Portsmouth Herald
RAN 2/1/96, Pg. A1
Herald staff
   This is the fifth in a series of profiles of the major contenders for the
Republican nomination for president that will run in the Thursday and Sunday
editions of the Herald right up until the weekend before the primary. Look
for our voters' guide in the Feb. 18 edition.

   Despite a low rating in the polls, Maurice "Morry" Taylor Jr., a
Midwestern whelel and tire manufacturing tycoon, claims he has a good chance
at beating his contenders for the Republican nomination for president.
   ``Buchanan, Lamar, the other candidates are going down,'' Taylor said. He
made that prediction while traveling from Keene to Manchester on a recent
campaign trip in one of the six red, white and blue Airs tream motor homes he
purchased at $70,000 each for his presidential bid.
   ``Everybody's beating up on (publisher Steve) Forbes. Forbes will peak (in
popularity) around the first of February, then he'll start coming down,''
Taylor said. ``And who will be standing there smiling? Me.''
   Political pundits, however, said Taylor's reach for the nomination is a
long shot, particularly because many voters still haven't heard of him and
those who have don't know much about what he stands for.
   ``Nobody knows him,'' said Robert Johnstone, a politics professor at
Earlham College in Richmond, Ind.
   Johnstone said that during a recent candidate debate, ``Taylor was sitting
between Dole and Gramm and nobody knew who he was. They thought maybe he was
the moderator or somebody. I suppose he might come out of the woodwork
somehow, but it's getting awfully late.''
   Born in Detroit, the 51-year-old Taylor made his fortune purchasing
failing wheel and tire manufacturing plants, cutting costs, and turning the
companies around.
   As a boy, Taylor worked in his father's tool and die shop. After college,
he spent 16 years as a steel products manufacturer's representative. In 1983,
he purchased his first manufacturing facility, a former Firestone wheel
plant.
   Wall Street nicknamed him ``The Griz,'' short for grizzly bear, when he
pushed Titan Wheel International, Inc., through the necessary hoops to become
a public company in record time.
   ``I don't look like a grizzly bear, but when the time comes, the fangs
come out,'' he said.
   Taylor's efforts apparently worked. In 1994, Titan was rated in the top
1/2 of 1 percent in sales and earnings growth among all 
companies on the New York Stock Exchange.

Campaign strategy
   Taylor, who is trying to woo former Ross Perot supporters, is taking a
sort of folksy approach to his campaign. Last summer, he drove through New
Hampshire, Iowa and California in his fleet of motor homes.
   Last week, he pledged to distribute $5,000 each to five registered
Republican voters in New Hampshire who answered his questionnaire. Taylor is
mailing more than 108,000 questionnaires polling New Hampshire voters on
issues ranging from taxes to budget cuts.
   Taylor estimates he has spent about $6 million on his campaign, primarily
on television and radio advertising. He expects to spend another $1 million
before the primary, he said.
   He sold $15 million of stock in his company, which he says is his
children's inheritance, for his presidential bid.
   Taylor, who told the Herald he ``never wanted to be president of the
United States,'' said he decided to run because he promised his employees
he'd give them a choice.
   ``Somebody's got to do the job,'' Taylor said. He contends that lawyers
have had a stranglehold on Washington for the past 40 years, and do not know
how to run an efficient government.
   ``None of the other candidates has ever managed anything - they're all
talk and no experience,'' he said.
   Taylor's business success, however, has not translated into an ability to
gain popular support. He has, in fact, demonstrated a knack for alienating
some and confusing others as to where he stands on the issues.
   In 1994, he bought a $77,000 ad in USA Today proposing caning for persons
who commit misdemeanors, sterilizing welfare recipients, and closing the
State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, which wrangled with
a Titan plant over a hazardous waste cleanup. The ad has become an issue
Taylor has continually had to explain.
   Taylor told the Herald that the caning and sterilization proposals were
not his own ideas but belonged to his employees. Taylor said the
sterilization idea was to offer free vasectomies or tubal ligations to
welfare recipients. Caning for misdemeanors instead of 
imprisonment would save money, he said.
   The purpose of the advertisement, Taylor now says, was to give his
employees a voice, grab public attention and urge people to vote. His name
did not appear on the ad, he said.
   A University of New Hampshire professor noted that some comparisons exist
between Taylor and fellow Republican contender New Jersey magazine publisher
Steve Forbes, who is running a close second to the man generally seen as the
Republican front-runner, Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.
   Clark Hubbard said Taylor and Forbes are the only two candidates with no
political experience and the only ones funding their campaigns themselves.
Forbes, however, has spent significantly more money, is receiving a
tremendous amount of publicity, and is rated very highly in the polls.
   Hubbard, an assistant professor of political science, said both Taylor and
Forbes lack all the classic presidential qualities, particularly political
experience.
   ``What's interesting to me is that there are two guys in this race with no
political experience,'' Hubbard said. ``Steve Forbes is doing quite well.
Taylor is still a non-entity. It boils down to a lack of campaign
organization; lack of ability to reach voters. Taylor's 
campaign is not as strong as Dole's or Buchanan's, and he is not spending as
much as Forbes.''
   Pundits say it takes $20 million to win a Republican presidential
nomination, and some question Taylor's seriousness about the race since it
appears he will not spend anywhere near that much. But Taylor has taken jabs
at Forbes for inheriting his wealth while he earned his fortune. He claims he
can win the nomination using half that amount.
   His working-class roots allow him to better relate to the general populace
than Forbes, Taylor said.
   ``I know what working men and women go through,'' said Taylor. ``I
understand 99 percent of the American public. Forbes understands the
wealthy.''
   But while Taylor claims to understand the American people, the public
might have a hard time understanding him.
   Following a question-and-answer session with Taylor, students at Oyster
River Middle School deluged reporters with complaints about the candidate.
Students said Taylor never really answered their questions and ``didn't care
about anybody.''
   A few called Taylor sexist for his comment that ``white males are an
endangered species.'' Others were shocked by Taylor's attitude toward capital
punishment. ``Fry `em,'' Taylor had said.
   Bill Campbell, who moved to Iowa from Bow, N.H., to become operations
manager at Titan Tire, one of Taylor's plants, said Taylor ``comes across a
lot harsher than he really is. He's conservative yet compassionate and
understanding.''
   WTSN-AM/WRGW-FM newsman and talk show host Carl Lindermann, who has
followed Taylor around during several campaign trips here, said Taylor was
``a really good guy'' in dire need of a public speaking coach.
   ``His message deserves a better presentation than his handlers have cooked
up,'' Lindermann said. ``It's downright bizarre he's put all his money into
all this other stuff, like these vans, and doesn't have someone keeping him
on a short leash.''
   Taylor refuses money from political action groups, heavily advocates
campaign finance reform, supports a flat tax, advocates paring down federal
bureaucracy, and promotes his business expertise as the experience necessary
for revamping government.
   One of Taylor's major platform planks is his plan to balance the budget
without cutting programs by slashing one-third of the mid- to upper-level
federal management. That move would save $195 billion annually, he contends,
which would balance the budget and leave a surplus to slowly help reduce the
nation's $5 trillion national debt.
   Taylor has plenty of experience cutting jobs.
   Former Pirelli Armstrong tire plant manager Brian Kinsella, who lost his
job when Taylor took over the company, said Taylor was ruthless, uncaring and
lacked a conscience. Taylor avoided severance pay by laying off employees
rather than firing them, and took advantage of a worker strike by cutting
salaries and positions when 
he bought the plant, Kinsella said.
   ``He cuts wages, lays off people, reduces benefits and turns plants
around,'' Kinsella said. But he admitted Taylor had an eye for a bargain and
was successful at what he did.
   ``I guess in his mind I'm cruel and ruthless,'' Taylor said of Kinsella.
``If I do the same thing with pensions for congressmen and senators, they'll
say the same thing.''
   Citing the deficit, corruption in campaign financing, the tax burden and
an oversized federal bureaucracy, Taylor said the nation is in jeopardy.
``We're in deep trouble and I'm leading the mutiny. I'm fighting the
politicians,'' he said.