Jan. 27, 2000

Despite outcome, candidates leave Iowa
hopeful for future successes

By Kate Hettinger
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa--After Monday night's Iowa caucuses, all but one of the presidential candidates moved on to the New Hampshire primary, some with great momentum and others hoping to forget Iowa.

The results showed Vice President Al Gore with a nearly two-to-one victory over former Sen. Bill Bradley. Texas Gov. George W. Bush led the six Republican candidates with 41 percent, followed by publisher Steve Forbes, who carried 30 percent of the votes.

Alan Keyes stayed in the race with 14 percent of the votes, and Gary Bauer followed him with 9 percent. Arizona Sen. John McCain, who chose not to campaign in Iowa, received 5 percent and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch claimed only 1 percent of the votes.

Hatch announced his withdrawal Wednesday at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

"I leave with no regrets for having tried," Hatch told reporters.

When asked about the campaigning in Iowa, Hatch, a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Senate, replied, "It was frustrating that people in Iowa didn't know who I was."

Hatch also announced he was endorsing Bush, who is trailing McCain in the polls in New Hampshire, saying Bush was the "one who can unite the party and ... reach across partisan lines."

With one less player, Keyes and Bauer continued to campaign in New Hampshire even though they are persistently placed at the bottom of the polls.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday revealed 6 percent of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire said they would vote for Keyes while only 1 percent would vote for Bauer. McCain led with a 45 percent to 33 percent margin over Bush, followed by Forbes at 12 percent. There was a margin of error of plus or minus four points.

Keyes' Iowa campaign chairman, Ron Granzow, was confident Keyes will forge ahead in New Hampshire and beyond after his unexpected third-place finish in Iowa.

"Now that he's done this well in Iowa, he's expecting to come in second in one of the next contests," Granzow said. "People now know about him. After they know about him, people want him to be president."

Granzow said Keyes will continue to appeal to voters as he gets more and more media exposure as a result of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

"He did a much better job (in Iowa) than people expected. There's no reason in the world he won't continue. Absolutely none," Granzow said. "I would assume he's going to do the same in New Hampshire as he did in Iowa."

Bauer also told reporters he has no plans of dropping out of the race, despite a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses.