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CNN Live At Daybreak

Elizabeth Dole To Announce She'll Run For Senate

Aired September 11, 2001 - 07:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're talking about another comeback today as well in the political circles, big news coming out of North Carolina. Elizabeth Dole is expected to announce she's running for the Senate seat being vacated by Jesse Helms.

So let's go to CNN's senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, for some insights on a Dole candidacy -- good morning, Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

LIN: All right, so she's going to make it official this afternoon, Elizabeth Dole going home to Salisbury, North Carolina (ph) to officially announce. By her going back to Salisbury, her reregistering her -- her putting her voter registration in North Carolina, does this eliminate the carpetbagger issue, do you think?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it doesn't entirely eliminate it, but, look, she was born and raised in North Carolina, lived there a lot of her life. She went to Duke University. Now she has lived in Kansas and most of the time in Washington for the last three decades. But I think North Carolinians recognize her as a native North Carolinian, unlike, say, Hillary Rodham Clinton who, when she moved to New York, had never lived or worked there before.

LIN: Has she had that conversation yet with Senator Jesse Helms? Does she have his support?

SCHNEIDER: I don't think he's explicitly given her his support, but she has indicated that she is interested in running for his seat. There is at least one other important contender in the Republican primary race in North Carolina, Richard Binruth (ph), the former mayor of Charlotte, who has run for governor unsuccessfully twice, so he's known statewide.

At this point it's not clear what Jesse Helms is going to do, but one thing is very clear and that's that the Republican National Committee was pleased and delighted to see Elizabeth Dole run because she's a celebrity and they want the Republicans to hold onto this seat.

LIN: Yes, very charming. People who have met her in person know how persuasive she can be. Is it going to be a very different sort of race than the kind of race, the kind of campaign she ran when she ran for president? SCHNEIDER: Sure. It's a local campaign and you've got to make sure local people whom you might not have met or have no relations with, that they know you, they feel that they can call you. The Republican primary in North Carolina is a very small affair, maybe 300,000 voters. A lot of them are very hard core conservatives. She's got to make sure she doesn't offend them. A lot of Christian conservatives in North Carolina, gun owners. She's got to build some fences and make some friends where she really doesn't know a lot of people.

LIN: All right, well, what do you think is going to be the culminating issue, do you think, in her campaign? Are there any controversies lurking for Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think the biggest issue of all next year is likely to be the economy, unless things dramatically improve. And that means that even though she is a celebrity and the polls are showing her far ahead right now in both the primary and the general election, if the economy continues to drop and people are angry at the president, angry at the Republicans, want to make a statement, then every Republican contender is going to be in some trouble, including Elizabeth Dole, including Jeb Bush, the president's brother, who looks pretty strong right now. They're all going to be in some trouble.

We'll have to see what happens with the economy before we can make a real judgment.

LIN: OK, and certainly we'll be watching this afternoon, Elizabeth Dole making that announcement at 1:00 president.m.

Thanks so much, Bill Schneider. Good to see you.

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