While insisting she is against abortion, she refused to affirm the Republican Party's official call for a constitutional amendment outlawing the procedure. She didn't have it, and others did. Wealthy business publisher Steve Forbes is contributing his own money to his campaign. Dole, who began pursuing the nomination after she left the Red Cross in January, lacked the political and fundraising networks or deep pockets of her rivals. Because Dole was not an elected official with power to watch out for the interests of donors, there was little incentive for contributors who had always supported her husband, former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, also to give to her.
Inadequate funding limits the number of staff at headquarters and in key states.
It restricts your ability to communicate with voters. It places a ceiling on travel and staff. About half of Dole's contributors were women, and her national campaign finance chairman was a Greenville, S.C., businesswoman, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. We've got to get them used to it. Erica Henri of the Women's Campaign Fund, which raises money for candidates in both political parties who support abortion rights, agreed.