Rep. Jennifer Dunn (R., Wash.) has hired Cindy Williams, formerly an aide to Elizabeth Dole, to work on increasing Republicans’ appeal to women. D.C. rumor mill sees plan to lay groundwork for another Dole campaign for President-and for a Dunn campaign for Speaker. . . . House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R., Ohio) eyes Presidency, recruits heavy-hitter GOP operatives including Ed Gillespie, Don Fierce, Stuart Stevens, Chuck Greener, Curt Anderson, Ed Goeas. . . . National Empowerment Television ousts Paul Weyrich as president, citing differences over direction of network; Weyrich will remain on board of directors. . . . Business Roundtable upsets GOP by hiring Democratic consultant Bob Squier to make ads for fast track. “They still have this propensity to feed the hand that bites them,” says Gillespie about Roundtable. . . . After feuding between RNC chief of staff Michael Hook and political director Tommy Hopper, chairman Jim Nicholson fires both. Replacing Hook is Mitch Bainwol, who leaves as chief of staff to Sen. Connie Mack (R., Fla.). Mack, considering a presidential bid, lobbied for Bainwol to get the RNC post.
Conservative Dylan Glenn is running against Rep. Sanford Bishop (D., Ga.), who won only 54 per cent of vote last year. If elected, Glenn would be first black Republican from Deep South since Reconstruction. . . . Death of Rep. Walter Capps (D., Calif.) sets off special-election scramble. Democrats are likely to run widow, Lois Capps. To distress of local conservatives, national GOP leaders, including Newt Gingrich, are pushing liberal Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, heir to the tire-company fortune, over Tom Bordonaro. RNC insiders retort that Firestone is self-financing and polls better. … CQ Monitor reports that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) wants to “prohibit smoking in all restaurants in the country, without exception.”
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