Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501100019
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BATON ROUGE, LA. LENGTH: Medium
Gramm won a whopping 72 percent of the vote as nearly 1,300 delegates to the Louisiana state Republican convention staged the first of what is likely to be a half-dozen or more presidential straw polls this year.
Coming in second with only 12 percent was Pat Buchanan, the conservative commentator who challenged President Bush in the 1992 GOP primaries and may run again. Third, with 5 percent, was Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee governor and education secretary.
The presumed GOP front-runner, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, did not attend and tried to get his name taken off the ballot at the last minute. He finished in sixth place, with just 28 votes, or 2 percent.
In a tie for fourth, with 3 percent each, were former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, who did not attend, and former Reagan administration State Department official Alan Keyes, now a radio talk show host, who gave a rousing speech to the delegates. Former Vice President Dan Quayle was seventh with 17 votes - 1 percent. Five other GOP prospects got less than 1 percent.
Saturday's event has no impact on who gets the support of Louisiana's delegates to the GOP nominating convention; that will be determined by the state's March 1996 primary. But Gramm mounted a double-barreled effort nonetheless, hoping the victory and his early fund-raising lead would force other potential candidates to rush their timetables for deciding whether to run - and establish him as a force in the important Southern primaries.
He had a handful of aides on hand, sent mailings and Christmas cards to delegates, called 100 or so himself and rushed from reception to reception. Gramm also was endorsed by Louisiana's three Republican House members.
Speaking to the convention, Gramm opened a bare-knuckled assault on President Clinton and said the 1994 Republican rout left half the job undone. ``We rejected Clinton's Congress, we rejected Clinton's programs, but in 1996 we are going to reject Bill Clinton,'' Gramm said.
by CNB