DOLE WOULD MAKE ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS A PRIORITY

NEWTON - After visiting a neighborhood plagued by drugs, Republican Senate
candidate Elizabeth Dole said Tuesday she would support renewed anti-drug
efforts including stiffer penalties for using cocaine and drug-testing for
teenagers who apply for driver's licenses.

Dole said that anti-drug efforts -- from providing helicopters to the
Colombian government to fostering faith-based drug treatment homes -- would
be a priority if she were elected to succeed Republican Sen. Jesse Helms.

"I would like to leave you today with an image -- Elizabeth Dole's vision,"
she said at a news conference at the old courthouse in Newton. "Imagine a
legislator with the determination and passion to lead a crusade for a
drug-free America."

Meanwhile, one of her six opponents in the GOP primary, Lexington attorney
Jim Snyder, began running a TV commercial this week in which he promised to
apply a litmus test for Senate confirmation of federal judges on such
issues as opposing legalized abortions and allowing schoolchildren to say
the Pledge of Allegiance.

"As a constitutionalist myself," Snyder said, "I will support only those
judges who back life, liberty and the right of our children to pledge
allegiance to our dear flag."

Dole spent the day in Catawba County, where she toured troubled
neighborhoods, a jail, and a courthouse in Hickory with Sheriff David
Huffman, and visited Exodus Home, a faith-based nonprofit organization in
Hickory that provides housing for recovering alcoholics and addicts. The
news conference was one of a series that Dole plans to hold across the
state, highlighting her positions on various issues.

Dole said she would support increased treatment and anti-drug education
programs, greater efforts to stop drug trafficking, increased penalties for
crimes committed under the influence of drugs, and grants to states that
require teens to be tested for drugs before they could receive a driver's
license. She also called for making the penalties for using powdered
cocaine, favored by more affluent drug users, commensurate with those for
crack cocaine, which is is popular with poor drug users.

"Current sentencing guidelines equate one gram of crack to 100 grams of
cocaine," Dole said. "It is time we end the racial and class disparities,
perceived or otherwise, in drug sentencing and show that drug use will not
be tolerated whether you are a wealthy banker on Wall Street or a gang
member on any street."

Meanwhile, Dole was preparing for a fund-raiser Thursday with President
Bush at the Grandover Resort and Conference Center in Greensboro. Bush is
backing Dole, even though she still faces a Sept. 10 primary with Venket
Challa, Timothy Cook, Ada Fisher, Jim Parker, Douglas Sellers, and Snyder.

The president's trip was already drawing fire from state Democratic Party
officials, who questioned why Bush wasn't visiting closed textile plants.

"President Bush is making yet another visit to North Carolina and is once
again bypassing our unemployed workers to raise money for Elizabeth Dole,"
said Scott Falmlen, the party's executive director. "While Elizabeth Dole
and the White House are busy worrying about bankrolling campaigns, North
Carolina's workers are worried about their own empty bank accounts."