CAMPAIGN ’96 : Buchanan Sneaks Up on Dole

In the cafeteria of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in a rundown working-class neighborhood here, conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan was a one-man get-out-the-vote drive.

He was the reason Gary Lookabill came out Monday night to make his presidential preferences known. “I’m closer to [former ambassador] Alan Keyes, but Buchanan is closer to the front of the field. . . . I think I’ll go for Buchanan,” said the unemployed church receptionist and street preacher.

Physically a foot away, politically in another galaxy, Richard Pieart, 57, re-registered as a Republican just to help stop the darling of Iowa’s religious conservatives. “I am so totally opposed to him, I wouldn’t vote for him for dogcatcher,” said Pieart, who supported publisher Steve Forbes. “I came here to make sure he doesn’t get in.”

Polarizing Pat came in startlingly second in the caucuses Monday night, buoyed by the most conservative chunk of the large previously undecided Iowa contingent. He blasted past Forbes, elbowed by former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and edged uncomfortably close to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas to shake up the race for the Republican nomination for president.

“Buchanan and Alexander were both surprises,” said Brian Kennedy, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. “We didn’t know what the undecided vote would do. That’s where they landed.”

Flush with cash instead of victory, Forbes provided a surprise of another stripe, paying $400 per vote to barely eke out a fourth-place finish ahead of Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas.

Even though he complained of “relentless attacks” by his rivals and the media, Forbes was undaunted as he faced a ballroom at the Des Moines Marriott Hotel packed with his supporters.

“My opponents have been working here 2, 3, even 30 years,” he said. “Eighteen weeks ago, I was only an asterisk. . . . We are now setting the agenda for this campaign.”

Buchanan benefited from a dedicated and disciplined core of voters, men and women who “get up and get dressed every Sunday to go to church,” said Steffen Schmidt, a political scientist at Iowa State University. “They had no trouble getting up, getting dressed and going out to the caucuses.”

With more than 90% of the precincts reporting, a jubilant Buchanan, hoarse from 27 radio interviews before noon, strode on stage at the Des Moines Holiday Inn, signaling thumbs up to the cheering crowd.

“Go Pat Go,” they shouted.

And he shouted back: “I tell you, Pat is going--right to the Republican presidential nomination. We were political strangers in this land when we came. . . . And now you’re sending us out with the support of tens of thousands of Iowans, hard behind Bob Dole in a state he called his own.”

Said always serious Loras Shulte, Buchanan’s Iowa political director, with gold cowboy boots on and a smile off: “This puts a smile on my face because now we get back to what Iowa caucuses are really about--organization and passion. I don’t think you can do it in 30-second commercials.”

It was a good thing for the second-place finisher that passion counted for something, because Buchanan certainly could not match Forbes’ bucks. So strapped was the commentator’s campaign that 20 volunteers from Illinois drove across the border to Iowa to set up a phone bank so they could save long-distance charges. “Finally a little payback,” said a happy Lou D. Martell, who--along with his fellow phoners--had made 900 calls a day.

Even Buchanan seemed a bit surprised by the evening’s developments. At 6:55 p.m., as the caucuses were about to start, he was talking to any camera that turned his way. No. 2? they asked. No way, he insisted. “Everybody’s raising my expectations,” he said, wringing his hands and racing off to talk. “The idea that we’re gonna be automatically second is ridiculous. We’re very apprehensive.”

He shouldn’t have been. With most of the Iowa vote counted, Dole was in first place with 26% of the vote, Buchanan was next with 23%. Then came Alexander, with 18%. After spending millions of dollars and railing against an alleged dirty-tricks campaign, Forbes got 10%.

As a seven-piece orchestra played “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart,” Forbes’ supporters started filing into the ballroom hours before their candidate.

For the most part, the optimistic supporters of this optimistic candidate, were largely upbeat about the fourth-place showing. After all, insisted Vicki Streif, 49, parroting her man’s strategy: “He said 4, 3, 2, 1.” That’s fourth place in Iowa, third in New Hampshire, second in Delaware and first in Arizona.

“He will improve and mellow,” Streif said. “Every time he speaks he’s doing a better job. He’s not a politician. That’s the beauty of it.”

Larry Harrison, 56, never got a chance to vote, but still decided to go to the party for his flat-tax pushing Republican of choice. “Forbes said he expected [fourth],” said the Maytag factory worker from Jasper County. “That’s great. . . . From what I heard, everything’s going according to what’s planned.”

But Dale Johnson, 56, was undaunted. After all, said the ever-hopeful salesman, not all the votes had been counted. “I’m not disappointed,” he said, still rooting for third place. “It’s not over till it’s over. Forbes said a week ago, if he finished third he’d be happy.”

Times staff writer Stephen Braun contributed to this story.