By David Espo
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, October 28, 1999; 10:44 a.m. EDT

Sen. Bob Smith said today that he was dropping his long-shot, independent bid for the White House. Congressional officials said he had made overtures about returning to the Republican Party.

"I know this announcement will come as a disappointment to many people," Smith said in a written statement today. "It is certainly a disappointment to me, but I am satisfied knowing my campaign has brought many conservative issues to the forefront of the presidential debate."

Smith said a lack of money made it impossible to continue his campaign and that he wants to return his attention to Congress and pursue his conservative agenda there.

Meanwhile, congressional officials, who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said Smith has made numerous overtures about returning to the Republican Party after barely 100 days as an independent. They said Smith's gestures include attendance at a party fund-raising dinner and conversations with senior Republicans.

These overtures began well before Sen. John Chafee's unexpected death Sunday, these officials say. But the process appears to be accelerating because the Rhode Island Republican's death created a vacancy at the head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee – a chairmanship Smith is eager to have.

Earlier in the week, Smith told a reporter it was "not appropriate" to discuss political issues until after Chafee's funeral this weekend. However, he did not deny considering a return to the GOP, saying, "I'm just not going to say anything right now."

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma is currently in line to ascend to the chairmanship, holding the greatest seniority among the panel's GOP members. But several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Smith wants to retain his seniority rights if he returns to the GOP, which would allow him to take the chairmanship.

While Republicans have publicly maintained that the issue won't be addressed until after Chafee's funeral, sources said Smith and Inhofe participated in a discussion of the chairmanship issue at a closed-door meeting of several conservative Republican senators.

Smith, who had been seeking the GOP presidential nomination, quit the party in July with a blast at the party.

"We won the revolution on issues. We won the revolution on principle," he said in a Senate speech that retraced Ronald Reagan's rise to power and the GOP takeover of the House and Senate in 1994.

"But the desire to stay in power caused us to start listening to the pollsters and the consultants again, who were telling us for some inexplicable reason that we need to walk away from issues. ...

"I want my party to stand for something," he said, contending that Republicans routinely ignored their own party platform on issues as diverse as abortion, foreign policy and gun control.

Smith said then that he would seek the presidential nomination of a third party. But shortly thereafter, his wife became ill. His presidential campaign has been invisible for months.

In the days leading up to Smith's announcement, a string of GOP leaders criticized him. Jim Nicholson, the Republican National Committee chairman, wrote Smith a letter that called the defection a "serious mistake for you personally, with only a marginal political impact – and a counterproductive one at that."

"It's petty and it's vindictive and it's insulting," Smith said of Nicholson's missive when he announced his switch in July.

In recent weeks, though, Republican officials have said Smith has talked with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and other senior GOP lawmakers about a return to the Republican Party. He also has spoken with Nicholson.

In addition, he attended GOP fund-raising events in his home state and Washington.