The Nation : Presidency Seekers Gather

Potential Republican presidential candidates echoed themes of the Reagan presidency at a forum Illinois party members scheduled to take an early look at who might keep the White House in GOP hands. Rep. John Porter said he and other Illinois GOP congressmen organized the forum, attended by about 1,200 people, so party members could get a close look “to see whose presidential timber is most likely to catch fire.” The session in Arlington Heights attracted Rep. Jack Kemp of New York, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, television evangelist Pat Robertson, former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Absent from the GOP forum was former Delaware Gov. Pierre S. du Pont, who was scheduled to open the 1988 presidential campaign on Tuesday by becoming the first to declare his candidacy.