Dole Sweeps 7 Super Tuesday States Forbes Says He’s Likely Out Of Race If Midwest Fails Him Next Week

Sen. Bob Dole recorded his second clean sweep in as many Tuesdays, rolling over his opponents in seven Super Tuesday states in his drive to wrap up the Republican presidential nomination by the end of the month.

Dole’s overwhelming victories added to the mounting pressure on Pat Buchanan and Malcolm S. “Steve” Forbes to abandon their candidacies and unite behind the party’s likely nominee. A disappointed Forbes said Tuesday night that without “a major breakthrough” in the Midwest next week, he likely would withdraw from the campaign before the California primary on March 26.

On the biggest delegate day of the 1996 primary season, the Kansas senator barely broke a sweat, easily winning contests in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and Oregon. His rich delegate harvest Tuesday put him on pace to streak past the 996 delegates needed for nomination in the California primary.

Dole snatched away Buchanan’s conservative base of support in the mostly Southern primaries Tuesday, scoring heavily among religious conservatives and Republican voters who favor the party’s restrictive platform plank against abortion and winning about half of those skeptical about foreign trade and immigration.

Forbes trailed even further behind the front-runner, finishing second in only one state, Florida.

Dole, noting that he runs behind President Clinton in most polls, said Tuesday night the president will continue to receive “a free ride” as long as Republicans “are brawling or squabbling among ourselves.” But he offered no olive branches to his opponents to quit the race.

“I’m not prepared to negotiate anything with either one of them,” he said on CNN, adding, “If they want to beat Bill Clinton or if they want to be spoilers, they can make a choice.”

But while Forbes took Tuesday’s results as the signal to begin his retreat, Buchanan remained defiant as he prepared to make another stand against Dole in the Midwest next week, telling supporters in Ohio they were reshaping the Republican Party. “Our time is coming,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dole, his nomination almost in hand, canceled a day of campaigning in the Midwest todayto concentrate on Senate business - a sign of where his cash-strapped presidential campaign increasingly will be lodged between now and the Republican convention next August in San Diego.

Dole began the day with 392 delegates and his rich bounty Tuesday gave him about 720, although the final distribution was still in doubt. That gave him more than 70 percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination and put him well ahead of the pace established by George Bush in 1988, who had won 62 percent of the delegates through Super Tuesday.

President Clinton, facing no opposition within his own party, was poised Tuesday night to clinch the Democratic nomination mathematically, a milestone that caught even some of his top advisers unawares.

Dole’s mounting strength in the Republican race was demonstrated again Tuesday in the exit polls conducted by Voter News Service. He rolled up majorities among voters of all incomes and levels of education and won either a plurality or a majority among every age group. Once again he drew his strongest support among older voters.

The exit polls also demonstrated the clear erosion in Buchanan’s base in the past two weeks, as a string of Dole victories relegated the challengers to long-shot status. In the two previous southern states where primaries were held, South Carolina and Georgia, Buchanan won more than four in 10 votes among those who identified themselves as very conservative. Tuesday, region-wide, he won about one in three of those votes, with Dole winning more than four in 10 of them.

Among the more than one-third of the electorate Tuesday who identified themselves as religious conservatives or who said they supported the GOP platform ban on abortion two pillars of Buchanan strength in the early primaries - Dole easily defeated his conservative challenger, winning about half of the votes of each group. Only among the one voter in 10 who said abortion was the most important issue facing the country did Buchanan defeat Dole.

Buchanan gave no hints that he is ready to get out. “This is a battle for delegates and a battle for the nomination,” Buchanan said Tuesday night. “But it is also a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. And it is a battle for the future of our party. … This is the last hurrah for that older generation.”

But Buchanan’s declining support among religious and social conservatives could make it more difficult for him to demand concessions from Dole on the abortion plank or other issues at the convention in San Diego.