Campaign Notebook

Wednesday’s developments:

Presidential race

Pat Buchanan was cautious about calling himself the Republican front-runner, despite his win in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night. “Senator Dole has the resources, and probably the polls. In the national polls, he’s probably leading,” Buchanan said while campaigning in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Bob Dole said his embarrassing second-place finish in New Hampshire was “a bump in the road,” and promised to campaign more aggressively in the upcoming slew of March primaries. “You’re going to see the real Bob Dole out there from now on,” Dole said in Fargo, N.D.

Lamar Alexander hammered at “Buchananism,” in Columbia, S.C., calling Pat Buchanan’s ideas “an odd set of policies.” Alexander, saying he was pleased with his third-place showing in the New Hampshire primary but in need of some first-place finishes, urged fellow Southerners to support him.

News of note

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Buchanan, naming him the only candidate who is staunchly anti-abortion. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison endorsed Dole, a likely boost in the Texas primary next month. Dole also got the endorsement of Sen. William Roth of Delaware and Sen. Paul Coverdell of Georgia.

In the wake of the populist victory of Pat Buchanan in New Hampshire, the AFL-CIO is calling an unprecedented special convention in Washington on March 25 to ensure that organized labor’s song will be heard in this fall’s election.

The convention will be asked to approve labor’s political agenda - which will emphasize economic, health and safety issues - and to endorse the re-election of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Delegates also will be asked to approve a 15-cent-a-member special assessment on unions to raise about $23 million to finance a large-scale political effort this year, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said.

Canadian officials heaped scorn Wednesday on GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan’s suggestion that NAFTA be replaced by a “great wall” along the U.S.-Canadian border.

“It seems to me that Mr. Buchanan is retreating back into some old-fashioned protectionism rather than deal with the changes that are going on in the world economy,” said Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy.

Retired Gen. Colin Powell, who considered but rejected a run for the presidency this year as a Republican, said Wednesday the GOP is “channel-surfing” for a resonant political message in the 1996 campaign.

Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary showed that the Republicans, “searching for a candidate, also discovered they have to search for a message,” Powell said in a speech at Georgetown University. “Is it a message of open trade or closing the drawbridge? Is it a message of toleration or intolerance? … inclusion or divisiveness?”

Final results from New Hampshire: Clinton 76,754, or 95 percent; Buchanan, 56,923, 28 percent; Dole, 54,814, 27 percent; Alexander, 47,214, 23%; and Forbes, 25,489, 12 percent.

Upcoming primaries

Saturday, Delaware: 12 delegates at stake. Publishing heir Steve Forbes is the only active candidate to campaign here. Most of the GOP political establishment backs Dole.

Tuesday, Arizona: With 39 delegates at stake, and a winner-take-all format, this is the biggest prize on a three-state primary day. Forbes was leading or tied with Dole in polls here not long ago, but has slipped.

North Dakota: Dole won the state in his 1988 presidential campaign, and is favored again. The 18 delegates are divvied up on a proportional basis.

South Dakota: Dole heavily favored, for same reasons as he is in North Dakota. Eighteen delegates, awarded on a proportional basis.

March 2, South Carolina: The first Southern primary awards 37 delegates on a winner-take-all basis.