Wednesday, January 26, 2000
Blackwell N.H. point man for Forbes
Says Bush bubble 'about to burst'
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes will spend the next six days in New Hampshire hammering at front-runner George W. Bush's record as Texas governor, said Cincinnatian Ken Blackwell, the national chairman of the Forbes campaign.
“George W.'s bubble is about to burst,” said the Ohio secretary of state, whose candidate for the GOP nomination ran a strong second to Mr. Bush on Monday in the Iowa caucuses.
Established himself
But another Cincinnatian who has been an adviser and a campaign surrogate for the Bush campaign — U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park — said that he doubts Mr. Forbes has enough time to pull off a win in the New Hampshire primary next Monday, where the magazine publisher has been running in the single digits in the polls.
“Governor Bush pulled off the biggest win by a candidate in a contested race in the history of the Iowa caucuses Monday,” Mr. Portman said of Mr. Bush's 41 percent showing. “He is going to be awfully hard to stop.”
But Mr. Blackwell, who spent much of Monday night and Tuesday doing national news media interviews for the Forbes campaign, said the Forbes campaign is likely to start attacking Mr. Bush's record on taxes and spending.
“In New Hampshire, taxes and spending are what drives the Republican vote,” Mr. Blackwell said.
“In Iowa, it is the social conservative vote that is important, and Forbes took a lot of those votes away from Bush,” Mr. Blackwell said. “Forbes established himself as the conservative challenger.”
Can't catch him
In New Hampshire, Mr. Blackwell said, the Forbes campaign is likely to run TV ads focused on the candidate's claim that tax cuts under the Bush administration in Texas reached only six of every 10 taxpayers, a charge the Bush campaign disputes.
Mr. Forbes has advocated a flat tax and a scrapping of the current U.S. tax code in this race, as he did when he ran for the nomination four years ago.
Recent polling in New Hampshire shows a close race there between Mr. Bush and Arizona senator John McCain, who did not compete in the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. Portman, who has campaigned for Mr. Bush in New Hampshire, said he is convinced the Iowa victory will bump Mr. Bush up in the New Hampshire polls and give him a win there.
“If George Bush wins New Hampshire, I don't see any candidate out there who is going to be able to stay in this thing for the long haul,” Mr. Portman said. “If Bush wins Iowa and New Hampshire, I don't see how anyone can catch him.”
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