New Hampshire: High Stakes For GOP Hopefuls

January 2, 1996

From CNN National Correspondent Gene Randall

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- The countdown to the February 20 New Hampshire presidential primary has begun. The state figures to be as important as ever in the upcoming presidential election, and given the abbreviated primary calendar, it will be a crucial early prize.

Seven weeks before the voting starts in the granite state, Pat Buchanan knows he needs a strong showing here to keep his presidential hopes alive. "I think you've got to be perceived by the national press as someone able to beat (Senate Majority Leader) Bob Dole. Does that mean second or third? In New Hampshire, it probably means second," Buchanan said.

Buchanan shows up third in the latest New Hampshire poll, just behind magazine publisher Steve Forbes and just ahead of Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas.

Addressing high school students Tuesday, Buchanan painted Gramm as someone in line for a Washington insider's payoff. "Phil Gramm has a vested question in Congress of $2.5 million. That's how much the taxpayers have put in the kitty for Phil Gramm if he retires," Buchanan said.

Gramm, on a two day swing through New Hampshire, brushed off Buchanan's remark. "I think it's a silly criticism," he said.

Gramm is a big target for both Buchanan and Steve Forbes in this primary. Moving into second place in the latest survey, Forbes is spending millions of his own dollars to finance television ads that attack both Gramm and Dole.

But Dole received 42 percent of the poll and boasts a powerful ground operation, orchestrated primarily by New Hampshire's popular Republican governor, Steve Merrill.

But Gramm is undaunted. "You have three candidates all locked up at the beginning of double digits, which says New Hampshire voters have not yet made up their minds," he said.

However, construction company owner Frank Rich, a Gramm supporter, says Gramm is caught in a Buchanan-Forbes squeeze. "There is no question about it. It cannot be an enviable situation. But it's one he has to deal with, and I think he's doing it as best he can," Rich said.

To try to escape the squeeze, Gramm will spend a few extra days in New Hampshire this month.

But if current numbers hold, Dole could well get what he most wants in New Hampshire: not just a win, but one in which no one else gets to be a real challenger.

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