Student creates Web home page for presidential hopeful Bob Dole

Engineering junior Andrew Apple used to be a registered Democrat. But after the so-called "Republican Revolution" of last fall's elections and the congressional battle over the Contract with America this spring, Apple decided to switch his registration. "The Democratic party is too disorganized," Apple explained. Some might call him a turncoat, and question his commitment to GOP ideology. But one point-and-click on the World Wide Web toward Apple's home page should make all of those doubts disappear. While Campaign '96 has barely begun, Apple has been maintaining one of the country's two unofficial "Bob Dole for President" sites on the Internet since April. Beau Benjamin Bruce, a student at Georgia Institute of Technology, maintains the other site. Apple said he started compiling his home page because he noticed that there were "a few generic information pages" about Dole (R-Kan.) on the Web, but "nothing substantial." Creating the page didn't take that long, he added, but fine-tuning its colors and backgrounds was tricky. "I didn't want it to look like one of those Netscape extension-type pages that jump out and kill you," Apple said, emphasizing the importance of keeping the site simple enough for most Web-browsing software to pull up without crashing. The project began with only 10 hypertext links, but "kept growing from there, and now it's a monster," Apple said. Although he is an Engineering student, Apple's major is bioengineering, and the home page is something he's developed for "fun and stress relief," he said. About every two weeks, Apple updates the page, adding four or five new links. At this point, almost everything in cyberspace about the Senate's majority leader, his political career and his presidential aspirations already resides on Apple's portion of the Engineering School's Web server. "The guy clearly has too much time on his hands," said Dole for President spokesperson Nelson Warfield, when asked to comment about Apple's home page. The page is divided into numerous separate sections, ranging from trivia presented in a question-and-answer format to the full text of some of Dole's more memorable speeches. Apple said he has gotten most of this information from other on-line sources, but typed in two speeches he received from from Dole's campaign headquarters word by word. The home page even has links to articles written about Dole in Spanish-language newspapers, Apple said. It also includes both positive and negative information about Dole, which Apple said has resulted in some flak from Dole supporters. So far, Apple's home page has received virtual visitors from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and Japan. Apple has had political science majors ask him for help on their theses, he said. And his site has been mentioned in national publications such as WebReview. Apple does not think he will be able to devote as much time to the home page this semester, since he is a pre-med student enrolled in organic chemistry. But he expects to spend about an hour each week answering e-mail from the approximately 70 people who subscribe to his Bob Dole mailing list. Dole for President will unveil its official Web site on September 26, and the address will be "http://www.dole96.com". Information provided by the campaign states that the site will be "the most cutting-edge and interactive of any of the presidential contenders." Apple's site can be accessed at "http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~lapple/bobdole.nscape.html".