Pat Buchanan said Wednesday it "appears inevitable" that Sen. Bob Dole would be the GOP presidential nominee, but he intensified his criticism of the front-runner anyway. While two also-rans dropped out, Steve Forbes, Dole's other nemesis, gained support from a key Republican figure.
Former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, proponent of the supply-side economic theory that Forbes champions, endorsed Forbes on the eve of New York's primary on Thursday. Kemp went to New York state to campaign at Forbes' side. They are close friends.Kemp gave strong backing to Forbes' flat tax idea, which Dole and New York Gov. George Pataki have been attacking.
Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar gave up the fight. Alexander endorsed Dole in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday afternoon.
"We gave it our best shot," Alexander told cheering supporters. He said he wasn't interested in the vice presidency.
"The apparent nominee is a man for whom I have great admiration, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, and I look forward to his nomination," Lugar said Wednesday from Washington, D.C., adding that he and his wife, Charlene, planned to vote for Dole in Indiana and will "ask our friends to do the same."
Dole also was picking up important support from the sons of former President Bush - Jeb and George W. Bush.
Dole flew to Texas to receive the backing of George W. Bush, the governor of Texas.
In Florida, Jeb Bush, the GOP's 1994 gubernatorial candidate, endorsed the Senate majority leader in the aftermath of his eight-state sweep of Tuesday's primaries. Bush called on Forbes and Buchanan to withdraw "in the spirit of unity."
For months, Forbes had been seeking Kemp's backing - he's said he got in the race only when Kemp decided to stay out - but Kemp was torn between backing a long-shot or coming out for Dole, the more likely nominee. Twice he was on the verge of making an announcement, and both times he pulled back.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the nominating race is over, but declined to urge Buchanan to fold his candidacy.
"Dole is nominated," the Speaker said in a brief interview outside his Capitol office. "If Buchanan wants to stay in a non-race that's his prerogative."
Asked if Dole should consider retired Gen. Colin Powell as his running mate, Gingrich said, "I don't want to prejudge."
In Miami, Buchanan told a rally at a Cuban restaurant that he might not be the strongest candidate but he remained the strongest advocate for working people and conservative Christians. "As inadequate as I am, I am the voice for these folks."
Buchanan promised in an interview to carry his conservative message across the country. He continued his sharp attacks on Dole.
"Bob Dole has no ideas," he said, charging that Dole won "ugly" and calling Dole's campaign "hollow, an empty vessel."
"We think we can fill that vessel up with our ideas if he is the nominee," Buchanan said, referring to the party platform.
In New York, which votes Thursday, a tracking poll conducted Sunday through Tuesday for the New York Post and Fox 5 television said Dole was gaining strength. The poll said Dole was the choice of 48 percent of 566 likely Republican voters, up almost 6 percentage points from Tuesday. Forbes was at 19 percent, while Buchanan trailed at 15 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
In Texas, which votes Tuesday, a poll of likely primary voters put Dole in the lead with 45 percent to Buchanan's 20 percent.
Dole's clean sweep of all eight "Junior Tuesday" states severely wounded Buchanan and Forbes, and many party figures said that Dole had a lock on the GOP nomination.
"It's over," Republican pollster Bob Teeter said, surveying Dole's sweep. Buchanan accepted as much, with a caveat: "I still think there's a very, very long shot that Senator Dole could stumble badly."
Buchanan was coy about whether he would support Dole under all circumstances, avoiding answering the question directly.
He told one interviewer, "There's no doubt Senator Dole's nomination appears inevitable," but told another, "I still think there's a very, very long shot that Senator Dole could stumble badly."
He wavered on whether he would support a GOP ticket headed by Dole and said many of his supporters probably would not.
"They certainly would not, as of this moment, given the character of the campaign Senator Dole has conducted with the attacks and the extremist nonsense, all the rest of it," he said.
As for whether he might bolt to a third party, Buchanan hedged.
"I'm not saying I'm ruling anything like that in . . . ," he said. "I'm not saying what I'm going to do at all. I'm going to the Republican convention. I've always supported the nominee."
Buchanan recalled recent history: Ross Perot's independent bid in 1992 which won 19 percent of the national vote, and, many observers think, assured President Clinton's election.
"There's a huge broad mass of middle America that's unrepresented . . . My view is these people are not going to go unrepresented forever," he said.
Perot this year is forming a third party, but hasn't said who its nominee might be. He and Buchanan see eye-to-eye on trade issues.
With the prize seemingly within grasp at last - Dole's sought it for 16 years - he kept his emotions in close check at a Washington rally. Still, he beamed.
"Thank you, Colorado, thank you, Connecticut," the Kansan ran through the roll call of states that had come through for him.
"Thank you Georgia, thank you Maine," he said, finishing the list - Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Republican caucuses were conducted, as well, in Minnesota and Washington state. Results trickled in slowly, but a straw vote in Minnesota looked good for Dole.
Clinton faced only minor opposition in the four states that held Democratic primaries.
All told, Dole added 199 delegates Tuesday to the 91 that he had won earlier, giving him 290 of the 996 needed to win the nomination.
Forbes is a distant second, with 72 delegates. Buchanan has 62.
On Thursday, New York state votes, with 93 delegates at stake, and next Tuesday - "Super Tuesday" - offers a lode: 362 delegates.
Buchanan's persistence worried pollster Teeter, who remembered how Buchanan harassed President Bush in the primaries four years ago. "If he hangs in there and pounds at Dole, it's a problem," Teeter said.
Still, he insisted that Dole is unstoppable: "It's over, it has been over, this just kind of confirms it."
Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois, a Dole supporter, also drew that conclusion. "If he doesn't have it wrapped up, he's close," he said.
Forbes called Kemp's support "an enormous boost" for his long-shot campaign.
Kemp, who had been torn between his longtime friendship with Forbes and his political ties with front-runner Bob Dole, admitted his endorsement was "somewhat late in the campaign."
"I'm not here to campaign against Bob Dole," Kemp said.
Forbes, however, said "Jack will be helping out the campaign in any way he can. I think of him as my guru-in-chief."
"This campaign has gotten an enormous boost today," Forbes said, only one day after Dole swept eight state primaries and moved closer to claiming the GOP nomination.
"He understands that values and economics are really one and the same," Forbes said of Kemp, who like Forbes supports a form of flat tax and other economic policies.
"Steve alone has been talking about making America an enterprise zone from sea to shining sea," Kemp said.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Delegate totals
Delegates who have pledged support for the Republican presidential candidates. A total of 996 is needed to secure the nomination.
Dole 290
Forbes 72
Buchanan 62
Alexander 12
Keyes 4
Lugar 0
Uncommitted 16
As of 3/6/96
*****
Primary results
Bob Dole swept Tuesday's primaries, including five states where the winner takes all delegates.
The Vote CO CT GA ME MD MA RI VT
% precincts reporting 99% 99% 100% 97% 100% 87% 100% 93%
Dole 44% 54% 41% 46% 53% 48% 67% 41%
Alexander 10 5 13 7 5 8 20 11
Buchanan 22 15 29 25 21 25 0 17
Dornan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Forbes 21 20 13 15 13 14 0 16
Gramm 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Keyes 4 2 3 2 5 2 0 0
Lugar 1 1 0 3 1 2 3 14
Taylor 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Delegates 14 27 39 8 32 37 16 12
for the of of of of of of of of
winner: 27 27 42 15 32 37 16 12