UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
White House visits questioned
John Huang fired from DNC
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Democratic fund-raiser John Huang's frequent and lengthy White House visits raise questions about what was discussed with whom and whether he honored the legal separation between campaign activities and governing, ethics and legal experts said.
Secret Service logs show that Huang, at the center of a bubbling controversy over foreign-linked political donations, went to the executive mansion at least 65 times
this year, often for hours at a time.
The newly disclosed records do not show what Huang's business was at the White House, but they indicate that he was a far more frequent visitor than the Clinton administration has previously acknowledged.
Rep. William Clinger, R-Pa., chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, demanded yesterday that the Clinton administration surrender computer records identifying who Huang went to see by noon today.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry told reporters, "We have no indications that there was anything improper" about Huang's visits. He said he did not have a full list of Huang's contacts at the White
House but said there was no reason to review each one.
The logs show Huang was admitted to the White House 21 times in February after he had quit a high-ranking Commerce Department job and joined the Democratic National Committee, where he has organized fund-raisers attended by the president. Two such events took place in February and May.
Huang, who pulled in an estimated $4 million to $5 mullion from Asian Americans this year, recently was stripped of his fund-raising duties by the DNC. The committee has returned some contested donations. Huang remains on the party's payroll.
Federal laws designed to avoid conflicts of interest strictly limit the
kinds of activities that the White House may undertake in dealings with party officials like Huang.
Ethics and legal experts said yesterday that it would be unlawful for Hunting to have exchanged any commitments between contributors to the Democrats and White House officials.
Ann McBride, president of Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that lobbies for tighter restrictions on campaign spending, said: "It raises serious questions ... about whether Mr. Huang was an intermediary between these contributors and policy in the White House."
By law, campaign officials must not be involved in governing or policy-making, and any fund raising at the White House is prohibited.
Survey predicts incumbent win
Associated Press poll picks Clinton
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton entered the campaign's final weekend leading in more than enough states to win a second term, but was locked in a tight race with Bob Dole in the Mountain West and across the South, according to a 50-state Associated Press survey.
Benefiting from leads in Pacific states and the industrial belt stretching from New Jersey to Illinois, Clinton was clearly leading in 25 states and the District of Columbia with a combined 314 electoral votes — 44 more than the 270 needed to win the White House, according to the AP review.
Dole could bank on fewer than a dozen states and 100 electoral votes.
The review involved state polling data and interviews with campaign and party officials. Ross Perot's support was approaching double digits in many states, but he was still a distant third everywhere.
"Bob Dole is the underdog," GOP Chairman Haley Barbour said Thursday in a considerable understatement. "But he can still win."
As Dole sought a dramatic comeback, and Clinton bid for an Electoral College landslide, the key in the closing days was a dozen
tossup states in which neither candidate could claim a comfortable lead.
This group included several traditional Republican strongholds that have eluded Dole throughout the fall: Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Virginia and South Dakota. Other battlegrounds included Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Nevada, Montana and Colorado.
Republicans put Louisiana on this list, too, though Democrats said Clinton's lead is comfortable there.
Interest groups trying different tactics
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — From the quiet flow of Christian Coalition voter guides to the highly targeted radio and mail campaigns of other groups, special interests are weighing in to influence elections nationwide in the final days of the 1996 campaign.
A few well-heeled groups have waged highly visible and expensive
television campaigns. Many others are engaging in guerrilla politics, activities that fall below the radar of national news coverage.
"We've seen a tremendous influx of a lot of groups doing this," said Tanya Metaksa, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, which has campaigned independently since the late 1970s.
In at least three states Arkansas,
Kansas and Ohio — television spots are being aired in support of Republican candidates by a Washington-based group with ties to Lyn Nofziger, a GOP operative and former Reagan administration official.
An editorial in an Arkansas newspaper described the Citizens for the Republic Education Fund as a stealth bomber making dubious charges and hoping to affect the outcome of a
cliffhanger senate race for the state attorney general.
The group has also targeted the Kansas Senate race pitting Democrat Jill Docking against GOP Rep. Sam Brownback.
Nofziger said the group, a revival of a political committee he and President Reagan organized in the 1980s, was attempting to counter the impact labor money had made in a few key races.
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