Gop Candidates Begin Race A Year Early Nine Presidential Hopefuls Spar In New Hampshire At Dinner For 1,400

A rapidly growing roster of Republican presidential hopefuls started their version of spring training Sunday, courting the favor of New Hampshire Republicans one year before the state’s first-in-the-nation primary.

Nine would-be candidates spoke to party activists at a GOP dinner Sunday night, and eight of them sparred in an afternoon debate taped by a local television station.

The approximately 1,400 Republicans who paid $100 each for the dinner applauded all nine speakers.

But the crowd split visibly over abortion. About half - mostly women - applauded when Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urged that the party drop its opposition to abortion and said the government should “get out of your bedroom.”

The other half gave the most enthusiastic applause of the evening when radio talk show host Alan Keyes of Maryland said the party should not become silent and tacitly endorse abortion rights: “You cannot have the right to do what is wrong.”

Most of the rest of the speeches - the opening salvos of the 1996 presidential campaign - were more muted and generally called for smaller government and lower taxes. Most agreed that a compressed primary schedule next year means candidates will have to start now to win the right to challenge President Clinton.

“Unless (retired Gen.) Colin Powell comes riding in on a stag, the eventual nominee is in this room,” said Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., a likely candidate.

The presidential hopefuls are getting an earlier start than usual because the 1996 primary schedule will select nearly 70 percent of the delegates to the GOP convention in just six weeks following the New Hampshire primary. The candidate who does the best in the early going has a shot of running away with the nomination. “If folks stay out, they’re not going to have a chance to win it,” television commentator and likely candidate Patrick Buchanan said earlier Sunday.

Two new polls show Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas the clear favorite in the eyes of GOP voters in New Hampshire. But he has been there before, only to lose his lead in the 1988 primary to George Bush.

Other candidates spent the weekend nipping at Dole’s heels, with Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas saying he’s more conservative, Specter saying he’s more in line with the majority of Americans supportive of abortion rights and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander saying he’s more in tune with Americans outside Washington.

Whoever can stand out as the best person to take the federal government in a new - and smaller - direction, is most likely to win over New Hampshire, said Gov. Stephen Merrill, a Republican.

And he said the winning candidate will have to make a personal appeal to voters here, voters accustomed to up-close contact with politicians most other voters know only through television.

For now, Dole is the man to beat.

Eager to protect his lead and to demonstrate that his age - he would be 73 and the oldest man ever inaugurated to a first term - is not an obstacle, Dole challenged skeptics before setting off on a day-long tour of the state.

“If you think age is an issue,” Dole said Sunday morning, “then you should just follow me around for a day.”

In his dinner speech, Dole combined his age and war record: “I concluded, perhaps there was one more mission, one more call to serve. … my generation might have something the country needs right now in her president: someone who knows what made America great in the first place.”

Dole, the Senate majority leader, skipped an afternoon debate taped by a local television station, leaving the other eight would-be candidates to fight among themselves. There, and throughout the day, many of the candidates spent the day carving out their share of New Hampshire’s affections.

Gramm tried to stake out a claim as the most conservative candidate.

He noted that he opposed President Clinton’s health care proposal while other senators, presumably including Dole, were ready to negotiate.

“I was conservative before it was cool to be conservative,” he told the dinner audience.

Earlier, Gramm promised to balance the federal budget within four years, and said he “will not run for reelection unless I get the job done.”

While Patrick Buchanan appealed to the most devoted social conservatives with a strong anti-abortion message, there was at least one sign that New Hampshire Republicans could support an abortion rights advocate.

Two new polls by the Boston Herald and Boston Globe showed between 43 percent and 53 percent of New Hampshire Republicans would favor an abortion rights candidate.