Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole came to Salt Lake City on Monday to ask that GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch be re-elected this year - "because I've been minority leader and majority leader, and I like being majority leader better."
Dole, R-Kansas, attended a special fund-raising luncheon at Little America Hotel, where Hatch supporters paid between $125 and $1,000 a plate. The $1,000 donation got the buyer a personal meeting with Dole - who is mentioned as a possible 1996 presidential candidate. Hatch press aide Heather Barney said the Utah senator hopes to raise between $100,000 and $125,000 at the Dole event for his re-election. Hatch already has more than $1 million in cash in his re-election war chest.Dole peppered his luncheon speech and news conference with tidbits about how effective and hard-working Hatch is, how Democrats frustrate good Republican goals and how Republicans deserve the chance to be in the majority again.
"Give us (Republicans) a chance. If we don't change things like we should, kick us out after two or four years," Dole told the partisan crowd.
Republicans are seven seats away from control of the 100-member Senate. "Seven in '94 - that's our theme," Dole said. "First priority - hold the seats we have that are up for election. The Democrats have 21 seats up this year; we have 13." Hatch is one of the 13, and Dole said Utah Republicans must make sure he stays in office.
Hatch is asking for a fourth six-year term. Hatch unseated an 18-year incumbent Democrat in 1976, saying 18 years was enough. Asked if he believed in term limitation, Dole said he was the wrong guy to ask. "The people of Kansas have elected me five times," he joked. But term limits should be approached carefully, especially by small population states like Utah and Kansas, Dole warned. "There will always be 52 House members from California, dozens from Florida. If there were (strict) term limits (taking away the power of seniority) a few big states could get together and run Congress."
Democrats are clearly going to make an issue of Hatch's longevity in their campaign. The Democrats' theme is: "24 Years Is Too Long: Down the Hatch." To counter that, Hatch is stressing what he's done and can do for Utah. And Dole picked up on that.
"No senator works harder. He works 24 hours a day for you, on constituent matters, on foreign affairs, on the military. He was there on grazing (fees)." Dole said Hatch is always prepared, attends committee meetings regularly.
"If we win the majority, Orrin will be chairman of the Judiciary Committee (which oversees hearings on federal judicial nominations). He'll be a a ranking member of a number of other committees as well."
While Dole hopes Republicans can pick up seven seats, he doesn't guarantee it. "I'll say this, we'll win more than we lose." Democrats have controlled the Senate for 34 of the past 40 years. They've controlled the House for the past 40 years straight.
"Sometimes, we in the minority can frustrate the Democrats. It is not gridlock. It is not obstructionism. It is being the opposition." Most of the time the two parties work together, Dole said. "When Bill Clinton does something that is right, we're behind him 100 percent as we should be." But when Democrats want to do something wrong, it is the duty of the minority to change what it can, or stop it all together, he added. "Sometimes, gridlock is good.
"If you give us the majority (in the Senate), this is what we'll do: First, give the president a line-item veto (on the budget). Second, pass a balanced-budget amendment. Third, cut the capital gains rate to get reinvestment going again. Then we'll give you real health-care reform - not a plan that packs the system with bureaucrats. And we'll give you a tough crime bill - one that Orrin is already working on - that will require mandatory minimum sentences and make a criminal serve 85 percent of his sentence.
"Government can make a difference; don't let anyone say it can't. If we'd had mandatory minimum sentences, Michael Jordan's father would be alive today" because the youths accused of killing him would have been in jail. "It does make a difference who is in the majority, for if we're in the majority we'll set the (congressional) agenda, not the Democrats."