Press Conference - Announces Withdrawal from Presidential Race

HEADLINE: PRESS CONFERENCE WITH SENATOR BOB SMITH (I-NH) TO ANNOUNCE DROPPING HIS PRESIDENTIAL BID AS AN INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

THE SENATE SWAMP, CAPITOL HILL WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:

SEN. B. SMITH: Goodness gracious! I won't get this many people out for my funeral here. I guess I should be flattered with the turnout here.

Q Yeah, this is more than you got when you were running, right?

SEN. B. SMITH: I know. If I had had these kind of crowds when I was running, I would have—I might have been elected!

(Laughter.)

This is to formally announce that I'm shutting down my presidential campaign effective immediately. Basically, there are two points. One, as far as an independent candidacy, is the cost of getting ballot petitions, of course, is almost out of the question; in 50 states to go through all of that would be in the millions of dollars, which is not possible. And secondly, more importantly, is the money itself, in the sense that once the money stops coming in, you'd still have to—you have to keep the doors open and you have to answer the phones, and without money, you can't do that. And if I shut down now, effective essentially the first of November, my campaign will be in the black, probably in the vicinity of $200,000 to $250,000. I don't have any personal wealth, so I don't want it to go into the red, and it does take time and cost to shut down, and so forth. So that's why I'm terminating today.

I just want to also say that I have no regrets. I've had a wonderful experience. I've traveled all over the country; I've met thousands of people. We have over 60,000 contributors who averaged $30 a piece. The only problem is, Mr. Bush, I think, has 100,000 contributors that averaged $500 a piece. So obviously we had a lot of great support, but it wasn't enough. And I think you have to just accept that. In politics, whenever you enter a political contest, you have to be prepared to lose, and you have to be prepared to win as well. And I accept it with no regrets. And I think my family and I are a much better people for it. My three children—my daughter and my two sons—and my wife were all involved in the campaign and we worked together; it brought us very much closer together as a family, and I got to meet a lot of wonderful people. So it's a plus. And again, I have no regrets.

So I would be happy to take any questions at this point.

Q Will you rejoin the Republican Party?:

SEN. B. SMITH: People have been asking that, and there's been a lot of speculation to that effect. Let me just say this: I'm not going to talk about that, anything that has to do with that, because of the obvious implication, because of Senator Chafee's unfortunate death, of the committee and that situation. And I'm going—in deference to a very, very close friend of mine who has passed away—even though we had political differences, we were very close—and I don't want to discuss this matter until sometime next week, after we've attended Senator Chafee's funeral.

I will say, because it has been established in the media already, so I can confirm, have I talked to—yes, I have talked to Chairman Nicholson over the past three or four weeks. I have talked to Chairman Dupree (sp) of the Republican Party in New Hampshire. I've had extensive conversations with Senator Lott over the past several weeks, as well as other Republican officials, about coming back to the party. But I'm not going to make any further statements on that until next week.

Q Senator Smith, when you left your party, did you tell your staff they needed to resign from their Republican affiliations?

SEN. B. SMITH: No.

Q Senator Smith, did you start these discussions with Senator Lott before the passing of Senator Chafee? Can you tell us why you want to re-enter the Republican Party?

SEN. B. SMITH: As I said, I know that you want to talk about this, but I just made a decision, a personal decision, to not discuss the politics of this until after his funeral. It's just a decision that I made, and I want to honor that.

Q Will you endorse the Republican Party nominee?

SEN. B. SMITH: I'll talk about party politics next week, on Monday.

Q Senator Smith, on your website, your Senate website, you had your July 13th speech where you bashed the Republican Party and the leaders and whatnot. It doesn't appear to be up there anymore, as of today. It was up there yesterday. Is that any indication that—

SEN. B. SMITH: We changed—there are constant changes to the website all the time. I don't know, to be honest with you. I'd have to—I don't know if it's up there, if isn't up there.

Q So you're not familiar with it being taken down or—

SEN. B. SMITH: Well, we have a website, and there are things that come on and off. What are you saying is off?

Q Well, the July 13th speech that was on your website doesn't appear to be on there now. It was on there yesterday. It's not on there today.

SEN. B. SMITH: Well, if it's not on there, what's your question?

Q Is this a move towards—

SEN. B. SMITH: Well, if it's not on there, I assume I have to accept responsibility if it's taken down.

Q Well, is this the first step towards moving back to the—

SEN. B. SMITH: I'm not going to—you know, guys, look, I'm not going to talk about partisan politics or the party or anything to do with a party until next week.

Because of the connection between Senator Chafee's death and the committee chairmanship, I don't want to talk about it until next week, and I'm not going to.

Yes, ma'am.

Q (Off mike) -- the termination of your campaign in the sense, in the context of campaign finance reform?

SEN. B. SMITH: I was asked that this morning with another reporter, and it has not changed my views at all regarding campaign finance reform. People have the right to contribute to Mr. Bush, they have a right to contribute to Mrs. Dole, Bob Smith, anybody else, and they chose to contribute more to him and more power to him.

I support the First Amendment. I wish that everybody supported the First Amendment. I support the First Amendment for the New York Times and the Boston Globe and for all of you guys, whoever you work for, but I also support the First Amendment for those people who wish to give money to a political campaign or to a candidate. I don't think that the only thing we find out negative or positively about Bob Smith or George Bush or Bill Bradley or anybody else should come just from the media. We also have to be able to get our message out, and that takes money. And I think we spend more money on dog food than we do on politics, and I think, frankly, politics is a little more important in this country. So I don't really have a problem with it.

I have no regrets, no animosity. I'm not claiming I lost because somebody else raised more money. I just could not raise the money, and money, frankly, is a reflection of support or a lack thereof, and clearly, those who in some cases had more—obviously had more support, because they had more contributions that were able to help and that's the way the process works.

Q Senator Smith, you're saying no regrets. Part of your campaign was -- (off mike) -- part of it was when you quit the Republican Party. Do you still believe what you said on the Senate floor when you quit that day?

SEN. B. SMITH: Yes. I don't think that's the issue. I think there's been a misunderstanding. I tried to clarify it. No matter how many times I correct it, it still gets misstated, and that is that somehow I left—when I left the Republican Party that I left to run for president. That would be silly. I left $2 million of matching dollars on the table when I decided to run, when I said I would run as an Independent.

So if I was doing it for my own political benefit, I certainly would have stayed in and taken the $2 million in matching money, which I was eligible for—or almost 2 million, a little bit less—and I didn't. So it had nothing to do with that, and I think you have to go back and read the speech carefully and read what it said. It was very specific in areas of concerns that I had, and it wasn't personal about any individuals or leaders or anyone else.

STAFF: Two more questions.

Q Senator, have you had to change those concerns in the last four months?

SEN. B. SMITH: I'll talk about that on Monday.

Q Senator, the reception you got from -- (off mike)?

SEN. B. SMITH: Very positive.

To their credit, both of them reached out to me early on. Even though there was some animosity there, they did reach out to me and ask me to meet with them and to talk with them, and I did. And Senator Lott—I know of no Republican senator who has said—I don't know what they've said negatively or positively, but I know that people in the party have been reaching out to me ever since the day that I left.

STAFF: Just one more question.

Q (Off mike.)

SEN. B. SMITH: I'll talk to you on Monday.

STAFF: One more? Okay.

SEN. B. SMITH: Are you all set?

Q Thank you.

Q Thanks a lot.

END

Copyright 1999 Federal Information Systems Corporation. Federal News Service.
Copyright© 1999, LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.