challenge: getting the government to embrace her tobacco-quota buyout idea. Her plan would pay farmers and other quota holders for surrendering government-granted allotments that allow them to grow a specific amount of tobacco at a subsidized price.
But this month President Bush indicated he doesn't support buying the quotas, a move the farm lobby strongly supports and cigarette-makers oppose.
Asked if she's miffed with the administration's rejection of her school lunch and buyout proposals, Dole answered indirectly.
"There are back-alley ways of getting things done. As you become more familiar with those back-alley ways, obviously you are going to do everything to try to accomplish your goals. ... What may appear to be the end of the road - uh- uh, there are other ways of going about this. I'm committed to both of these."
Some of her successes:
-- She's helped obtain money for about 75 additional customs inspectors whose only job it is to stop smuggled fabric and clothes from entering this country
-- She's helped increase federal money for some North Carolina community colleges to retrain laid-off blue-collar workers.
-- Her bill granting the Lumbee Indians full federal recognition has passed a Senate committee and awaits a full vote in the Senate.
She has steadfastly supported the armed forces, voting for measures boosting military pay by 4.1 percent and setting aside nearly $400 million in military construction for the state.
A workhorse mentality
Dole's focus on her home state doesn't surprise Bill Sabo, a political scientist at UNC Asheville, who said that as a lawmaker a senator is a workhorse, not a show horse.
"A workhorse does two things: They look out for their constituents. And secondly, they blend into the working group in the Senate. They focus on their committee work. They are good team players. They don't seek the limelight," he said.
"And there's different ways to play the game. One is to try to shape and influence issues in the public," Sabo said. "And the other way is to win the respect of your colleagues."
Frank Hill, Dole's former chief of staff who left in January to become a lobbyist for North Carolina, deflected criticism that Dole hasn't accomplished much considering her Washington connections.
Much of Dole's time last year was spent getting support for her tobacco buyout proposal and working on her Lumbee bill, he said.
Hill urged potential critics to be patient, saying senators' terms are six years long precisely because it takes a long time to get proposals through what is called the world's most deliberative legislative body.
"It will be a mistake to say that within a year and a half she doesn't have a string of victories up on the wall," Hill said. "The issues that she is pushing are tough. But she feels strongly about them. And she'll push them until she gets them accomplished."
Hill said most freshmen go public to get their name out, but Dole is already well known throughout the nation.
"How much more profile does Sen. Elizabeth Dole need? Everybody knows who she is," Hill said.
"She doesn't need to go on `Crossfire' every night for everybody to figure out who she is," he added, referring to the animated talk show on CNN.
I believe this is good for Burr's campaign.
But if she did, all three of the show's viewers would know who she is!
Indeed. Go get'em Liddy.
She campaigned for my own Senate candidate Nethercutt a few weeks ago. She's a standup gal.
BTW, has anybody noticed, that Bowles got 45% of the vote in 2002, and that he has NEVER polled over 45%?
Assuming we run a good race, (and I think Burr will), we're gonna trash this guy.
Burr was representative for my district for some time after he went to the House-I was very impressed. Redistricting moved my area to a new district, unfortunately.
Richard Burr will do us proud in the US Senate.
I hope this means Burr's campaign isn't floundering.
The recent presidential polls have made me somewhat depressed.
Makes sense to me. Bowles loves abortion and terrorists -- perfect fit for the Libertarians!
Ah right I tend to forget about them. Only been over once to say hi to Pubbie. I would imagine ANYTHING a pol would do or support would bring him condemnation as a socialist by the mix that would inhabit LibertyPost. Support Patriot Act? Evil! Oppose PNTR with China? Moron! etc.
The posters over there have no method of logical thinking. For example, they scorned Burr and Coburn for breaking their term limit pledges. The LPers reason that a term limit pledge means refraining from running for any govt office. Thus Coburn and Burr are RINOS for running for open Senate seats. However, the same posters praise Tom Tancredo for breaking his term limit pledge to continue the fight against illegal immigration. Go figure.
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