Campaign Journal

By Alessandra Stanley/Concord

Jack Kemp, the Boy Scout of supply-side economics, hates to speak ill of others. Like the "good shepherd" he so often cites, Kemp wants to convert both foe and friend to his vision of boundless growth through tax cuts and monetary reform. But so far his gauzy optimism has proved more boring than inspirational to voters; for months, he has idled near the bottom of the polls. Last week Pollyanna began to look more like Cruella De Ville: Kemp unleashed an uncharacteristically hard-nosed campaign that managed to rattle both George Bush and Bob Dole. In so doing, he elbowed his way into the "Bob and George" show and enhanced the prospect that he, rather than Pat Robertson, would become the conservative alternative to the two front runners.

At a Catholic high school in Des Moines last week, Bush became so incensed when a young woman read questions about his flip-flops on abortion from a Kemp flier that he took it from her, tore it in two and declared, "Finis." That one gesture guaranteed week-long coverage for the conservative New York Congressman.

Dole, bracing himself for Bush to run negative ads about his wealth and his wife's trust fund, was blind-sided by a Kemp attack on Social Security. Some 120,000 elderly Iowans received an official-looking brown envelope marked IMPORTANT SOCIAL SECURITY INFORMATION ENCLOSED; in fact it contained Kemp material lambasting Dole's efforts to freeze cost-of-living adjustments in 1985. Outraged, Dole stormed across Iowa, accusing Kemp of using "marginal" tactics "to scare old people." Kemp Strategist Roger Stone exulted, "When you're attacked, it means you're in the race."

Kemp's negative TV ads have done the most to get him back in the race. He shot up to 15% in a Gallup poll of New Hampshire Republicans after running an ad painting Bush and Dole as closet advocates of higher taxes. Another Kemp commercial attacked the two front runners for supporting an oil-import fee. Then in Iowa last week, Kemp unleashed a visually powerful ad that showed him rescuing Social Security from the clutches of Dole and Bush.

Kemp resents being called a mudslinger. "Hey, who has been made more fun of economically than Jack Kemp?", he indignantly retorts. "Gollee, if this is mudslinging, then it's the end of the two-party system." He felt compelled to take a sharper approach in his advertising because his positive style had left him stalled, but he still finds it hard to be negative in person. "We've tried to get him to use it in his speeches," sighed his friend and fellow conservative, Senator Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire. "He won't." Indeed, addressing the New Hampshire legislature on Thursday, Kemp didn't even mention the heresies of Dole and Bush. He was his old positive self, sunnily extolling democracy, tax cuts, free enterprise, Thomas Jefferson and the space program. Afterward, the man whom aides have tried to wean from expounding at length on the gold standard had only one regret: "I wish I had time to mention Bretton Woods."