Candidates Feel Absence of Media’s Glare

The disembodied voice of Sen. Bob Dole, crackling over a bad telephone line like a World War II-era radio broadcast, tried to rally hundreds of supporters this week as they gathered for the GOP’s unofficial opening of the New Hampshire primary season.

While reporters dutifully recorded the apologies of Dole and two other candidates absent because of the blizzard of ‘96, a political event billed as a freewheeling candidates’ forum quickly fizzled into a fraction of its promise.

This time it was the weather that dampened things. But for presidential hopefuls yearning for the national media to focus on their touring campaigns, it was simply the latest distraction that kept Dole and many of the media elsewhere.

Over the last few months, big news stories such as Colin L. Powell’s decision not to run, the deployment of troops to Bosnia and the federal budget battle have preoccupied the national media.

And some of those journalists who have ventured into traditional political battlegrounds such as Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida have deemed the pre-primary campaign season “unusually lethargic,” as one veteran journalist describes it, or “slow.” Or, to put it more bluntly, simply boring.

“There simply is not a lot of juice out there,” said Newsweek’s Howard Fineman. “The whole thing has a kind of going-through-the-motions quality, even though we don’t really know what is going to happen.

“It’s not because we know Dole will win--we don’t,” he added. “It’s just that . . . if you want thrills, if you want surprises, if you want political action, you’ve had plenty here in Washington.”

With the Democrats already settled on President Clinton and Dole leading Republican candidates by a wide margin in polls, many reporters who might normally be out in buses and country kitchens with the candidates are spending more time in Washington watching Clinton and Dole do battle.

“Those are important stories and I can understand why the press is doing this, but bottom line, it helps Bob Dole,” said Greg Mueller, press secretary for candidate Patrick J. Buchanan. “Whenever Bob Dole is covered in Washington, he’s in his element. Whenever he’s out in the hustings, he doesn’t look as good.”

Mueller said that Buchanan has “survived by staying under the radar” of the national media and focusing instead on local media.

Another of Dole’s competitors, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander, has been complaining that the focus on Washington gives other candidates little time before the avalanche of primaries.

“Many of these folks are in danger of waking up in a few weeks and realizing that they have missed the whole thing,” Alexander said of the national media.

The possibility of a short primary season may help Dole, but it also relieves many wearied voters, news consumers and cash-strapped media organizations. Many editors who would have assigned a reporter to stick with each candidate by now have delayed until the GOP field settles down to two or three candidates.

Some news organizations have begun to turn their attention more on the candidates and key primary states in the last few days, however. CNN will open a temporary bureau in Manchester this week. Susan Zirinsky, who heads the political coverage for CBS News, said that the network is gearing up to cover the campaign with a larger political staff than in 1992.

But for some of the candidates, this seems gravely late in the campaign season. “Let’s face it,” said veteran Republican strategist Tom Rath, who is now working with Alexander in New Hampshire, “the presence that the media used to have just isn’t here anymore, and that’s a function of dollars.”

For Rath and others trying to get national media attention--or free media as it is sometimes called--a downsized press corps means that candidates must spend more effort courting voters and local media. They must also expend more campaign dollars on advertising--a political fact that helps magazine publisher Steve Forbes.

In New Hampshire, airwaves are now loaded with campaign ads sometimes running back to back on radio and television. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm has spent about $40,000 on television in the last two weeks, aides say. In contrast, Forbes, who is not taking federal money and does not have to adhere to spending limits, has spent $160,000 here in the last two weeks, competitors estimate.

For veteran journalists, the pre-primary season also seems oddly devoid of cutting issues. “No issue has any real traction yet,” said Walter Shapiro, columnist for USA Today and Esquire magazine. “What are the issues, for example, that Dole and Gramm disagree on? Maybe Dole secretly likes some parts of the government?”

And finally, the technology has shifted media campaign strategies, making it seem less necessary to follow in what Fineman calls the “gypsy caravan-like” entourages. Because of cable TV, computers and the whole range of technological wizardry that can bring a face and message into the home while the candidate remains elsewhere, some of the thrill is gone.

Still, even journalists lamenting the lack of luster are quick to add that everything could suddenly change with the first real votes. Walter Isaacson, managing editor of Time magazine, said that while the important political decisions are being made in Washington, Time reporters have also found recent signs of political life in Iowa.

“Dole is enormously respected by his supporters,” said Isaacson, “but these same people are also sitting in the diners out there every day, talking with Alexander and Forbes and Gramm and listening to what they have to say. It’s just possible that in Iowa we may be in for a surprise.”