Gramm To Call It Quits After Two Early Defeats Texas Senator Expected To Throw Support Behind Dole Eventually

Reeling from back-to-back defeats in Louisiana and Iowa, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas decided Tuesday to quit the race for the Republican presidential nomination, ending an extravagantly planned and financed campaign and making him the first casualty of the primary season.

Gramm’s decision, which senior campaign aides said he will announce at a news conference today, leaves Pat Buchanan largely uncontested in his bid for conservative support.

The senator’s decision came after he placed fifth in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, far behind Kansas Sen. Bob Dole and Buchanan, leading most political experts to believe his candidacy had failed.

Gramm cut short a visit to New Hampshire on Tuesday to return to Washington to consider his options. He declined to say directly what he had in mind Tuesday, but he left little doubt that he considered his campaign’s prospects bleak.

“When you run fifth in Iowa, an important state, you would have to be brain-dead not to take a look at where you are and what you’re doing,” Gramm told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday before leaving for New Hampshire. “One of the things that we’re going to try to do this afternoon and tonight is take a look at where we are.”

A person close to Gramm said Tuesday night that there’s a “very high likelihood” Gramm would endorse Dole - but not immediately. Gramm is to speak with Dole this morning.

The person close to Gramm said that the senator did not want to endorse Dole today because Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts is expected to do so then.

A senior Gramm aide said Tuesday night that the chances had dimmed significantly in the week after Gramm was upset in the Feb. 6 Louisiana caucuses by Buchanan. That was a state that Gramm had boasted he would win right up until the night of the caucusing.

Gramm aides said that until the caucuses in Louisiana, their polling had shown the senator in “a very strong position for second,” in Iowa with his support increasing. “Louisiana took the wind right out of our sails,” the aide said.

Although there was some sentiment in the Gramm campaign to hang on through next Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire, in the hope that Dole’s campaign might stumble, in the end the Texas senator’s advisers concluded that was untenable.

“You can’t finish second in Louisiana, fifth in Iowa and even third in New Hampshire and hope to keep raising money,” the aide said.

Gramm’s withdrawal is particularly striking because, on paper at least, he had seemed to have everything in place from the day he announced his candidacy. He was a U.S. senator, with flush campaign treasury - he raised $21.1 million last year - and a crafted conservative economic and social message which seemed perfectly tuned to the dominant wing of the party.

But Gramm was a candidate who was not helped by exposure. He was not a passionate speaker and had a plodding style that political analysts said was more likely to irritate than to ignite voters.

As his campaign fortunes declined, Gramm himself seemed perplexed as to why more voters did not like him. During a recent flight in Iowa, Gramm inquired to reporters whether they found him arrogant.

On a political level, Gramm’s attempt to present himself as the candidate best able to unite social and economic conservatives was put to the test in Iowa, a state with heavy representations from both camps of voters.

Buchanan successfully fanned persistent doubts among Christian conservatives about Gramm’s commitment to outlawing abortion, and his strong second-place showing left Gramm with little hope of claiming the conservative mantle.

Gramm, who attempted to enhance his standing in New Hampshire and Iowa by winning early victories in Louisiana, Arizona and Delaware, failed for two reasons. First, he lost Louisiana and in the process, he managed to irritate political leaders in both New Hampshire and Iowa, who are protective of their place in the system.