Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995                   TAG: 9508210117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN KING AP POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: AMES, IOWA                                  LENGTH: Medium

GRAMM TIES DOLE IN IOWA STRAW VOTE

Texas Sen. Phil Gramm tied Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole in a Iowa's Republican presidential straw poll Saturday night, holding his own against the GOP front-runner in Dole's Midwestern back yard.

Dole and Gramm each got 2,582 votes, according to results the Iowa Republican Party said were tentative because of the closeness. Commentator Pat Buchanan was a distant third with 1,922 votes and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander fourth with 1,156.

The results capped a carnival-like day at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, as campaigns brought in busloads of supporters from out of state in an effort to prove their early organizational prowess.

The influence of outsiders led several of the candidates to characterize the event as meaningless.

But Dole just a few days ago had predicted a victory here and his aides were clearly despondent as the results were tabulated. Gramm, on the other hand, was exultant, returning to the convention hall to claim the tie as a big victory.

``The people of Iowa want to put the federal government on a budget like everybody else and that is why they voted for me tonight,'' Gramm said. ``If we can beat Bob Dole in Iowa we can beat him anywhere in America.''

Dole advisers insisted that would never happen when the votes actually count.

Scott Reed, Dole's campaign manager, disputed the notion that the vote was a rejection of Dole's message, or that the combined Gramm-Buchanan vote showed deep dissatisfaction with the front-runner among the party's conservative activists.

``All it tells me is they did a good job of getting a lot of people to come to Ames today,'' Reed said. ``This is not going to affect the results of the caucuses in February.''

Dole dismissed the results, saying the event was ``a great fund-raiser, but I doubt it reflects the feelings of most Iowa Republicans. Naturally, I would have preferred to finish first alone. But I am confident of our ultimate victory in the February caucuses.''

Gramm begged to differ, calling his showing ``a stunning victory. This is a result that says the status quo is not good enough,'' he said.

Gramm and other rivals argued that the vote proved Dole a fragile front-runner.

``It shows us what we have been finding out in the field - Dole's support is not solid,'' said Mark Helmke, a top aide to Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, who finished in seventh place with 466 votes.

Buchanan said allowing out-of-staters to vote ``diminishes the importance of this.'' Still, he said ``it's important to the degree that it's the first time we all get to take our cars out on the track and we get to see if someone's got unexpected engine trouble. If so, you got six months to fix it.''

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POLITICS