Negativity Rules as GOP Hopefuls Hit N.H. Hustings

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. —  On the day after a bruising eight-way televised debate, the leading Republican presidential candidates fanned out over this state’s snowy townships Friday, concentrated on keeping each other in their rhetorical gun sights.

Although the debate brought call after call for an end to negative campaigning, few of candidates could resist shooting barbs at their rivals as the campaign moved into the final weekend before Tuesday’s voting.

Typical was Kansas Sen. Bob Dole’s new TV spot in which he assails former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander as a “tax-and-spend” liberal who is “too liberal on crime.”

“This is Lamar’s record,” he told a media horde Friday in defense of the ad. “This is what he says. There’s no problem--comparison ads are OK; they’re not negative ads.”

Alexander spent part of the day defending another portion of his record--his personal finances, which had been the subject of an attack by rival candidate Steve Forbes during Thursday night’s debate.

In a morning appearance on the NBC “Today” show, Alexander denied suggestions that in his final weeks as governor he had engaged in a conflict of interest by contacting several of his state’s largest companies about a business venture he was considering.

“That was two or three weeks before I was leaving an eight-year term as governor. Most people were sending out resumes. I wrote half a dozen letters,” he said.

Alexander spent another large chunk of his time on finances of a different sort--seeking to replenish his campaign treasury. The candidate spent much of the day in his Manchester hotel room calling potential donors, trying to persuade them that the race is coming down to himself and Dole. Alexander aides have said that they are receiving a substantial increase in contributions since their candidate’s third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, but his treasury remains badly overmatched by Dole’s.

Buchanan’s Vow

Patrick J. Buchanan, meanwhile, vowed in an appearance before roughly 500 people at a rally of Christian conservatives to be the “most pro-life president” ever. “I will never walk away from you,” he told the crowd at the “God and Country” rally.

Buchanan also continued to grapple with ties between his campaign and extremist organizations. The day after one of his campaign co-chairmen stepped aside after allegations that he had links to militia groups, Buchanan fired a county coordinator for his campaign in Florida after a newspaper revealed that the woman was a member of a white supremacist group.

Although most of the candidates endeavored to deliver the basics of their campaign--less government, lower taxes and welfare reform--they were equally outspoken when it came to their opponents. Striving to complete campaign schedules before the onset of the region’s sixth major snowstorm this season, they led busloads of supporters and journalists along the Granite State’s winding country roads.

Magazine publisher Forbes labeled Buchanan’s isolationist platform “garbage” before an audience at a Rotary Club breakfast in rural New London. Alexander, in a series of post-debate television appearances, belittled his three closest rivals--Forbes, whose campaign has focused largely on tax reform; Buchanan, a political commentator; and Dole, a legislator with more than three decades’ service in Congress.

“We’re not electing someone who’s a specialist in one issue,” he said. “We’re not electing a columnist. We’re not giving a thank-you for a long-serving senator whom we all respect. We’re nominating someone who can beat Bill Clinton.”

Panetta Speaks Up

Even the White House weighed in with its opinion on the field. In an interview, Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta asked rhetorically if nominating Buchanan would be “the biggest mistake the Republicans ever made” and answered himself: “That might be the case.”

Although he noted that as a candidate Ronald Reagan had also been labeled an extremist, he said the GOP is “in danger of repeating the mistakes the Democrats made during the ‘60s, which is that an extreme element basically controlled the direction of the party and as a consequence the party lost touch with the great middle center of this country.”

While Democratic strategists appear to agree that Buchanan would be the easiest of the leading Republicans for Clinton to defeat, they disagree over which candidate might pose the strongest challenge. Some White House officials are known to worry about Alexander. Others, however, believe that Dole, if he can survive the primaries, would be better positioned to unite his party and pose a serious challenge to the president.

The day after campaign co-chairman Larry Pratt stepped down from the campaign, Buchanan continued to deny charges that Pratt has links to white supremacists and right-wing militia leaders. Pratt denied sharing the views of white supremacists, although he acknowledged he shared the podium with leaders of some racist groups at rallies against gun control.

Buchanan, defending Pratt in broadcast interviews, argued that the charges were an attempt by his enemies to drive a wedge between him and his supporters. He said he would stand by Pratt until the charges were resolved.

The aide fired Friday after questions arose about her ties to white supremacists is Susan Lamb, a county chairwoman for Buchanan in Florida. Lamb served as local leader of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, which was founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

One reason for the intensifying invective among the GOP contenders may be the narrowing of the race four days before Tuesday’s primary. Post-debate polls indicate that Dole, Buchanan and Alexander are in or near a statistical tie; Forbes, whose January surge menaced Dole’s lead, appeared to continue his move to the margins of the race with poll percentages in the low teens.

Dole Wounded

Dole, who had been the clear front-runner in this first-in-the-nation primary race for most of the campaign, clearly was still smarting from Thursday night’s cross-fire.

“I think we won the debate,” he said at a midday campaign stop in Laconia. “Took a lot of arrows. Still pulling a few out.”

Earlier he had remarked, “I’m thinking of putting in for another Purple Heart,” referring to the medal he was awarded for being wounded in World War II.

One positive note for Dole’s campaign came when he picked up the endorsement of Arizona Sen. John McCain, a major supporter of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who withdrew from the race this week.

As has been the case throughout the campaign, the major casualty of the Republican shooting match was discussion of political issues.

Dole’s determination to stay “on message” proved particularly futile. Campaign spokesman Nelson Warfield had proclaimed the day’s theme to be welfare reform, but a speaking event at a state Department of Employment Security office in Laconia turned into a fiasco when the office turned out to be deserted except for a few state workers and a mob of reporters.

Questions on Ads

Dole had intended to praise the state’s program encouraging welfare recipients to find jobs. Instead he spent most of the stop parrying reporters’ questions about his new TV ads attacking Buchanan and Alexander. One spot calls Buchanan “unelectable”; another charges that as governor Alexander “raised taxes and fees more than 50 times.”

In defending the advertising Dole once again displayed pique at Forbes, whose multimillion-dollar TV campaign had focused on Dole but who has since abjured all negative TV spots.

“Mr. Forbes kind of reminds me of the guy who shot his parents, then pleaded for mercy claiming he’s an orphan,” he said. “Here’s a guy who goes out and spends $20 million on negative ads trying to destroy me. He came very close but didn’t quite get it done. And now he says, ‘I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have spent $20 million popping Bob Dole every day.’ ”

Throughout the day’s campaigning Dole appeared bland and tentative, as if wearied by the still inconclusive race. Addressing a breakfast meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of seaside Portsmouth, he attempted to inspire enthusiasm among the reserved crowd of about 400 for the choice they will make on Tuesday.

“I think your judgment has been pretty good in the past. You made a little slip in ’88 but everybody’s entitled to one mistake,” he said. The reference to his second-place finish here to George Bush that year provoked a ripple of laughter. “But this is another day, another year, another election, a different situation,” he concluded.

Some listeners thought Dole seemed to anticipate a repeat of the 1988 finish. “I thought there was a little undercurrent of doom,” said Kevin Flemming, a high school history teacher from Hampton and a registered Democrat. “I thought it was a kind of echo.”

At the other end of the scale was Alexander, whose move into the front ranks of the GOP field was validated by the corona of television cameras enveloping him as he tried to execute a morning walking tou in Nashua.

The throng, which included crews from Germany, England, and Japan, drove away any potential voters who might otherwise have attempted an encounter with the candidate.

Times staff writers Sam Fulwood III, John Broder and Robert Shogan in New Hampshire and Washington bureau chief Doyle McManus contributed to this story.