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PAGE
7
24TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1988 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
October 24, 1988, Monday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 5, Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 185 words
HEADLINE: POLITICS;
Bush Flier Features Convict
BODY:
A Republican Party campaign flier mailed last week in support of Vice
President Bush's campaign prominently features a photograph of Willie
Horton, the murderer who escaped while on prison furlough in Massachusetts and
then raped a woman in Maryland.
The executive director of the Bush/ Quayle campaign in New York, Steven B.
Kelmar, said that the flier had been mailed to several hundred thousand New
Yorkers.
Mr. Kelmar praised the flier as tough but effective in portraying Gov.
Michael S. Dukakis as soft on crime. The flier was a venture of Victory '88, a
joint operation of national and state party officials, Mr. Kelmar said. He said
he understood the flier was being mailed in other states as well.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Dukakis campaign said yesterday that Mr.
Bush's campaign was using the case of Mr. Horton to stir racial fears. Mr.
Horton is black and the woman raped in Maryland is white.
Mark Goodin, Mr. Bush's spokesman, said he had been unaware of the flyer.
Party efforts like Victory '88 are separate from the campaign,' he said. ' ' We
don't have any control over them.
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1988; CRIME AND CRIMINALS; MURDERS AND
ATTEMPTED MURDERS; SEX CRIMES; ELECTION ISSUES; PRISONS AND PRISONERS; PRISON
ESCAPES; ELECTION ISSUES; BLACKS (IN US)
NAME: DUKAKIS, MICHAEL S (GOV); BUSH, GEORGE (VICE PRES); HORTON, WILLIE;
KELMAR, STEVEN B
GEOGRAPHIC: MASSACHUSETTS
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128TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
October 24, 1988, Monday, PM cycle
SECTION: Political News
LENGTH: 823 words
HEADLINE: Bush Denies Racism, Lying
BYLINE: By ROBERT GREENE, Associated Press Writer
KEYWORD: Political Rdp
BODY:
George Bush declared today "there isn't any racism" in his ads, and he
denied Democratic charges of Republican lying. He campaigned in New England
and rival Michael Dukakis headed for California as the presidential race headed
into its final two weeks.
Reacting to weekend talk of racism, Bush told reporters today. "It's
absolutely ridiculous and everybody sees this as some desperation kind of move,
basing it on one ad."
Bush was referring to Democratic complaints that the Republicans have been
appealing to racial fears in Bush's speeches and ads stressing the case of
Willie Horton Jr., a black convicted murderer who raped a white woman after
escaping from a Massachusetts prison furlough.
"I mean people see this for what it is - a campaign tactic. I stand 100
percent behind those ads. I think the American people are smart," Bush said.
He added that the Democrats are running an ad about a man from a
Bush-supported Houston halfway house who murdered a minister's wife. Bush asked,
"What about their ad about the halfway house? Is that racism against Hispanics?"
"He is upset, not because it's false but because he is weak on crime and
defense. And that's the inescapable truth," Bush said at a campaign breakfast
in Waterbury, Conn.
The Republican candidate also noted new Democratic TV ads accusing Bush and
the Republicans of lying and distorting Dukakis' record.
Bush said Dukakis had denied during their second debate that he had
"raided" the Massachusetts pension fund. "Well, that is flat-out false and he
knows it," Bush said.
In a speech prepared for delivery to a business group in Waterbury, Bush
said, "My opponent now wants to turn back to clog up the circulatory system of
America's economy with exactly the kind of big government schemes the Europeans
are discarding."
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The Associated Press, October 24, 1988
Dukakis was spending the entire day in California, including stops in Los
Angeles and San Francisco, in pursuit of that crucial state's 47 electoral
votes.
Republican vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle was going to be accompanied
by his mother, Corrine Quayle, during his first stop in Missouri. He was going
on to Kentucky.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen was campaigning in
Michigan, Missouri and Arkansas.
Dukakis, stopping Sunday night in Eau Claire, Wis., attacked the Republican
ticket for what he called its "steady stream of distortion and
misrepresentation."
Although Dukakis didn't mention it, campaign vice-chairman John Sasso said
the candidate agreed with assertions by Bentsen and black leader Jesse Jackson
that there were racist overtones to some Bush tactics.
Bentsen told a television interviewer he thought the Bush campaign was
making a racist appeal by focusing on Willie Horton Jr., a black convicted
murderer who escaped in 1986 from a Massachusetts prison furlough.
In 1987, Horton stabbed a white Maryland man and raped the man's fiancee.
Horton is currently imprisoned in Maryland.
Asked on ABC-TV's "This Week With David Brinkley" if use of the Horton case
constituted "an element of Republican racist appeal," Bentsen replied: "When you
add it up, I think there is, and that's unfortunate, and I just don't want to
see this election won on that kind of packaging and that kind of distortions."
In Boston, Jackson avoided the word "racist" but said the Horton case was
one of several "rather ugly race-conscious signals" sent out by the Bush
campaign.
"There have been a number of rather blatantly race-conscious signals that
have had the impact of instilling ungrounded fear in whites and alienation from
blacks," Jackson said after a 90-minute breakfast he and other black political
leaders had with Dukakis.
Dukakis' meeting with the black leaders was the first such gathering since
the Democratic convention, said Dukakis spokesman Mark Gearan. A session with
Hispanic leaders was planned for Wednesday.
Jackson emerged from the meeting pledging to work harder for Dukakis, and on
Sunday night in Atlanta, he delivered a speech calling Bush "one who runs
against civil liberties, civil rights, women's rights, the poor and the
homeless."
In other developments, a new poll conducted for the Dallas Morning NEWS and
the Houston Chronicle showed the Bush-Quayle ticket led the Dukakis-Bentsen
ticket among likely Texas voters by 52 percent to 42 percent.
The survey of 776 potential voters conducted between Oct. 17 and Oct. 20 had
a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
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The Associated Press, October 24, 1988
A poll by the Milwaukee Sentinel showed support for Dukakis slipping in
Wisconsin. He was backed by 47 percent of the likely voters, compared with 45
percent for Bush. Dukakis had led 50-39 in August.
The telephone survey Oct. 14-18 of 687 likely voters had a four-point margin
of error in either direction.
Nebraska's largest newspaper, The Omaha World-Herald, today endorsed Bush
over Dukakis. The editorial cited Bush's experience as well as his stands on the
issues.
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1ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1988 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
October 24, 1988, Monday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section A; Page 1, Column 5; National Desk
LENGTH: 1361 words
HEADLINE: Foes Accuse Bush Campaign Of Inflaming Racial Tension
BYLINE: By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
BODY:
Senator Lloyd Bentsen, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other Democrats accused the
Presidential campaign of Vice President Bush yesterday of inflaming the nation's
racial fears with a relentless emphasis on the case of a black prisoner who
raped a white woman while he was on leave from a Massachusetts prison. The Bush
campaign immediately ridiculed the accusations.
Mr. Bentsen, the Democratic Vice- Presidential nominee, was asked on the ABC
News program ''This Week'' if there was a racial element to the Republican
emphasis on prison furloughs and replied ' 'When you add it up, I think there is,
and that's unfortunate.'
Mr. Jackson, speaking earlier at a Boston news conference, said: ''There have
been a number of rather ugly race-conscious signals sent from that campaign.'
He accused the Bush campaign of seeking to spread ''horrible'' fears. Mr.
Jackson spoke after a meeting of with Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts,
the Democratic Presidential nominee, and about 20 prominent black politicians.
Joe Reed, chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference, a statewide black
political organization, said: ' 'Without doubt this campaign is setting race
relations back because Bush's code words appear to be appealing to the worst in
folk.'
The case of the escaped prisoner, Willie Horton, has been widely used in the
campaign, cited by Mr. Bush on the stump, shown in television commercials by his
supporters and featured in a flier mailed out by the New York Republican State
Committee.
Mark Goodin, spokesman for the Bush campaign, said of the Dukakis campaign's
complaints, ''My advice to them is 'grow up.' He continued, ''The whole idea
is childish to say there is some sort of racial overtone in the Horton case. The
issue isn't Willie Horton, the issue is why did he get out and why didn't
Michael Dukakis stop it.
Mr. Dukakis himself did not say anything publicly about the subject, but his
deputy campaign chairman, John Sasso, told reporters as they flew across the
country that Mr. Dukakis agreed with Mr. Bentsen.
Some of those who participated in the Boston meeting with Mr. Dukakis said
the racial issue was mentioned, although the meeting was devoted primarily to
strategies for turning out Democratic voters on Nov. 8.
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(c) 1988 The New York Times, October 24, 1988
Mr. Goodin also attacked Mr. Jackson for raising the issue, saying: ''It
seems to me that it is the height of hypocrisy for Reverend Jackson to raise the
specter of racism while he has in the past embraced Louis Farrakhan and has made
religiously disparaging remarks about Jews, Mr. Goodin said. ' ' He ought to be
ashamed of himself. Mr. Goodin was apparently referring to Mr. Jackson calling
New York City ''Hymietown'' in the 1984 campaign. Mr. Farrakhan, who is the
leader of the Nation of Islam, a religious organization, has been accused of
racism.
The charges raised by Mr. Jackson and the others today bring to the
foreground an issue that has been simmering in the 1988 campaign, which has seen
the Republicans use emotionally charged images to portray Mr. Dukakis as a
liberal who is soft on crime and out of the political mainstream. They also
reflect the increasingly aggressive counterattack by the Democrats, who are
trying to make Mr. Bush's campaign tactics into a issue of character.
Mr. Horton was serving a sentence for murder in a Massachusetts prison. He
escaped while on a weekend furlough in 1986 and later raped a Maryland woman and
stabbed her fiance. He is imprisoned in Maryland.
Since Mr. Horton's attack on the couple, Mr. Dukakis has excluded
first-degree murderers from the furlough program. But the Bush campaign has made
the furloughs a central issue of the Presidential race, one that polls suggest
has been highly effective in damaging Mr. Dukakis's image and left the Democrats
scrambling for ways to respond.
'One of Those Gut Issues'
' 'The Horton case,'' Bush campaign manager Lee Atwater told reporters last
summer, ''is one of those gut issues that are values issues, particularly in the
South, and if we hammer at these over and over, we are going to win.'
In a recent speech, the Vice President said that the Horton case had ' ' come
to symbolize, and represent -accurately, I believe I the misguided outlook of my
opponent when it comes to crime.'
Television spots on the prison furlough issue run by the Bush campaign have
not included Mr. Horton's photograph or mentioned that he is black. Mr. Goodin
said that was a deliberate decision, not because the campaign thought the
picture would create racist overtones but because it wanted to focus on the
furlough issue, not just the Horton case.
The furlough commercial that the Bush campaign uses has only a few
discernably black faces among the two dozen or so prisoners shown. But its dull,
gray tones make it hard to identify the men by race.
But Mr. Bush's frequent references to Mr. Horton often lead to his picture
appearing in newspapers and on television. It also appears in television
advertising, sponsored by the Committe for the Presidency and paid for by
supporters of the Republican ticket but not, under Federal law, subject to the
campaign's control.
'Fear and Smear'
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(c) 1988 The New York Times, October 24, 1988
Susan Estrich, Mr. Dukakis's campaign manager, insisted today that there was
nothing innocent about the Bush campaign's use of the Horton case. In a
telephone interview, she said: ''There is no stronger metaphor for racial hatred
in our country than the black man raping the white woman. She added ''If you
were going to run a campaign of fear and smear and appeal to racial hatred you
could not have picked a better case to use than this one.
Mr. Jackson also noted that the Bush campaign's commercial on the prison
furlough issue shows prisoners, many of them black or Hispanic, going through a
revolving door.
''It's the oldest racial symbol imaginable,'' Donna Brazile, a Dukakis aide,
said last week about the Horton case before she resigned after talking to
reporters about rumors involving Mr. Bush's private life. ''I mean, a black man
raping a white woman while her husband watched.
Other Images Cited
Representative Charles B. Rangel of Manhattan, who was among those at the
Boston news conference today, said: ''Let's face it, if we talk about a murderer
and a rapist and you have as part of the commercial black folks' faces, then you
don't have to be a Democrat to know that is an appeal along racial lines.
Mr. Jackson said there were other racial images used by the Bush campaign,
including his own relationship with Mr. Dukakis.
' 'The use of the Willie Horton example is designed to create the most
horrible psycho-sexual fears, the furlough ad with black and brown faces
rotating in and out of jail, the use of the Jackson-Dukakis ticket symbolism,
which is distortion, referring to me as a Chicago hustler,' Mr. Jackson said.
No Revisions Requested
Mr. Goodin said the campaign had no control over what commercials were aired
by third parties. But he acknowledged that the campaign had influence with state
organizations and groups supporting Mr. Bush.
Mr. Bush last week repudiated leaflets issued by the Illinois Republican
State Central Committee after Mr. Dukakis denounced the pamphlets as
'garbage. The pamphlets asserted that ''all the murderers and rapists and
drug pushers and child molesters in Massachusetts vote for Michael Dukakis.
Merle Black, professor of Political Science at the University of North
Carolina and a leading analyst of Southern politics, said he had seen a
commercial in that state using Mr. Horton's picture.
''It's the kind of issue George Wallace would have used,' he said. ''This is
updated 1988 George Wallace-style politics.
HOMELESS URGED TO VOTE
By The Associated Press
Mr. Jackson, speaking Sunday at a rally in new York City to promote housing
as an election issue next year, urged the homeless to vote in the Presidential
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(c) 1988 The New York Times, October 24, 1988
election. ''You're homeless, but you're not voteless,' he told three busloads
of homeless people who attended the rally at the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine.
He criticized Mr. Bush, saying the Republican candidate ' 'argued for the
abandonment of the homeless.'
GRAPHIC: photo of Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and Rev. Jesse Jackson (AP) (pg. B5)
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1988; PRISONS AND PRISONERS; RACIAL RELATIONS;
CRIME AND CRIMINALS; ELECTION ISSUES; BLACKS (IN US); SEX CRIMES; CRIME AND
CRIMINALS
NAME: DUKAKIS, MICHAEL S (GOV); BUSH, GEORGE (VICE PRES); BENTSEN, LLOYD (SEN);
JACKSON, JESSE L (REV); ROSENTHAL, ANDREW; HORTON, WILLIE
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8
20TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1988 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
October 26, 1988, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section A; Page 23, Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 532 words
HEADLINE: Campaign Finance;
Independent Groups Putting 11th-Hour Millions in Races
BYLINE: By RICHARD L. BERKE, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Oct. 25
BODY:
Independent groups are spending millions of dollars in the final weeks before
the election for activities to help their preferred candidates. Among other
things, two groups are paying for the television advertisements attacking Gov.
Michael S. Dukakis's prison furlough program in Massachusetts.
This money is being spent by individuals and corporate, labor and trade
political action committees who are barred by election law from coordinating
their efforts with the candidates or even consulting them.
On the Presidential level, most of the efforts are directed at aiding the
Bush campaign. That spending is countered by labor groups who are spending
millions of dollars to get their members to support Democrats. In races for
House and Senate, the independent groups seem to be divided evenly in helping
both Republicans and Democrats.
In a few cases the Bush and Dukakis campaigns have objected to these efforts,
saying they could interfere with their own advertising strategies; in other
cases, the campaigns have reaped the benefits without making any objection.
PAC's Maintain Control
In recent days, dozens of organizations filed financial reports with the
Federal Election Commission, giving a better sense of the outside help
candidates are receiving.
By spending independently, the political action committees maintain control
over how their funds are used. In addition, many PAC's turn to independent
contributions once they have given the maximum donation directly to a candidate.
''We think we've had a positive impact on all the races we've been in,'' said
Stephen D. Driesler, a senior vice president for the National Association of
Realtors, which has thus far spent more than any group to help House and Senate
candidates.
The Realtors have spent $1.3 million in independent expenditures this year,
including $317,365, mostly on television advertising, to help Representative
Trent Lott, a Republican who is running for the Senate in Mississippi.
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9
(c) 1988 The New York Times, October 26, 1988
Some of the most negative advertisements in the Presidential campaign are
being sponsored by two independent groups.
One, the National Security Political Action Committee, operates here through
an organization called Americans for Bush. The group has sponsored television
commercials that feature a photograph of Willie Horton, who was out of prison
on furlough in April 1987 when he stabbed a Maryland man and raped his fiancee.
Bush campaign officials have filed complaints against that committee with
Federal agencies, asserting that in fund-raising the group had misled people
into believing that it was an agent of the campaign.
The group reported to the Federal Election Commission that it had spent $5.9
million this year on independent expenditures. But a spokesman said slightly
more than $2.5 million had been budgeted for television advertisements to
benefit Mr. Bush.
Another group, the Committee for the Presidency, began running radio and
television ads in California last Friday on the furlough issue. The ads feature
close-ups of two of Mr. Horton's victims. The group said it hoped to spend
$250,000 on advertisements. But its financial report showed it had raised
$93,360 as of Sept. 30.
SUBJECT: Terms not available
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112TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
November 3, 1988, Thursday, PM cycle
SECTION: Political News
LENGTH: 785 words
HEADLINE: Bush Denies Racism Underlies Campaign Tactics
BYLINE: By RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: COLUMBUS, Ohio
KEYWORD: Bush
BODY:
Republican George Bush branded as "grossly unfair and untrue" today
suggestions that his campaign tactics were racially motivated, and rejected
attacks on running mate Dan Quayle's civil rights record.
The vice president vowed during an interview on NBC-TV's "Today" show to
"leave the tired baggage of bigotry behind."
Bush heatedly denied that his relentless attacks on Democratic rival
Michael Dukakis over the Massachusetts prison furlough program had racist
overtones in citing the case of Willie Horton Jr., a convicted black murderer
who escaped from a 1986 furlough and raped a white Maryland woman.
"There is no bigotry," the GOP nominee said in the live half-hour
interview. "I oppose that furlough program
"But to go out as my opponent did *** and try to assign me something that is
not in my heart, this charge of racism, is grossly unfair and untrue," Bush
said.
Bush did not directly challenge interviewer Bryant Gumbel's statement that
Quayle's civil rights record was "terrible."
Gumbel asked Bush whether voters would be getting the Bush who supported
early civil rights legislation in Congress or the one who selected Quayle, "who
has a terrible civil rights record."
"You're going to get both," Bush said, "because I stand by my record on Dan
Quayle and I don't like these attacks on his integrity or his civil rights or
anything else."
Bush called himself a man who "was out front for civil rights and I will be
again."
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The Associated Press, November 3, 1988
He added: "I don't have one ounce of bigotry in my body, nor does my running
mate."
The vice president said that "even though a lot of civil rights leaders
automatically endorse whoever the Democratic candidate is, I think most of them
know in their hearts that I am a decent, honorable person who cares about race
relations and will leave the tired baggage of bigotry behind."
On the economy, Bush said spurring economic growth was his answer to
reducing the federal budget deficit and fulfilling his promises to boost
spending for some government programs without cutting defense outlays or raising
taxes.
Speaking two days after the government reported another sluggish performance
by the econoy in September, the vice president said his proposals would be
made possible by future economic growth at a 2.8 percent rate. "I hope it will
grow at even more, and if it does you've got tremendous revenues coming into the
federal government," he said.
Later, addressing a rally in downtown Columbus before he flew to Chicago, the
GOP nominee said he was discounting the polls and political pundits "who are
telling us what we think." He said "it's the people who will decide" the
outcome of next Tuesday's balloting.
As national polls showed him holding onto a double-digit lead over the
Massachusetts governor, a hoarse-voiced and buoyant Bush insisted Wednesday that
he was campaigning all-out until the election.
"Ys things look pretty good nationwide, but I'm going to out-hustle that
liberal governor," he told a high school rally in Lansing.
The rest of his schedule today called for rallies in Illinois, Ohio and New
Jersey, all significant electoral-vote states where the race is close.
Press Secretary Sheila Tate said the campaign was keeping its strategy
options open but for the most part Bush will hold a series of rallies in
battleground states, and will stress some of the themes that he outlined in a
wide-ranging speech Tuesday at Notre Dame University.
On Friday, the campaign will begin airing two new commercials nationwide
both positive spots rather than attack ads - with Bush talking about "the
reasons he's running for president," said campaign manager Lee Atwater.
On Wednesday, Bush stumped in Illinois and Michigan at three raucus rallies,
two of them at high schools. Illinois has 24 electoral votes, Michigan 20.
Bush stole Dukakis' "On your side" slogan when he talked about differences
between himself and the Democrat.
At the rally at Lansing Catholic Central High School, Bush told the students
to tell their parents "George Bush is on your side of the Great Divide."
Bush said the differences between him and Dukakis "are as deep and wide as
the Great Divide," another term for the mountain watershed known as the
Continental Divide.
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The Associated Press, November 3, 1988
"And I represent the mainstream, the mainstream views, the mainstream values,
and they are your values and my values and the values and values of the vast
majority of the American people," Bush told a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich.,
where he was introduced by former President Gerald Ford.
"If I win the election, it will be a mainstream mandate," he said.
Despite his consistent lead in the polls, Bush tells each audience that he is
running like he's 10 points behind.
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3RD STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1988 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
November 3, 1988, Thursday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section A; Page 1, Column 3; National Desk
LENGTH: 1299 words
HEADLINE: Bush, His Disavowed Backers And a Very Potent Attack Ad
BYLINE: The following article is based on reporting by Richard L. Berke, Michael
Wines and Stephen Engelberg and was written by Mr. Engelberg. Special to the New
York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Nov. 2
BODY:
The political commercial that raised some of the strongest doubts about Gov.
Michael S. Dukakis's record on crime seems certain to win a place in the annals
of campaign advertising.
The commercial, sponsored by a political action committee that supports Vice
President Bush, appeared nationally on cable television for 28 days this fall.
It featured a police photograph of a glowering Willie Horton, a convicted
murderer who, after escaping while on a weekend pass from a Massachusetts
prison, raped a Maryland woman and stabbed her fiance.
The commercial is not the only one that has attacked Governor Dukakis over
the administration of his state's prison furlough system; indeed, the Bush
campaign itself has produced such advertisements. But this one is regarded as
particularly tough, both in its language and because of the Horton photograph.
Mr. Horton is black, and some Democrats charge that his photo has injected a
racist overtone into the Presidential race.
The Group Behind the Ad
Although disavowed by Mr. Bush's campaign, the commercial is the work of an
advertising team with long-standing ties to the Republican Party. It was filmed
by a former employee of Roger Ailes, the Bush campaign's leading expert on
broadcasting. And now, in the waning days of the Presidential race, leaders of
the National Security Political Action Committee, the independent group that
sponsored the advertisement, are declaring that they have the tacit support of
senior officials in the Bush campaign.
The group's activities are a case study in how independent political
committees can have a major impact on a national campaign and provide a vehicle
for carrying out attacks with which a campaign organization cannot be
associated. And the controversy that has evolved over the group's role also
illustrates the competition and sometimes outright hostility between campaigns
and political action committees as they vie for contributions.
Senior Bush campaign officials have used strong language to disclaim any
connection to the National Security Political Action Committee, which raised
some of its money with mailings sent out under the banner of Americans for
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(c) 1988 The New York Times, November 3, 1988
Bush. The general counsel to the Bush campaign, Jan W. Baran, has called the
group ''bloodsuckers,' while Mr. Ailes has said of such independent expenditure
groups, ''I hate them.
As for the Vice President himself, a May 4 letter that the campaign sent to
the committee says the candidate ''does not endorse nor approve of your
activities.
A Letter of Praise
The committee's principals say they have complied with Federal election law,
which bars independent organizations from coordinating their spending activities
with Presidential campaigns, but they argue that the Bush camp protests too
much. They say an Oct. 22 letter of praise over the signature of Mr. Bush's
running mate, Senator Dan Quayle, is evidence of what they call the campaign's
true sentiments toward their activities.
In the letter, Mr. Quayle offered thanks for a copy of another videotaped
attack on Mr. Dukakis that was financed by the committee, and called its efforts
''a source of real encouragement as well as a great boon to our efforts.'
A spokesman for the Senator said that he knew nothing about the letter and
that it had been written by an intern who, the spokesman said, signed it with an
automatic pen.
But Elizabeth I. Fediay, the committee's 34-year-old founder, said in an
interview today that she believed the letter was genuine. ''Officially,' she
said, 'the campaign has to disavow themselves from me. Unofficially, I hear
that they're thrilled about what we're doing.'
Surge From Obscurity
In the past two years, Ms. Fediay's committee has emerged from obscurity to
become the biggest spender among independent political organizations. The Bush
campaign charges in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission that
the committee has misrepresented itself as an arm of the campaign and has sought
to benefit financially from that professed affiliation. Most of the committee's
vendors are several companies controlled by a group of Virginia-based direct
mail specialists.
Ms. Fediay (pronounced feh-DYE) said she met Ronald Kanfer, one of the
principals in those companies, nearly 10 years ago, when he was a copywriter at
a Washington fund-raising concern and she was working for the Institute of
American Relations, a conservative organization directed by her father. She said
the idea to form the committee came to her suddenly in 1986, after she had
consulted with several friends on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Kanfer said in an interview that his companies were but contractors for
Ms. Fediay and other political experts who run the day-to-day operations of the
committee. 'We do the job she tells us to do,'' he said. ''We have no say in
their commercials, where they run, their grass-roots operations or any of
that.
The latest Federal records show that the committee has spent $7.032 million
on behalf of Mr. Bush's candidacy, of which $3.4 million has been paid to
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(c) 1988 The New York Times, November 3, 1988
companies owned by Mr. Kanfer and his partner David Kunko.
Using telephone banks and letters to an array of potential contributors
culled from conservative donor lists and other sources, the group has raised
about $9 million since its founding in the spring of 1986. All but about $1
million has been raised in the last 10 months, mostly in donations of less than
$50.
A Letter to Baker
There is no evidence that the committee, in devising the Horton commercial,
received any direction from the Bush campaign. Kathleen Hall Jamieson,
professor of communications at the University of Texas, said the Vice
President could have suffered a backlash had his organization sponsored such an
advertisement.
''To have Willie Horton's picture in the Bush ad would have been
extraordinarily damaging to Bush,'' she said. ''It would have raised much
earlier the question of 'Is this a negative ad?'
Lee Atwater, the Bush campaign manager, said in an interview today that the
campaign had ''a firm policy'' not to use Mr. Horton's photograph ''in any of
our ads.' Asked if such use by the National Security Political Action Committee
had been beneficial to Mr. Bush, he said, ''We have no way of evaluating that.
The Bush campaign does appear to have passed up a chance to remove the Horton
advertisement from cable television.
On the day that Ms. Fediay announced the 28-day run for the commercial, she
had a letter hand-delivered to James A. Baker 3d, chairman of the Bush campaign,
offering to call it off, according to Tony Fabrizio, a Washington-based media
buyer who helped plan the advertisement and buy the television time.
Mr. Baker responded, three days before the commercial was to conclude its
run, with a letter that recounted Mr. Bush's earlier expressions of disapproval.
''If they were really interested in stopping this, do you think they would
have waited that long to send us a letter?'' said Floyd Brown, a political
consultant to the committee.
Mr. Atwater said today that he wrote the committee ''a very strongly worded
letter'' months ago, making clear that he opposed its efforts. ''I don't know
what else we could do,'' he said. 'Everybody involved knows that they didn't
have our approval in any shape, form or fashion.'
The advertisement was produced by Larry McCarthy, who had been an aide in
Senator Bob Dole's Presidential campaign and who was once an employee of Roger
Ailes's company.
Mr. McCarthy said the group's ads were harder hitting than those that could
be run by a candidate's national campaign. ''We were not the Bush campaign,' he
said. ''So we didn't have to worry about our own supporters' being upset or
about attacks from the press or the Dukakis campaign.'
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GRAPHIC: Photo of a campaign ad
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1988; TELEVISION; ADVERTISING; ELECTION
ISSUES; CRIME AND CRIMINALS
ORGANIZATION: ;NATIONAL SECURITY POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
NAME: BERKE, RICHARD L; WINES, MICHAEL; ENGELBERG, STEPHEN; BUSH, GEORGE (VICE
PRES); DUKAKIS, MICHAEL S (GOV); AILES, ROGER; QUAYLE, DAN (SEN)
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5
12TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1988 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
November 4, 1988, Friday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section A; Page 34, Column 1; Editorial Desk
LENGTH: 578 words
HEADLINE: George Bush and Willie Horton
BODY:
When it became known that a prominent adviser to Vice President Bush's
campaign had once made a count of Jews in the Bureau of Labor Statistics for
President Nixon, the campaign dropped him in a flash. When five Bush advisory
committee members were accused of anti-Semitic activities, the campaign dropped
them in a flash.
But when Bush supporters ran an anti-Dukakis TV commercial playing on fears
of black criminals, it took three weeks for the campaign to disapprove. And when
the Maryland Republican Party put the same twist in a scurrilous fund-raising
letter, it took the campaign six weeks to disapprove.
Mr. Bush has, from the start, portrayed Governor Dukakis as soft on crime.
His diffidence in disowning these extreme manifestations of his theme conveys
cynicism. Worse, these events dramatize the need to control the flow of sewer
money outside the official campaigns.
Willie Horton is a black murder convict who raped a Maryland woman and
stabbed her companion while on weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison.
Massachusetts was wrong to furlough a murderer sentenced to life without parole.
Governor Dukakis inherited the furlough program from his Republican predecessor
and eventually ended it - too slowly.
But Willie Horton is not unique. Many states and the Federal Government give
furloughs. Other prisoners on furlough have committed murder. Nevertheless, Mr.
Bush has flogged Governor Dukakis with the case for months. It should not
surprise him that supporters carry it to extremes -nor take him weeks to disavow
them.
The TV commercial in question opened with declarations that ' ' Bush supports
the death penalty for first-degree murderers'' and that 'Dukakis not only
opposes the death penalty, he allowed first-degree murderers to have weekend
passes from prison. Then came photos of Mr. Horton and details of his crimes,
while flashing the words ''kidnapping,' ''stabbing'' and 'raping. The
sponsoring committee says it notified James Baker, the Bush campaign chairman,
that the commercial would run for 28 days, offering to call it off. Mr. Baker's
disapproval came on the 25th day.
He was even slower to denounce a September fund-raising letter from Daniel E.
Fleming, Maryland's Republican Party chairman, that warned of ' ' the
Dukakis/Willie Horton team.' The letter paired photos of the convict and the
Governor with a headline ''Is This Your Pro-Family Team for 1988?' The text
said, ''You, your spouse, your children and your friends can have the
opportunity to receive a visit from someone like Willie Horton if Mike Dukakis
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becomes President.
Mr. Baker disavowed the letter last weekend, six weeks after the fact, but
then contended that Mr. Bush should not be held responsible. Yet in July, before
Mr. Dukakis picked a running mate, Lee Atwater, the Bush campaign manager,
said, ' 'maybe he will put this Willie Horton on the ticket.
The two episodes cast harsh light on the Vice President and even harsher
light on the Federal Election Commission. Presidential campaigns are supposed to
be paid for with public funds. The offensive TV ad was sponsored by a committee
that has spent $7 million for the Bush cause. It could do so because the
commission refuses to stop the flow of funds to independent groups: sewer money.
If the Bush campaign had wanted to stop these individual smears sooner, it
could have. If the commission wanted to stop the flow of funds that makes them
possible, it could, too.
TYPE: Editorial
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1988; EDITORIALS; ETHICS; FINANCES
ORGANIZATION: FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION
NAME: BUSH, GEORGE (VICE PRES); DUKAKIS, MICHAEL S (GOV)
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1ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1988 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
December 1, 1988, Thursday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section B; Page 17, Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 974 words
HEADLINE: WASHINGTON TALK;
Bush and Jackson Seek Common Ground
BYLINE: By BERNARD WEINRAUB, Special to the New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Nov. 30
BODY:
President-elect Bush met with the Rev. Jesse Jackson today and, borrowing one
of the civil rights leader's campaign slogans, said he shared ' ' common ground'
with Mr. Jackson and would seek his suggestions after moving into the Oval
Office.
Mr. Bush also conferred with Norman R. Augustine, president and chief
operating officer of the Martin Marietta Corporation. The private meeting, which
was attended by Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, raised speculation that
Mr. Augustine had been offered a senior job at the Pentagon. Although former
Senator John G. Tower of Texas remains the leading contender for Secretary of
Defense, Mr. Augustine has been mentioned as a possible choice for that job or
for the deputy's post under Mr. Tower.
Mr. Jackson said after the 90-minute luncheon that he and Mr. Bush had
discussed a range of issues, including domestic policy, the civil rights
leader's opposition to the State Department decision to bar Yasir Arafat, the
Palestinian leader, from entering the United States, and the possible parole of
James Earl Ray, who is serving a 99-year prison term for assassinating the Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..
'A Very Bad Signal'
''I asked him not to let him go,'' Mr. Jackson said in an interview. ''He
said he thought the release of James Earl Ray would be a very bad signal for the
nation. He has contacted the Justice Department to get a reading on the case.
Mr. Jackson said he also protested the Bush campaign's television
advertisements in the Presidential campaign about the furlough of Willie
Horton, a convicted murderer. ''The Vice President said it was not his intent
to focus on the racial issue, but to focus on the furlough issue,' Mr. Jackson
said.
Over all, Mr. Jackson spoke warmly about Mr. Bush's efforts to 'keep the
lines of communication open'' and said that ''it is not important that WE agree
all the time,' but that it ''is important that we communicate.
He added: ' 'Reagan had a closed door policy for eight years. You couldn't get
an audience with him.
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The President-elect has begun to try to heal wounds with Republican rivals
like Bob Dole, his party's Senate leader, as well as Democrats like Mr. Jackson
and Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts, whom he defeated in the
Presidential election. Mr. Bush plans to meet Mr. Dukakis on Friday.
In the campaign, Mr. Bush and Mr. Jackson engaged in some harsh attacks on
each other. Mr. Bush called Mr. Jackson a ' ' hustler from Chicago,' and Mr.
Jackson said the Bush campaign was provoking racial fears.
But today Mr. Bush said: ''The campaign is over. I have no arguments with the
way Reverend Jackson conducted himself toward me, and I hope it's the same with
him on a personal basis.
''There will be times in my Presidency when I will ask for his suggestions,'
Mr. Bush said. ''He has a lot of very good ideas that are of keen interest to
our country. Mr. Bush said that his relationship with Mr. Jackson 'transcends
politics'' and that 'there's some common ground here.
Mr. Jackson was accompanied to his luncheon with the Vice President by three
of his children, Jesse Jr., Jonathan and Santita. The three Jackson children ate
lunch separately with one of Mr. Bush's sons, George Jr. Mr. Bush's meeting with
Mr. Augustine, meanwhile, riveted attention on the issue of who will be
Secretary of Defense. Mr. Bush brushed aside questions about disagreements among
his staff about the possible appointment of Mr. Tower as Defense Secretary.
''Stay tuned,' the President-elect said, adding that ''all is tranquil' within
his staff.
Consideration of Rumsfeld
Nonetheless, one Republican said that the Bush transition team had asked
Tuesday for further financial documents from Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was a
Defense Secretary in the Ford Administration, and that Mr. Rumsfeld's name was
under active consideration. Mr. Augustine was also believed to be a serious
candidate for the job, although transition officials insisted that Mr. Bush
still favored Mr. Tower, a long-time friend.
One Bush aide said that the President-elect's meeting with Mr. Augustine, a
former Under Secretary of the Army, was to discuss military procurement issues,
and that it was unrelated to a Defense job.
Meanwhile, as numerous names arose for top jobs in the Bush Administration,
the President-elect's chief recruiter, Chase Untermeyer, said that ''it may take
longer to fill positions in this Administration than ever before'' because of
extensive financial and security clearances.
Mr. Untermeyer also said there was a ''sensitivity'' on the part of Mr. Bush
to appoint women and members of minority groups to high-level jobs in the
Administration. So far, Mr. Bush's major appointments have been white men.
Mr. Untermeyer said that Mr. Bush's ' ' constant theme'' at meetings was,
'Where are the blacks, where are the Hispanics, where are the women?''' Mr.
Untermeyer said names of minority members and women had been sent to Mr. Bush
for senior jobs, ''but he wants more. He added that there would be more women
and minorities in the Bush Administratiion than in the Reagan Administratrion.
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Meanwhile, transition aides said that among those under consideration for key
jobs was Samuel K. Skinner, chairman of the board of directors of the Northern
Illinois Regional Transportation Authority, as a possible Transportation
Secretary. Mr. Skinner was Illinois campaign director for Mr. Bush in the
Presidential campaign.
Sources said that Senator Daniel J. Evans, a Washington State Republican who
did seek re-election this year, was a strong contender for Interior Secretary.
Representative Bill Gradison, an Ohio Republican who is chairman of the health
panel of the Ways and Means Committee, is cited by transition sources as a key
contender for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
SUBJECT: UNITED STATES POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT; BLACKS (IN US); APPOINTMENTS AND
EXECUTIVE CHANGES
ORGANIZATION: DEFENSE, DEPARTMENT OF
NAME: WEINRAUB, BERNARD; BUSH, GEORGE (VICE PRES); JACKSON, JESSE L (REV);
AUGUSTINE, NORMAN R
TITLE: WASHINGTON TALK PAGE (NYT)
LEXIS'NEXIS' LEXIS'NEXIS
Dukakis Oct. 17 expressed frustration at
ness. Some analyists now said it was one of
Rumor Campaign-The Dow Jones in-
A
how the "polls drive the process.
Now
the ironies of the campaign that both
dustrial average fell 43 points during trad-
we've got a new set of numbers that has
candidates were being blamed equally by
ing Oct. 19 when a rumor swept the floor
absolutely no relationship to anything we
the public for the negative tone of the
of the New York Stock Exchange that the
have or other people have, so you spend two
campaign. The ABC News/Washington
Washington Post was about to publish an
or three days responding to questions about
Post poll released Oct. 18 found that while
expose of extramarital sexual activities by
it."
37% of the respondents thought Bush was
Bush.
Bush, meanwhile, held a rare press con-
waging a "dirty campaign," 36% held the
The Post took the unusual step of deny-
ference in Denver Oct. 16, in which he
same view of Dukakis.
ing that it would publish such a story, and
acted like a president-elect, spelling out his
general aims for his presidency. Bush said
Rusting Curtain-Bush traveled Oct. 18
the market finished down only 22.58 points
he would "get this deficit down" without
to Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. for
for the day. The events were taken as an
increasing taxes and would get the Soviet
a speech with historic overtones. It was
indication of how skittish the stock market
B
there in an address in 1946 that British
was on the first anniversary of the Oct. 19,
Union "on the same wavelength" behind
Prime Minister Winston Churchill had
1987 stock market crash. [See 1987, p.
negotiations to reduce conventional mili-
coined the term "Iron Curtain" to describe
773A1]
tary forces.
the Soviet hegemony over Eastern Eu-
The next day, a senior aide to Dukakis
Bush rejected an expectation that a
rope.
was forced to resign under fire after she
blue-ribbon bipartisan panel studying the
Bush said the Russian Revolution was
declared publicly that Bush "owes it to the
deficit would recommend tax increases,
now "losing its luster."
American people to 'fess up." The aide,
saying, "I think I'm identified with the
"The Iron Curtain still stretches from
Donna Brazile, added, "The American
direction in which the people want to go on
Stettin [Szczecin, Poland] to Trieste [Ita-
people have every right to know if Barbara
revenue, for example, on taxes. I would say
to the economic commission
'Please
lis-
ly]," Bush said. "But it's a rusting curtain.
Bush will share that bed with him in the
Shafts of light from the Western side, from
White House." Brazile, who was black,
ten to what the American people are say-
ing.' [See p. 220E3]
our side, the free and prosperous side, are
also accused the Bush campaign of being
C
Bush declined to be specific about what
piercing the gloom of failure and despair
"racist," using "every little code word and
on the other side. The truth is being sought
symbol."
areas of the budget he would cut. Bush also
as never before."
Dukakis met privately with Bush that
refused repeated requests to discuss his
Bush had won an implicit boost from a
evening to apologize for Brazile's "unau-
projected cabinet appointments.
member of the Soviet establishment Sept.
thorized" remarks before the two made a
Counterattack-Dukakis Oct. 19 hit
23, when Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
traditional light-hearted joint appearance
back at what he said were persistent GOP
Shevardnadze paid a call on Bush at the
at the New York Roman Catholic Arch-
distortions of his record on crime. Bush
vice presidential mansion and told report-
diocese's annual Alfred E. Smith Memo-
and his advertising had employed the
ers that Bush "has been involved in all
rial Dinner. ("Some people say I'm arro-
crime issue above all others to shake confi-
high-level discussions here in Washington
gant-but I know better than that," Duka-
dence in Dukakis, particularly in the South
at our talks with the President."
kis joked. Bush said, "I haven't seen so
D
and among so-called "Reagan Demo-
many people so well dressed since I went to
crats." [See p. 753F3]
Chemical Arms-Bush Oct. 21 repeated
In Quincy, III. Dukakis seized on GOP
a theme he sounded at the conclusion of
a come-as-you are party in Kennebunk-
port.")
brochures focusing on what had been the
the second presidential debate, when he
central weapon for Bush: the release under
told a Lancaster, Ohio crowd, "The bar-
Democratic Bedrock-Dukakis worked
the Massachusetts prison furlough system
riers against chemical warfare
must be
to solidify traditional Democratic support,
of a murderer named William (Willie)
repaired and raised even higher." Users of
rousing a blue-collar crowd in Saginaw,
Horton Jr., who had subsequently escaped,
such weapons, he said, must "pay a
Mich. Oct. 18 with a populist us-against-
stabbed a man and raped a woman in
price
a heavy penalty." [See p.
them theme. "George Bush wants to help
Maryland. The woman, Angela Barnes,
753F2]
the people who already have it made,"
had been enlisted to make appearances for
A Bush aide confronted questions about
Dukakis said. "I want to help every Amer-
E
Bush and was quoted by one of the bro-
why Bush in 1983 had cast two of his rare
ican family make it."
chures as asking whether Dukakis had
tie-breaking votes in the Senate to resume
Dukakis Oct. 19 visited the predomi-
"any compassion." [See p. 459E2]
and finance the U.S. chemical-weapons
nantly black Bethel AME Church in New
The second GOP brochure asserted, "All
program. He said Bush had done so
York City's Harlem district for a speech on
the murderers and rapists and drug push-
because as long as the Soviet Union kept a
civil rights and crime. Neither campaign
ers and child molesters in Massachusetts
stockpile of chemical weapons the U.S. had
had yet paid much attention to black
vote for Michael Dukakis."
to keep up. As for sanctions, an aide said,
voters, and black Democratic presidential
Dukakis waved the brochures to the
"The minimum would be the glare of
candidate Jesse L. Jackson had been vir-
crowd and declared, "Friends, this is gar-
international publicity, and maybe there
tually absent from the Dukakis campaign.
bage, this is political garbage. This isn't
would be a diplomatic and economic
[See p. 642F3]
worthy of a presidential campaign."
price." [See 1983, pp. 873G3, 562F1]
Dukakis told of his personal experience,
Dukakis said, "I don't know of anything
Teamsters Break for Bush-The Team-
recounting how his 77-year-old physician
F
more cynical or more hypocritical than the
sters union broke with the AFL-CIO and the
father had been beaten and robbed by an
way the Bush campaign has used our
rest of the American labor movement Oct.
addict seeking drugs, and how his only
furlough program and that human tragedy
17 and endorsed Bush for president. The
brother had been killed by a hit-and-run
[the Horton case] for political purposes.
union had supported Ronald Reagan in
driver. "That's why I've personally led the
For once, Bush was forced to backtrack,
both 1980 and 1984, but the Reagan Jus-
war on crime in my state," he said.
saying the disputed brochures went too
tice Department had lately made moves to
It was the sort of personal statement
far.
take over the union because of its ties to
that many Democrats complained had
The counterattack was the sort Demo-
organized crime. The union said a poll of
been lacking in the second presidential
cratic professionals had been urging for
its membership had found Bush favored
debate, when Dukakis had been asked
months. But analysts said it might now be
over Dukakis by 50%-46%. [See pp.
whether he would favor the death penalty
too late for Dukakis to mount a hard-
627A2, 480C2]
for someone convicted of raping and mur-
G
hitting counteroffensive without also dam-
Teamsters President William McCarthy
dering Mrs. Dukakis. (She had called the
aging his own image.
twice stressed that the endorsement was
question "outrageous" and his answer
Democratic professionals had criticized
for Bush and not Bush's running mate,
"fine," but many Democrats had com-
Dukakis for months for sticking to general-
Sen. Dan Quayle (R, Ind.), or the policies
plained that he seemed dispassionate.)
ities while Bush defined the election, rais-
of the Reagan administration. But McCar-
[See p. 753B1]
ing doubts about Dukakis's patriotism and
thy Oct. 19 clarified his statement, saying
Rep. Swindall Indicted. Rep. Patrick L.
portraying Dukakis as sympathetic to
the union was supporting Bush and Quayle
Swindall (R, Ga.) was indicted by a fed-
criminals and dedicated to military weak-
"like ham and eggs."
eral grand jury Oct. 17 on 10 counts of
770
FACTS ON FILE
10/21/88
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The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
May 3, 1989, Wednesday, AM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 826 words
HEADLINE: Ailes Tries to Walk Away from Horton Controversy, But it Lives On
BYLINE: By DONALD M. ROTHBERG, AP Political Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
KEYWORD: Ailes-Horton
BODY:
Roger Ailes, the media master of the Bush presidential campaign, wants it
known that he did not - repeat, not - make any commercials featuring
Massachusetts convict Willie Horton.
"At no time did any commercial for George Bush contain a picture of
Willie Horton or use his name," Ailes said in letters sent to news
organizations, including The Associated Press.
But wasn't it the Bush campaign that made Horton and the Massachusetts
prison furlough program an indelible part of voters' perceptions of Democrat
Michael Dukakis?
Indeed it was. And the Horton controversy lives on, most recently in an
article written for The Washington Post Magazine by Dukakis campaign manager
Susan Estrich and entitled, " Willie Horton and Me."
The Horton commercials were also at the center of successful efforts by
students at predominantly black Howard University to force former Bush
campaign manager Lee Atwater, now Republican National Committee chairman, to
resign from the school's board of trustees.
Ailes has been trying to walk away from Horton for some time.
At first, the Bush campaign was concerned that the Horton ads would create a
political backlash among voters who perceived the ads as racist.
Horton, who is black, escaped in 1986 while on his 10th furlough from a
Massachusetts prison, where he was serving life without parole for a 1974
murder. He surfaced in 1987 in Maryland, where he assaulted a couple and raped
the woman.
More recently, Ailes is described by associates as tired of being identified
incorrectly as the creator of the Horton commercials.
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The Associated Press, May 3, 1989
The two commercials that featured Horton were produced and aired by an
independent expenditure committee called Americans for Bush, not the official
Bush campaign committee.
As Ailes pointed out in his letter, "federal law prohibits any collaboration
between a political action committee and a legal campaign committee during the
course of a campaign."
This is not to say that Bush never raised the Willie Horton issue.
Before those ads were aired, Bush recounted the Horton case in great
detail. In his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Bush
said it was "a scandal to give a weekend furlough to a hardened first-degree
killer who hasn't even served enough time to be eligible for parole."
The Bush campaign did run commercials criticizing the Massachusetts prison
furlough program. But they never mentioned Horton by name.
One was the "Crime Quiz" ad. The announcer asked, "Which candidate for
president gave weekend passes to first-degree murderers who are not even
eligible for parole?" An unflattering picture of Dukakis moved forward on the
screen.
Another Bush commercial showed shadowy figures moving through a revolving
gate while the announcer said, "His revolving door prison policy gave weekend
furloughs to first-degree murderers not eligible for parole. While out, many
committed other crimes like kidnapping and rape, and many are still at large."
Jesse Jackson and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Democratic vice presidential
nominee, attacked the Horton commercials as racist. Jackson said using the
Horton case "is designed to create the most horrible psycho-sexual fears."
"Grossly unfair and untrue," retorted Bush when asked about the allegations
his campaign was using racist tactics.
Estrich wrote that while Bush and his aides may not have paid for the
television ads showing Horton's picture and Dukakis side by side (Americans for
Bush did), "they took great pride in having found and framed the issue."
Late in the campaign, Ailes was interviewed on the Cable News Network and
said that when he first saw the Horton commercial "I called headquarters and
said whoever's doing that, get them to stop it. And the campaign legal counsel
said we can't stop it. We have had conversations, we've sent letters, we can't
stop it."
Jan Baran, who was general counsel to the Bush campaign, said he knew of no
specific appeal to Americans for Bush to stop running the Horton commercials.
Bush aides did complain that the group's name and fund-raising tactics gave
the incorrect impression that it was an official arm of the campaign.
On Sept. 8, the day after the two Horton commercials began a run on national
cable networks that was slated to continue until Oct. 5, Elizabeth Fediay, head
of Americans for Bush, said she was sending a letter to campaign chairman
James A. Baker III asking him to express "your wishes with regard to
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The Associated Press, May 3, 1989
independent public advocacy of Mr. Bush for president."
She said, "If he asks me to stop advocating the election of George Bush, I
will."
In a letter dated Sept. 27 - after the Horton commercials had run for nearly
three weeks - Baker wrote to Ms. Fediay asking that "you cease using his name,
the name 'Americans for Bush, 4 and any other name that suggests his or this
campaign's association with you."
By then, there were few voters left in America who weren't familiar with the
saga of Willie Horton.
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The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
November 8, 1989, Wednesday, PM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 656 words
HEADLINE: WASHINGTON TODAY: The Good, the Bad and the Un-Ugly of Negative
Campaigns
BYLINE: By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
KEYWORD: Bush-Negative Campaigns
BODY:
President Bush says sure, he'd like to see cleaner campaigns. But he won't
apologize for the hardball tactics that produced his lopsided victory over
Democrat Michael Dukakis a year ago today.
"I don't have to stand here and defend the campaign of 1988. I'd be perfectly
prepared to do it, but I was elected," the president asserted. And why argue
with success?
Bush told a news conference on Tuesday: "I put confidence in the American
people - their ability to sort through what is fair and what is unfair, what is
ugly and what is un-ugly, and be as positive as possible."
Anyway, negative campaigning, like un-ugliness, may be in the eye of the
beholder, Bush suggested. "What some consider negative, others consider
factual," he said.
Bush wasasked his views on the negative campaigning that marked this year's
gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey and the mayoral race in New York
City - tactics that might have been borrowed, after all, from Bush's own 1988
campaign playbook.
"I think everybody would prefer the positives ... But I'm not sure there is
much that a president can do about it," Bush reflected.
He said candidates must be permitted to get their message across in their
own way, and that any restrictions on that message would amount to censorship.
Still, he continued, "Maybe I can have a role in seeing that it gets a little
more positive."
The Virginia and New Jersey races included negative campaigning largely
from the Republican side in the final days of the Virginia race, and with both
candidates in New Jersey comparing each other to a lying Pinocchio, complete
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with growing noses.
Democrat L. Douglas Wilder claimed victory over Republican Marshall Coleman
in Virginia's gubernatorial race, while Democrat James Florio easily defeated
Republican James Courter in New Jersey.
Bush relied heavily on negative campaigning in 1988 from his frequent
attacks on Dukakis' patriotism to the constant airing of ads on the rape of a
Maryland woman by convicted murderer Willie Horton while on a weekend furlough
from a Massachusetts prison.
In the concluding weeks of last year's race, then-Vice President Bush would
VOW on one day to wage a gentler, kinder campaign. Then, the very next, he would
attack Dukakis as a "card-carrying member" of the American Civil Liberties Union
who would torpedo prosperity and bring gloom and malaise upon America.
Sometimes he'd voice positive lofty themes in a morning appearance, then
breathe fire later in the day.
Bush campaign ads, in addition to dramatizing abuses of the prison furlough
program that Dukakis oversaw as Massachusetts governor, ridiculed his rival's
ride in an Army tank and appeared to equate his veto of a pledge of allegiance
bill to disrespect for the flag.
One of the chief architects of Bush's attack campaigning, media adviser Roger
Ailes, resurfaced this year in the GOP New York mayoral campaign of Rudolph W.
Giuliani - - as did Bush's 1988 political strategist, Bob Teeter.
Bush campaigned this fall for the GOP candidates in New York, Virginia and
New Jersey.
The president said Tuesday he still has "great confidence" that Americans
made the right decision one year ago.
"I think they sorted through some of the allegations that this was the
ugliest, dirtiest campaign. And I think they voted on a more positive basis," he
said.
Bush reiterated a view expressed often during the 1988 campaign by his
campaign manager, Lee Atwater, now the chairman of the Republican National
Committee, that American politics were rife with negative campaigning from the
very beginning.
"I don't say anything started in 1988 that hadn't been taking place in '86
or '82 or '80," Bush said. "You know, if you look into history, you're going
to have certain things that are considered negative."
"I think it ought to be a little more positive ... (But) what else can you
do?" he asked. "I'm certainly not going to legislate it."
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The Associated Press
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materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
January 14, 1991, Monday, PM cycle
SECTION: Political News
LENGTH: 544 words
HEADLINE: Ailing Republican Chairman Apologizes for Hardball Tactics
BYLINE: By DONALD M. ROTHBERG, AP Political Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
KEYWORD: Atwater
BODY:
"I was one cocky guy," says Lee Atwater. He had reason to be.
Manager of George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, chairman of the
Republican Party, realizing his dream of being a rhythm and blues guitarist,
Atwater was on top of the world when struck down by a brain tumor.
In an interview with Life magazine, Atwater described his long battle with
the inoperable tumor and how he has apologized to political opponents, including
Michael Dukakis, the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee.
In the 1988 campaign, Atwater succeeded in making an incident involving
furloughed prisoner Willie Horton an issue against Dukakis.
A convicted murderer, Horton raped a woman while on a weekend furlough from a
Massachusetts prison. The Bush campaign used the incident to portray Dukakis
as a liberal who was soft on crime.
"In part because of our successful manipulation of his campaign themes,
George Bush won handily," said Atwater.
He conceded that throughout his political career "a reputation as a fierce
and ugly campaigner has dogged me. While I didn't invent 'negative politics, I
am one of its most ardent practitioners."
"In 1988," he said "fighting Dukakis, I said that I 'would strip the bark
off the little bastard' and 'make Willie Horton his running mate.'
"I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second
because it makes me sound racist, which I am not."
The 39-year-old party chairman described the moment last March 5 when he was
speaking at a fund-raising breakfast for Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.
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"I was on top of the world," he said. "My wife, Sally, was pregnant with
our third child; I was recognized as a musician; my party leadership was intact.
I was one cocky guy."
But as he stood before the audience, Atwater recalled, "I felt my left foot
start to shake uncontrollably. In seconds, the twitch had moved into my leg and
up the left side of my body. I was scared. I stopped speaking, grabbed at my
side with one hand and clutched the podium with the other."
Atwater was rushed to the hospital and within days doctors determined he was
suffering from a tumor on the right side of his brain.
When the Republican National Committee meets in Washington on Jan. 25, it
will ratify President Bush's choice of Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter to
become the new party chairman. Atwater will receive the title general chairman.
Atwater re-entered the hospital this weekend and was scheduled to undergo
surgery to remove dead tissue from the tumor.
Over the past months, he has undergone intensive radiation treatments. At one
point, the amount of radiation being used to bombard the tumor was 50 high that
visitors to his hospital room had to stand behind a lead shield.
"This month marks my 40th birthday - that deadline I set for achieving my
life's goals," Atwater told Life. "I lie here in my bedroom, my face swollen
from steroids, my body useless and in pain. I will probably never play the
guitar or run again; I can only hope to walk.
"The doctors still won't answer that nagging question of mine: How long do I
have? Three weeks. Three months. Three years.
"I try to live as if I have at least three years, but some nights I can't go
to sleep, so fearful am I that I will never wake up again."
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The Associated Press
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materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
January 16, 1992, Thursday, AM cycle
SECTION: Political News
LENGTH: 356 words
HEADLINE: Horton Ad Investigation Closed Without Reaching Conclusion
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
KEYWORD: FEC-Horton Ad
BODY:
Federal officials closed an investigation of the 1988 election's notorious
Willie Horton ad without resolving whether there was improper coordination
between the Bush campaign team and the ad's sponsors.
The Federal Election Commission split 3-3 along party lines on whether to
close the case, which involved a supposedly independent group called the
National Security Political Action Committee.
Such groups are permitted to spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of a
candidate as long as their activities are not coordinated with the candidate's
campaign.
A limited FEC investigation found a number of deliberate phone and personal
contacts between Roger Ailes, President Bush's chief media consultant in 1988,
and Larry McCarthy, a former Ailes employee who produced the Horton ad, during
the time the ad was made and broadcast, according to documents released this
week.
The investigators also found that Jesse Raiford was simultaneously retained
by both the Bush campaign and National Security PAC to perform production
services, "giving rise to a presumption of coordination."
But the FEC general counsel said further limited investigation would not
clear up whether there was in fact coordination, given the "absolute denials of
coordination" by Ailes, McCarthy and others. The commission agreed.
Democrats had pressed for a full-scale exploration, saying the commission
should settle questions about the Horton ad's origin. But Republicans on the
panel said the probe had gone far enough and would not provide the fourth vote
needed for a full investigation.
The Horton ad, which ran on cable television in September and October 1988,
developed into a major controversy and has become shorthand for racial politics.
Horton, who is black, is a convicted murderer who escaped during a weekend
furlough from a Massachusetts prison, then raped a Maryland woman and
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terrorized her husband.
The ad used the Horton case as a club against the Democratic nominee, Michael
Dukakis, who was then governor of Massachusetts. It showed a picture of Horton,
prompting opponents to charge Bush with playing on racial fears.
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The Associated Press
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materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
March 6, 1992, Friday, PM cycle
SECTION: Political News
LENGTH: 680 words
HEADLINE: Bush, on Campaign Trail, Blasts 'the Ugly Politics of Hate"
BYLINE: By RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY
KEYWORD: Republicans
BODY:
President Bush called on Americans today to "reject the ugly politics of
hate" as he campaigned at a cheering, pom-pom waving student rally in this Super
Tuesday primary state.
Bush, who thus far has avoided a direct clash with challenger Patrick
Buchanan over civil rights, blended a warning against bigotry with a call for
voluntary prayer in school in remarks at Oklahoma Christian University.
Bush was cutting short what was to have been a campaign trip lasting through
Monday and returning to Washington Saturday night. Some advisers have been
saying his packed schedule looked like an unpresidential, panicky dash through
Tuesday's primary states.
Bush told the students he was "counting on Oklahomans, you young people
especially to reject the ugly politics of hate that's rearing its head again."
"Antisemitism, racism bigotry, they have no place in the United States of
America," Bush said.
Bush aides say a head-on clash with Buchanan over civil rights now could
prompt his followers to sit out next fall's election. "We want those
conservatives to be with us in November," spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.
Meanwhile, Buchanan campaigned at the Alamo in San Antonio, donning a Stetson
hat and telling a crowd of about 300 at the front gate that Bush had deserted
the conservative cause on taxes and civil rights and tolerated federal grants
for "filthy and blasphemous art."
Buchanan was campaigning in Texas a day after Vice President Dan Quayle
stumped the state, which also has a primary on Tuesday.
Buchanan shot back at Quayle for telling Texans that the challenger's views
on trade amounted to protectionism and would do nothing to create American jobs.
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"There's nothing wrong, my friends, with wanting your own country to win
every competition," Buchanan said. "We've got to start thinking about
Americans - - all of us - - American workers and American business."
Buchanan also poked fun at the president, describing Texas as "one of George
Bush's 13 adopted home states."
"He grew up in a little town near Amarillo called Kennebunkport," Buchanan
said. "He can tie and rope a lobster with the best of them."
Buchanan was in Oklahoma City on Thursday, and a black legislator walked out
on Buchanan's speech to the Oklahoma legislature, claiming his comments were
racially divisive.
But Bush continued to treat the subject gingerly.
Asked by reporters about Buchanan's criticism of the 1965 Voting Rights Act,
Bush responded, "You're not going to engage me at all this way."
"I've got to try to lead the country. You don't get anywhere if you start
trying to tear down the other guy, or appealing to the ugly side of things."
When Buchanan addressed the Democratic-controlled Oklahoma legislature, black
members did not join the applause. One, Rep. Don Ross, walked out, saying
Buchanan's characterization of the civil rights bill as a quota bill "is tainted
with racism."
Another black legislator, Rep. Kevin Cox, objected to publication of
Buchanan's remarks in the House Journal.
Bush has gone out of his way not to join the criticism of Buchanan as a
purveyor of racial and anti-Semitic notions.
He said Thursday, "We reject the haters and we're for the American people,"
but cautioned that he did not intend that as a specific commentary on a question
about Buchanan.
In a Tampa, Fla., speech Wednesday he said, "Without any regard to the
primaries, I think we've got to come together as a country to resist the
politics of ugliness and hate, racial bigotry and discrimination. We've got to
stand against that wherever we are."
Race issues are sensitive turf for Bush. He was criticized by opponents in
his 1988 campaign for using ads about Willie Horton, a black convict who raped
a woman while on a weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison, against
Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.
Buchanan has openly courted the backers of former Ku Klux Klan leader David
Duke, who appears on the GOP ballot with Bush and Buchanan in several states.
Buchanan denies any bigotry or anti-Semitism and on Thursday rejected
comparisons with Duke.
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THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
June 3, 1991
MEMORANDUM TO GOV. SUNUNU
THROUGH:
PD
DAVID DEMAREST
FROM:
TONY SNOW/BOB SIMON TSP
SUBJECT:
THE USE AND ABUSE OF WILLIE HORTON
Democrats have turned "Willie Horton" into the codeword of
the decade. It means: Republicans are racists. They take unfair
advantage of black people. Don't trust them.
Willie Horton's transformation from embarrassment into
rallying cry offers a case study in the politics of deliberate
division. Democrats found themselves stuck with a losing law-
and-order issue, and therefore transformed it into something they
thought might yield political fruit. They cried racism.
If you want to understand the difference between our
approach to civil rights and theirs, consider the following
timeline (a more detailed timeline, with support materials, is
enclosed)
In 1987, the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize for
an expose about Michael Dukakis' prison-furlough program. It
printed Willie Horton's picture. No one called the paper racist.
In April, 1988, Albert Gore raised the furlough issue during
a campaign debate. He and others used it against Gov. Dukakis
racist. during the primary campaign. No one accused them of being
In June, the President first criticized the furlough
program. No one accused him of racism then.
That same month, Time magazine became the first national
publication to publish Willie Horton's picture. No one accused
it of being racist.
By July, national media, including television, had reported
on the Horton story and shown his picture. No one accused the
media of racism.
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wille Horton
2
By July, national media, including television, had reported
on the Horton story and shown his picture. No one accused the
media of racism.
In September, Americans for Bush, a committee entirely
unrelated to the Bush presidential campaign, ran a furlough ad
that included Willie Horton's picture. We asked the group not to
air the ad, and tried to distance ourselves from the committee;
we also instructed all our campaign operatives not to mention
Willie Horton's race.
In October, a Dukakis TV ad included the name and picture of
an Hispanic murderer who had escaped from a federal half-way
house. No one accused Dukakis of racism.
On October 20, 1988, someone asked Dukakis campaign chairman
Paul Brountas whether the Bush campaign was racist. He replied:
"I would not accuse them of that."
It wasn't until October 23, 1988 that Democrats attempted to
convert a losing law and order issue into something more divisive
-- but for them, politically profitable. A group of party
leaders denounced the furlough issue as racially motivated.
The press quickly denounced this new approach. The
Washington Post wrote on Oct. 25, 1988 that it may or may not be
relevant to stress the Dukakis furlough record, "but it isn't
racist."
In short: We did not raise the race issue in 1988. We did
not draw attention to Willie Horton's race. We were the only
group in the campaign that tried specifically to eliminate any
mention of Willie Horton's race -- within our campaign and in the
presidential campaign at large. To repeat, since so many people
seem to have ignored this crucial fact: It was not our ad. We
didn't want it. We tried to knock it off the air. Our opponents
know this.
All we want is an honest debate, conducted in an atmosphere
of goodwill. We're not getting it. They won't address the
facts; they won't even discuss our bill; and they simply deepen
their insults daily. Theirs is a campaign of slander, not of
reason. If our opponents want an honest debate, let them drop
their slanders, honor the facts, and accept our invitation to sit
down and talk about ways to promote true racial harmony.
Willie Horton does stand for a deliberate politics of
division, but not on our part. Democrats resorted to the Horton
issue out of sheer political desperation: They raised it barely
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two weeks before the election. The question shouldn't be whether
we have changed, but whether they have.
If you hear our foes continue to call upon the name of
willie Horton, you'll know that the politics of division are
alive; that the politics of irrational fear are alive; and that
good people of all parties will have to assume responsibility for
saying: Enough is enough. Stop talking trash and start talking
truth.
This is classic Newspeak: We stand accused of their sins.
As one of our most vociferous opponents put it: They don't want a
civil rights bill. They want a political win.
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CHRONOLOGY OF WILLIE HORTON ISSUE
1987
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune investigates Massachusetts
furlough policy and wins Pulitzer Prize. Photo of Horton
is printed. Upset citizens in Massachusetts launch
referendum drive to ban furloughs for murderers.
4/12/88
The first national political use of the issue occurs when
Al Gore attacks Dukakis over "weekend passes for first-
degree murderers" in a New York debate.
6/9/88
Bush criticizes Dukakis furlough program for first time.
Does not mention Horton.
6/20/88
Time's 6/27 issue describes how Horton "haunts" Dukakis'
campaign. The articles represents the first time
Horton's photo is published nationally.
6/22/88
Bush renews his attack on furloughs and first mentions
Horton by name.
6/30/88
Reader's Digest publishes the entire Horton story, its
first major nationwide exposure. Horton's photo is not
used, nor is his race mentioned.
7/31/88
A Washington Post article by Tom Edsall says: "Horton's
picture has appeared repeatedly on network television
news..."
9/88
Americans for Bush, an independent expenditure committee,
airs an ad criticizes Dukakis' furlough program. The ad
prominently displays Horton's picture. This ad was then
repeatedly mis-identified on network news as a "Bush ad."
At the same time, the Bush campaign was running its
"revolving door" ad, which neither mentioned Horton nor
showed his face. The Bush campaign never used Horton's
photo in any way at any time.
10/88
A Dukakis TV ad uses the name and photo of a Hispanic
murderer who escaped from a federal half-way house.
10/20/88
Dukakis campaign chairman Paul Brountas is asked if he
thought the Bush camapaign was racist. He said, "I would
not accuse the campaign of that."
10/23/88
Sen. Bentsen, Jesse Jackson, Paul Kirk, Rep. Mervyn
Deymally, and Rep. Charles Rangel all simultaneously
denounce the Bush campaign as racist for using the
furlough issue.
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10/25/88 A Washington Post editorial cites "the Dukakis campaign's
new charge that the Bush campaign is making racist
appeals. We think it's a phony
...
Massachusetts
is the only state that furloughed preisoners sentenced
to life without parole, and that for 11 years Mr. Dukakis
supported that policy and resisted attempts to end it.
It may or may not be relevant to stress that, but it
isn't racist."