GIVING a powerful jolt to his lack lustre presidential election (campaign, Senator Bob Dole yesterday announced he was resigning his Senate seat after 35 years in Congress and would contest the election as a private citizen.
"I will stand as a private citizen, a Kansan, an American", Mr Dole (72) told a hastily summoned press conference on Capitol Hill.
The Republican nominee will relinquish his powerful position as Senate majority leader, and position himself to run against President Clinton as a challenger, rather than as the incumbent leader of an unpopular Congress.
While Mr Newt Gingrich stood behind Mr Dole during his announcement, the senator was clearly distancing himself from the unpopular Republican House Speaker and his "Contract with America", which most voters think is too harsh.
Mr Dole's strategy of campaigning from within the Senate had proved disastrous, with Democrats and the White House blocking his legislative initiatives and making him look partly responsible for gridlock. Last week, despite a majority in the Senate, he failed to get agreement to remove a tax on petrol as a balance to an increase in the basic wage which Democrats want.
Now trailing badly in the polls, Mr Dole said he will leave Washington behind and "seek the wise counsel of the people." The Kansas senator telephoned President Clinton before his announcement. A White House spokesman said the President paid tribute to his long service to Congress.
The Dole campaign still faces huge problems. It has failed to identify a vice presidential running mate and is almost out of money. By giving up his two offices, he loses valuable support staff in the Senate.
Accompanied by his wife Elizabeth, he made his announcement at a press conference on Capitol Hill surrounded by senators and well wishers, who shouted "Dole, Dole".
"My time to leave this office is come", Mr Dole said in a dignified, emotional statement. "I will stand as a private citizen, a Kansan, an American, just a man. I will be the same man who walked into the room, the same man I was yesterday and on the day I rose from that hospital bed." Mr Dole was referring to his hospitalisation in the second World War in which he lost the use of his right arm. "I have done it the hard way, and I will do it the hard way once again.
The short speech was free of the legislative jargon he frequently employs. As the campaign for the presidency begins in earnest, it is my obligation... to leave behind all the trappings of power, all comforts and security", he said. I resign effective on or before June 11."