• It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Buttman!
• A Few Dollars More
• New York Makes It Easier
• Il Duce Joins The Debate
• Reform Party Keeps on Rolling
• Emerson To Run For Late Husband's House Seat
• Stockman Aide Wields A Poison Pen
• He Doesn't Recall

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Buttman!

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AllPolitics, July 11) -- Plagued by a human cigarette lurking around the edges of rallies over the last few weeks, Bob Dole's campaign is finally taking steps to extinguish the biggest butt on the campaign trail. "Mister Butt Man" appeared on Wednesday at a Dole rally outside of a Manchester plant, only to fall victim to a GOP counter-attack. Standing on one side of Buttman was an individual with a sign reading "Clinton's Next National Security Advisor," with an arrow pointing at the campaign celebrity. On the other side, a similar sign reading, "The Next Craig Livingstone" pointed to Buttman. When the masked man realized his game was up, he tried to move to another part of the crowd but the signs dogged him at every turn. Dole press secretary Nelson Warfield acknowledged that the identities of Buttman's foes may be known to local Republican organizers.

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A Few Dollars More

SAN DIEGO (AllPolitics, July 11) -- With the Republican National Convention a little more than a month away, the San Diego Host Committee has announced that it needs $3 to $4 million dollars in addition to the $11.2 million it claims to have already raised. Though the projected cost of the convention still stands at $30 million, there is some disagreement whether the host committee managed to raise all of the promised $11.2 million. "There's a hole to filled. Everyone has confidence that it will be done and the host committee has raised more money than anyone in the history of political conventions," said convention manager William Greener on Wednesday. By comparison, Houston raised $4.5 million for the 1992 GOP convention.

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New York Makes It Easier

ALBANY, N.Y. (AllPolitics, July 11) -- The nation's toughest ballot access laws are almost sure to be eased, after the New York state Assembly gave final, unanimous approval to the legislation. Andrew Greenblatt, head of the New York's Common Cause chapter, called the Assembly session "a night of historic change...No longer will New York elections be decided in the courtroom." Republican Gov. George Pataki is expected to approve the legislation, since he proposed it.

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Il Duce Joins The Debate

SANTA ROSA, CA (AllPolitics, July 11) -- A challenger to Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Calif.) is demanding that Riggs remove from his campaign office window an article linking her family to the Mafia and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and apologize for displaying it. Michela Alioto, the granddaughter of former mayor of San Francisco Joe Alioto, is angry at an article on the congressional race in the May 24 edition of conservative magazine Human Events, which mentioned a 1970 Look Magazine article tying Joe Alioto to Mussolini and organized crime. The article did not mention that Alioto later won a libel settlement from Look. Michela Alioto called for Riggs to disavow the article as an ethnic slur and apologize. Riggs campaign manger Pam Simpson says that they will not apologize, though. "The article is about the race," Simpson told the Associated Press. "It's not about her (Alioto). It's not about Mussolini. It's about the race."

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Reform Party Keeps on Rolling

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AllPolitics, July 11) -- Volunteers for Ross Perot's Reform Party have succeeded in adding Nevada to the list of 22 states where the party will be on the November ballot. Though Nevada state law requires only 3,761 signatures, Reform Party volunteers turned in more than 6,000 names the day after former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm announced his bid for the nomination. Ross Perot has also indicated that he will run if nominated.

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Emerson To Run For Late Husband's House Seat

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AllPolitics, July 11) -- Jo Ann Emerson has announced that she will run as an independent for the House seat of her late husband, Republican Rep. Bill Emerson, who died last month of lung cancer. "In these critical times, southern Missouri needs someone who knows how to get things done, someone who knows Missouri, but someone who can hit the ground running on day one in Congress," Emerson said Wednesday. A lobbyist for the past two years, Emerson, 45, is forced to run as an independent because the filing deadline was March 28.

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Stockman Aide Wields A Poison Pen

HOUSTON (AllPolitics, July 11) -- After an unflattering profile of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.) appeared in Texas Monthly, Stockman chief of staff Cory Birenbaum sent the author a letter suggesting she engaged in oral sex to get her job and had "heavy legs." Birenbaum told writer Mimi Swartz she got her job "for reasons I would refuse to speculate upon in polite society. (Hope your knees have healed up nicely)." Birenbaum told the Associated Press his remark wasn't mean to imply a sexual act, but that she had begged for the job. Swartz's article called Stockman the "class clown" of freshman Republicans for his defense of militia groups and criticism of Attorney General Janet Reno and said he fits the archetype of "politician as adolescent."

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He Doesn't Recall

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AllPolitics, July 11) -- Arkansas banker Herby Branscum, Jr., one of the two defendants in the second Whitewater trial, denied allegations he conspired with Clinton aide Bruce Lindsey to hide from the IRS some $30,000 in campaign funds for Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial primary. Pressed to explain logs from May 25, 1990 that show phone calls between Lindsey's Arkansas home and his office, Branscum told jurors he's "wracked" his brain, but said, "I don't recall talking to Bruce; I don't recall talking to anyone that day about a cash withdrawal." Instead, Branscum said he and another top campaign official wanted to discuss a campaign trouble spot, Perry County, Ark. It was his second day on the stand rebutting charges by the government's star witness, Perry County Bank president Neal T. Ainley, who testified Branscum and partner Robert M. Hill, hid campaign withdrawals from tax authorities.

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