Dole to Quit Senate to Devote Time to Presidential Race

WASHINGTON — In the boldest political gambit of his long career, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said Wednesday that he will quit his Senate seat to devote full time and energy to his presidential campaign--as “a private citizen, a Kansan, an American, just a man.”

“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 said in a brief speech during which his voice cracked several times.

He said it was his “obligation to the Senate and to the people of America to leave behind all the trappings of power, all comfort, all security” as he seeks the highest office in the land.

The 72-year-old presumptive GOP nominee said his resignation as the senior senator from Kansas will be effective “on or before June 11,” giving the state’s Republican governor time to name a replacement who will hold the Senate seat until the November election.

Dole’s decision--designed to galvanize his flagging bid for the White House--shocked most of his closest friends, advisors and Senate colleagues, but they all quickly hailed the news as a brilliant move.

“He is free at last,” said Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), elated that Dole will no longer be saddled with the image of a Senate insider mired in partisan gridlock.

“For the first time, he can go out and create his own environment--unencumbered by what’s going on here in the Senate,” Mack said.

On the other hand, it was only a few weeks ago that many of those same friends and advisors had hailed Dole’s decision to stay in the Senate. At the time, Republican strategists argued that by demonstrating legislative leadership, Dole would be able to draw a sharp contrast to President Clinton, proving to Americans that he was a “doer, not a talker.”

As recently as mid-April, Dole himself publicly scoffed at suggestions that he step down as majority leader. Interviewed on “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” on PBS, Dole had called such a move “ludicrous” and said in jest that he would do so only if “President Clinton steps down and turns it over to Al Gore . . .”

But instead of demonstrating his legislative mastery, Dole’s return to the Senate after the end of the Republican primaries quickly bogged him down in legislative gridlock, which drove his standing with voters ever lower. With a series of polls showing him far behind Clinton and with a growing sense of foreboding in Republican ranks, Dole changed his mind about his legislative post.

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Aides said Dole had begun considering the move during the congressional Easter recess, which he spent on vacation in Florida. He had consulted only his wife, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, campaign manager Scott Reed and former Presidents Ford and Bush.

Apparently not one senator knew of Dole’s decision until the news began filtering out Tuesday. And neither did House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) or Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas).

“It was a shocker,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

In announcing his resignation, Dole acknowledged the gap in the polls but insisted he was not worried.

“I do not find this disheartening, and I do not find it discouraging,” he said of the poll numbers. “This is where I touch the ground, and it is in touching the ground, in moments of difficulty, that I have always found my strength. I have been there before. I have done it the hard way. And I will do it the hard way once again.”

Dole then expressed his “absolute confidence in the victory that to some may seem unattainable.”

The resignation does not constitute the start of a drive to “redefine” himself, said campaign aides. Indeed, Dole strategists have often pointed at Clinton’s efforts at redefinition as a serious weakness in the president.

Instead, said a top official, Dole’s move “is an effort to make the transition from legislative leader to national leader and future president.”

Whatever it is called, however, the move instantly changed the dynamics of the presidential race, and with his 35-year tie to Congress about to be severed, Dole began quickly to try to distance himself from the Legislature and from Washington.

“With all due respect to Congress, America has been my life,” Dole told a jam-packed Capitol Hill audience that included his wife and his daughter, Robin.

“My time to leave this office has come,” he said.

Dole will campaign in Chicago today. As an indication of the interest generated by his announcement Tuesday, he will be trailed for the first time in months by a plane filled to capacity with reporters.

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Over the weekend, Dole plans to campaign in North Carolina and Florida. And in coming months, according to a top campaign aide, Dole will spend three to four days a week on the hustings. He is now scheduled to visit at least 17 cities before the July 4 weekend.

For all their enthusiasm about the dawning of a new phase in Dole’s campaign, however, some supporters and aides conceded that it comes with inherent risks.

One immediate problem will be money. Under federal law, Dole and Clinton can each spend $37 million before their party conventions in August. Last month, Dole’s campaign filing with the Federal Election Commission indicated he had only $2 million left to cover his campaign expenses for the 4 1/2 months from April through the GOP convention in mid-August. White House officials insist that Dole has since spent nearly all of that $2 million.

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Dole’s new strategy also requires him to be an inspiring candidate who can articulate a compelling vision. It has not been his strong suit, although Dole has been improving as a stump speaker. He also has taken pains to greet and shake hands with supporters at campaign events.

“There is no question it will be tough,” a campaign aide conceded. “The bad news is Bob Dole is not as well defined as he should be . . . [But] we’ve got plenty of time to do that.”

In the Senate, Republicans plan to hold elections in about a month to select a new majority leader as well as other top leaders. Among the likely candidates for Senate majority leader are Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, both of Mississippi; Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico; and Don Nickles of Oklahoma.

The last Senate leader to seek the presidency, then-Republican leader Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee, stepped aside to run in the 1980 GOP primaries. But after he withdrew from the race, Baker resumed his Senate post.

And in 1960, then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas kept his job while running first for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960 and then as John F. Kennedy’s running mate. Unlike in Texas, Kansas does not provide for a candidate to run for two offices at once.

Times staff writers John M. Broder, Ronald Brownstein, Janet Hook, Elizabeth Shogren and Robert L. Jackson contributed to this story.