Candidates Get Back On The Stump

With the holidays ending, Republican presidential hopefuls are swarming over Iowa, first stop in the long campaign for the White House in 1996.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, on a break from the Washington budget wars, squeezed in time Wednesday for a three-city bus tour of Iowa. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm talked economics in a Des Moines hardware store while Pat Buchanan held forth on abortion.

Iowa’s Feb. 12 precinct caucuses marks the traditional start of the quadrennial presidential nominating process, followed by New Hampshire’s Feb. 20 presidential primary. Complicating the already jammed campaign schedule this year are earlier than usual caucuses in Louisiana Feb. 6, Delaware’s primary on Feb. 24 and primaries in Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota on Feb. 27.

In Iowa, Dole said that voters “will be glad we hung in there” during the protracted fight with President Clinton over the federal budget.

But the budget wrangling has meant Dole has been largely absent from the battle for Iowa’s February precinct caucuses, the first significant test for candidates.

His scheduled four days of campaigning in Iowa this week was trimmed to a single day, visiting Bettendorf, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. He said that was only possible because of a break in budget negotiations.

Flanked by conservative ministers Wednesday in Des Moines, Buchanan challenged Dole and Gramm, saying he is the only true anti-abortion candidate in the Republican presidential field.

At a the hardware store, Gramm said small businesses will gain from a balanced budget and fewer government regulations.

“It’s been so long since the government has had a balanced budget that people forget the benefits of it,” Gramm said. “Government red tape, high interest rates and high taxes put small businesses and small farmers out of business.”