Today’s Delaware Primary Is Barely a Pit Stop in Republican Presidential Race

Like so many tourists traveling Interstate 95, the Republican presidential race stops briefly today in Delaware--not for the tax-free shopping but for the favor of a state with less nominating heft than Puerto Rico.

For Steve Forbes, whose self-financed campaign is languishing after third-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Delaware is, to borrow Wilmington’s slogan, “A Place to Be Somebody.” The state’s primary was one of only two that the millionaire publisher from neighboring New Jersey won in ’96.

But with only Forbes and Texas Gov. George W. Bush personally campaigning in the First State, Delaware’s vote today seems unlikely to capture the nation’s imagination. Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire, Delaware’s hotels aren’t full, the TV satellite trucks aren’t blocking the streets and there are many babies left unkissed.

“Unfortunately,” said Delaware Republican Party Chairman Basil Battaglia, “I think we’re still flying under the radar screen of the national media.”

Battaglia led Delaware’s charge to the front of the 2000 primary calendar only to be stymied by the first-in-the-nation traditions of Iowa and New Hampshire. Candidates were warned to stay away, lest they tick off voters in the other early states.

“We don’t want to compete with New Hampshire,” Battaglia said. “I’m not trying to build up an industry here. I’m just trying to make sure the people have an opportunity to vote, maybe, for the next president of the United States.”

Of course, a little industry wouldn’t hurt. New Hampshire reaps an estimated $175 million in economic benefit from its quadrennial primary. Delaware, apparently, has had no such luck, according to Gary Smith of Delaware’s Economic Development Office.

“Economic impact from the Delaware primary?” Smith asked. Then he laughed.

The political impact doesn’t promise to be much greater. Forbes is counting on a Delaware win to show that his candidacy has at least some viability, but the idea of a “Delaware bounce” is dubious. Nevertheless, Forbes is wrapping up four days of crisscrossing Delaware by bus, which in the nation’s second-smallest state is about 3 1/2 more days than is needed.

Bush hopes to ward off a win by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who beat him soundly in New Hampshire. McCain, to the annoyance of Delaware’s Republicans, has dismissed Delaware and not set foot there Instead, he is focusing on South Carolina’s Feb. 19 primary.

McCain is “playing cafeteria-style politics,” Battaglia said. “He’s picking and choosing which states he’s going into. . . . You’re going to be president of all the states, not just where you want to go.”

Battaglia’s warning to McCain: Bob Dole ignored Delaware in 1996, allowing Forbes to take the state, its 12 delegates, and then win in Arizona. Dole still went on to be the Republicans’ nominee, but “Dole lost two states by not showing here,” Battaglia said.

Since Delaware’s newspapers didn’t conduct any polling, it is anybody’s guess who will win today’s Republican primary. Delaware’s Democrats held their primary Saturday, but, under pressure from New Hampshire to avoid any primaries too close to their own, candidates Bill Bradley and Al Gore ignored the state. Vice President Gore beat the former New Jersey senator, 57% to 40%, in what amounted to a state-run straw poll; the Democrats won’t begin choosing their delegates to the national nominating convention until March 27.

Individual Bradley supporters in Delaware complained that resources were so thin they had to buy their own campaign buttons and bring fliers back from New Hampshire to pass out to voters.

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Times Washington bureau chief Doyle McManus, in Dover, Del., and Associated Press contributed to this story.