- Title: UNITED STATES: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ARRIVE IN IOWA
- Date: 12th February 1996
- Summary: DES MOINES/ AMES, IOWA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 12, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) DES MOINES, IOWA 1. SV VARIOUS OF DES MOINES STREETS AND SKYLINE 0.07 2. SV CAUCUS TABULATION VOTE CENTER 0.29 3. SV SENATOR PHIL GRAMM LEAVING BUS 0.44 4. SV VARIOUS OF SENATOR GRAMM SURROUNDED BY MEDIA 0.55 5. SV SENATE MAJORITY LEADER,
- Embargoed: 27th February 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: DES MOINES AND AMES, IOWA, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVAD0WT9RJ7TDJ9R9V91XT08IALB
- Story Text: Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole led a field of nine Republicans into the Iowa cacuses on Monday (February 12), the first major test to select a candidate who will try to unseat President Bill Clinton in November.
Some 130,000 Republicans were expected to vote at 2,142 meetings in church basements, fire houses, libraries, restaurants and private homes in a test of survival for the Republican field.
Delegates are selected at the meetings in first step of the process that will eventually add up to just 25 votes at the Republican National Convention in San Diego in August where the nominee to take on United States President Bill Clinton will be selected.
But an all-important straw poll also takes place, the first real test of the popularity of the nine hopefuls.
And the Iowa vote kicks off an intense six weeks of primaries and caucuses, providing the winner with important momemtum.
Dole, on his third presidential run, has been the front-runner in Iowa since the start of the 1996 campaign.
Polls suggested Dole, 72, would get 28-30 percent of the vote.
Expected to finish in the top three or four were magazine publisher Steve Forbes, who has poured millions of dollars of his own fortune into an upstart, advertising-heavy campaign; columnist and long-time conservative politician Pat Buchanan; and Lamar Alexander, the former governor of Tennessee.
Forbes, who tossed some of the first mud-laden advertising of the campaign, said on Sunday that Dole -- who called Forbes untested and untruthful in counter-commercials -- was engaging in deceitful advertising in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Texas Senator Phil Gramm lost to Buchanan in earlier, limited contests in Louisiana and Alaska and his popularity has tumbled in recent polls.
But he has put his faith in his strong grass-roots organisation, saying "The people who are for me are strongly for me. They see me as the person who can bring together economic conservatives and social conservatives and who can beat Bill Clinton." The Democrats will hold similar caucuses, though far fewer will take part because Clinton is unopposed for renomination within his party -- the first Democratic leader with that luxury since Franklin Roosevelt more than 50 years ago.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None