Visit Nets Cash for GOP Hopeful Alexander

Republican presidential hopeful Lamar Alexander brought his campaign to Orange County Monday night, raising $50,000 for next month’s crucial primary elections in Iowa and New Hampshire, which could quickly make or break his candidacy.

The GOP longshot, a relative unknown in California, told a gathering of about 50 supporters at the Robert Mondavi Wine and Food Center that his campaign’s polls show him gaining on Kansas Sen. Robert Dole and millionaire publisher Steve Forbes.

“There is a very grave risk I’m likely to be the Republican nominee the way things are going,” joked Alexander, 55. He insisted that “all polls in the first two weeks [of the race] have been turned upside down.”

Most political observers still view Dole as the likely Republican nominee and Forbes currently as a distant second in the GOP race for the White House.

Still, Alexander, a former Tennessee governor and secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, said he is the best candidate to defeat President Clinton, whom he called “a very formidable competitor.”

He told the gathering that he is running as a political outsider who believes in reducing the size of the federal government.

He attacked Dole, who has been in Washington for more than 30 years, as coming from “the world of Washington.”

Alexander relied heavily on his experience as governor of Tennessee to pitch his political ideas, such as working closely with corporations to establish a more hospitable business climate to create jobs and improve the economy. He embraced political positions near and dear to Orange County Republicans, including cutting taxes and keeping the federal government out of education.

Despite his tenure as secretary of education during the Bush administration, Alexander said he favors abolishing the agency and opposes Washington’s involvement in local school curriculum.

However, he surprised some with his stand on the flat tax proposal, which is the core of Forbes’ campaign.

“The flat tax is not a tax anyone in the real world would propose,” Alexander said. “It cuts his [Forbes’] taxes and my taxes and raises everybody else’s.”

Alexander’s position on affirmative action also surprised some in the audience.

“The Republican Party should be careful not to condemn racial preference unless we’re ready to condemn racial discrimination,” Alexander said.

Alexander is scheduled to hold a breakfast fund-raiser in San Francisco this morning.