Forbes Says He’ll Enter GOP Presidential Race

Publishing magnate Malcolm S. (Steven) Forbes Jr. said Wednesday that he will enter the Republican presidential race, using his personal fortune to campaign for higher economic growth and lower taxes.

“I’m going to do it,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Bedminster, N.J. “The need is there.”

Forbes, a soft-spoken multimillionaire, enters a field already crowded with nine politicians and better-known faces. He sees his lack of political experience as a plus in the current anti-Washington political climate.

Forbes, 48, will make his official announcement Friday in a speech at the National Press Club and launch a national TV campaign the same day, aides said. He will travel next week to key primary and caucus states, including New Hampshire, Iowa, Arizona, Florida and New York.

Forbes said he will espouse “pro-growth, pro-opportunity, get-America-moving themes.” He said he would try to provide a hopeful antidote to the “glum view of the rest of the crop” in the GOP race.

“They don’t realize what the true obstacles are and what the true opportunities are,” Forbes said. “If they had the answers . . . they would have implemented them, whether it’s radically simplifying the tax code, cutting interest rates, putting in medical savings accounts, saving Social Security, parental choice in education.”

Forbes, who is known as Steve, said he is prepared to spend $20 million to $25 million of his own money on a campaign if needed.

His ad blitz will feature a commercial promoting Forbes’ support of a 17% flat tax for individuals and businesses to replace the federal income tax system. The ads are to run in Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona and elsewhere, said campaign manager Bill Dal Col.

Although many Republican analysts give him scant chance for the nomination, Forbes is popular with supply-side economic boosters. Besides supporting the flat tax, he wants to return to a gold standard to stabilize the dollar.

Forbes said his brother, Tim, will assume his duties as president and chief executive of Forbes Inc., whose flagship publication is the biweekly business magazine Forbes.