NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, November 1, 1994
5B
GOP power splintered by defectors in elections
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Prominent Republicans are rejecting and undercutting their candidates in remarkable fashion this year, exposing fault lines within the party and hampering GOP campaigns in several states.
engaged in what could amount to political fratricide.
Republicans stand to make substantial electoral gains next Tuesday. Yet some high-profile party members are
The latest Republican defector is Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who endorsed Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein over the weekend. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led the last week with his endorsement of Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo.
aggressively promoting their independence from President Clinton, who has had erratic approval ratings. But that type of distancing is more routine in a midterm election year than the high-profile defections plausing the GOP.
Some Democratic candidates are
In the final week before the election, the crossovers are drawing charges of treason from Republicans and appear to be helping create momentum for
some Democrats.
Oliver North's Senate race in Virginia has created a deep intraparty rift and attracted the most national attention. The number of North's GOP critics grew last week to include Nancy Reagan, who asserted that the former national security aid had lied to her husband about the Iran-Contra affair and couldn't tell fact from fantasy.
RAISE YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS
USE LESS PLASTIC.
THE ONE CARD FOR CREDIT, CASH & CALLING
The AT&T Universal MasterCard. Call 1 800 438-8627 to apply.
Gunman sparks review of traffic by White House
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — As the sidewalk in front of the White House reopened yesterday after a gunman fired up to 30 shots from it at the mansion, the government took a new look at possibly closing it permanently.
He said a review, already under way after last month's crash of a small plane on the White House grounds, would be completed by mid-January.
Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said prohibiting vehicle and pedestrian traffic on the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue or stationing more guards on the sidewalks were among options being studied to increase security in the wake of the weekend shooting.
"The review will examine whatever means might be available, including state-of-the-art technology, to better protect the White House and our national leaders."Bentsen said.
He was asked if part of the recommendations would include urging the president, who likes to jog near the White House and plunge into crowds as he travels, to change his own habits.
"As far as telling the president he has to change his personal habits, we'll leave that up to you," he told reporters. "It's his decision. But obviously I'm sure he'll give some consideration to this."
White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said Clinton hoped to personally thank the two men who tackled the gunman: Harry Rakosky, 34, of San Antonio, Texas, and Ken Davis, 24, of Hagerstown, Md.
"He definitely will want to get in touch with them ... one way or the other," she said.
Investigators spent the day examining the face of the structure, measuring and taking photographs of bullet holes.
The Associated Press
White House gunman charged
WASHINGTON — The man accused of firing a semiautomatic rifle at the White House was charged with four felonies and ordered to undergo a psychiatric exam yesterday. Prosecutors said a letter taken from his truck "raises questions whether he is competent."
U. S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson refused to release the handwritten letter, which was taken from Francisco Martin Duran's pickup. She ordered him returned to court tomorrow, after the exam, for a competency hearing.
U. S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. said authorities had recovered two letters — the one in the truck and another Duran was carrying when he was seized outside the White House.
Officials previously had indicated that the letter in the truck was an explanation of how Duran's possessions were to be distributed to his wife and son in the event of his death.
Also found in the truck, according to prosecutors, was a shotgun, an arsenal of ammunition, a gun magazine, a machete, sleeping bags and a stuffed animal.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Finnegan told the magistrate that Duran's letter "brings into question whether the defendant is competent to proceed."
Holder said later that the request for the 24-hour psychiatric evaluation was "not an indication that we believe he is incompetent." Nor was it, he said, an indication that prosecutors thought Duran "was at the time of the offense insane."
Competency at this stage means the defendant can understand the charges against him and can assist his attorney, public defender Leigh Kenny.
Kenny said she had no concerns about Duran's competence at this time.
If Duran is found competent after tomorrow's hearing, there will be a preliminary hearing in which prosecutors would have to present enough evidence to justify continuing the case.