GOP Candidates Differ Sharply Over Some Major Issues, Survey Finds : Politics: Environment, AIDS divide them. Crime, federal budget and foreign policy bring them somewhat together, voter group’s poll shows.

Several of the major Republican presidential candidates differ greatly in their approaches to environmental issues and the AIDS epidemic, while their stances on crime, the federal budget and, for the most part, foreign policy, are much closer, according to an in-depth survey released today.

Project Vote Smart, a nonprofit, nonpartisan voter information organization based in Corvallis, Ore., polled 15 Republicans running for their party’s presidential nomination to gauge the men’s stands on 27 issues from abortion to welfare.

In some cases, what the candidates did not say was almost as telling as what they did say. And two of the major GOP contenders--conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan and publishing magnate Steve Forbes--did not answer the questionnaires at all.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, from the agricultural state of Kansas, said he supports the use of federal-state block grant funding for education, law enforcement, school lunches and welfare. That could lead to a decrease in federal funding for these areas. But he ignored the same question when it came to funding for farmers.

Additionally, Dole and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander ignored the survey section dealing with how much federal funding should go into the fight against AIDS and the treatment of patients with the deadly virus.

Project Vote Smart made available to The Times the full surveys of the top six candidates who responded to their queries: Dole, Alexander, Sens. Phil Gramm of Texas and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Alan Keyes, a radio talk show host and former State Department official. Gramm and Lugar were the most thorough in fleshing out their beliefs for voters.

In the “no surprises” category, all six said they support a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget. There was wide support for a flat tax to replace the current income tax system although this was another question Dole avoided. All support the death penalty for federal crimes involving murder.

And none believes that “most crime is the result of poor economic and social conditions and would be alleviated if training, education and adequately paying jobs were available,” according to the survey.

All said they oppose abortion in varying degrees, with Keyes taking the most strident stand. Abortion should be allowed “only in the case of a direct threat to the physical life of the mother when fetal death is a collateral consequence of efforts to save the mother,” he wrote.

The most interesting differences appeared in the following areas:

* Environment: All but Alexander believe that the federal government should reimburse citizens when federal environmental regulations limit their use of privately owned lands. Dole, Lugar and Gramm believe that the Endangered Species Act should be limited.

Gramm and Lugar said they believe that the government should raise fees charged to ranchers who graze cattle on federal lands--a highly controversial issue in the West--and that pollution credits should be sold to encourage industries to decrease the amount of pollution they create.

Lugar, the most moderate of the respondents on this overall topic, was alone in favoring enactment of “tougher environmental standards to encourage the sale of cleaner burning gasoline throughout the nation.”

In a write-in segment, Gramm responded that he believes “the most important environmental reform we can adopt is to guarantee the protection of private property.”

* AIDS funding: Lugar, again showing his moderate leanings, was the only candidate who said funding should be maintained at current levels for the care and treatment of AIDS patients, for needle exchange programs, preventive education and grants for research leading to a cure.

Keyes, Gramm and Dornan all would eliminate funding for needle-exchange programs. Dornan and Gramm would decrease funding for preventive education programs; Keyes alone would eliminate it. Gramm and Dornan would maintain funding levels for research leading to a cure for the AIDS virus; Keyes, who campaigns on a platform of restoring the “marriage-based, two-parent family,” would decrease it.

* Foreign policy: All the candidates believe that foreign aid should be reduced, and there was general agreement that the United States should not have diplomatic relations with Cuba. But several of the candidates were just a little different in their view of America’s place in the world.

Alexander ignored most of the foreign affairs questions. Lugar, Dornan, Gramm and Keyes all agreed that foreign aid should be given to countries “only when it is in the security interests of the United States.” Gramm would give foreign aid in the event of disasters; Dornan would cut it in the event of human rights abuses.

Dole alone believes that foreign aid should be given to America’s allies that are in need of “financial / military assistance.” Keyes alone said foreign aid should eventually be eliminated.

Responses by Democratic and independent candidates will be released early next year, said Lorena O’English, Project Vote Smart director of legislative services.

“The questionnaire doesn’t just say what the candidates’ views are,” she said. “It says whether the candidates are willing to give the voters the information. We’re careful to have an ‘other’ option for every question. There really isn’t any excuse for anyone to not do this.”

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GOP Candidates’ Surveys Available

Complete Project Vote Smart surveys from the Republican presidential candidates are available by calling (800) 622-7627 or by visiting the group’s World Wide Web site at https://www.vote-smart.org.