Portsmouth Herald
RAN 2/2/96, Pg. A3
By Barbara Metzler
Herald Staff
   PORTSMOUTH - Former Wyoming Sen. Malcolm Wallop has been a key backer of a
constitutional amendment to ban abortions but after years of fighting, he
says Steve Forbes' approach is more practical and more likely to change
American opinion.
   Forbes, who has five daughters, says he is pro-life, but he would allow
abortions in the first 24 weeks. He does not support the constitutional
amendment. Instead he talks about changing the attitudes of Americans so that
abortions disappear by choice.
   ``In a democracy, you can't change things without changing the culture,''
Wallop said. ``It's the practical political way.''
   Wallop, who is co-chairman of Forbes' national campaign, attended a Rotary
Club meeting yesterday, where it was announced that Senate Majority Bob Dole
would address the group next Thursday.
   Afterward, Wallop discussed Forbes' stand on the issues, particularly
abortion. Those who oppose all abortions have done nothing to eliminate them,
despite years of fighting, Wallop said. All they have done is improve their
own ratings among sympathetic voters, he said.
   ``Unless the president speaks to it, it doesn't matter a lot,'' he said.
   Forbes opposes abortions in the third trimester or for the sake of
convenience, as well as government funding for abortions. He supports
parental notification for minors who want abortions.
   Wallop said he knew Forbes casually for many years, but came to know him
better during a flight together to a Republican Party fund-raiser in North
Carolina last year, before Forbes announced his candidacy. As they talked en
route, Wallop said it became clear they shared viewpoints on many issues,
beginning with less government 
involvement in citizens' lives.
   ``This is a man whose political ideas are formed by having thought about
them,'' Wallop said.
   ``He doesn't have to think about how to answer a question that's given to
him. It comes from a core set of beliefs.''
   The focal point of Forbes' campaign is a flat tax that would grant
individual exemptions of $13,000 a year, with a flat 17 percent tax on income
above that.
   Wallop called Forbes' flat-tax plan ``the architectural I-beam, if you
will, of restoring the kind of government and future that Americans are
looking for.''
   Forbes has advanced a dialogue on the flat-tax plan that has developed
into a ``growing bipartisan understanding'' that the tax code must be
simplified and taxes reduced, Wallop said.
   While Forbes has focused on the flat tax, Wallop said Forbes is more than
a one-issue candidate. He favors parental choice for schools and phasing out
Social Security for younger workers in favor of mandatory retirement savings
accounts. Forbes would not have put troops in Bosnia, Wallop said.
   As Forbes gains ground, The Washington Post reported yesterday that the
FEC is questioning whether Forbes Inc., gave him improper corporate
contributions that were later repaid by the campaign.
   In its filings with the FEC, the campaign showed numerous reimbursements
to the company for travel, totaling $6,575, and a payment to the company of
$36,136.61 for rent and telephones.
   The campaign's general counsel, Paul Sullivan, said the campaign actually
made payments for the use of corporate aircraft before the flights, as the
FEC requires, even though it called them reimbursements in its report.
   ``All of it was done in compliance with the regulations,'' Sullivan said.
He said the campaign was renting office space from a company-owned building
in New Jersey.


PRO FORBES POLL

   A poll released yesterday by The Boston Globe and WBZ-TV showed Steve
Forbes would receive 31 percent of the vote if the primary were held today to
22 percent for Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
   Forbes, campaigning in Council Bluffs, Iowa, said his own surveys show him
much closer to Dole, and he is encouraged by his strong showings.
   "I think our message of hope, growth and opportunity is getting across to
the voters'" Forbes said.
   Forbes told CNN interviewer Larry King that he expects "a strong fourth or
a good third" place showing in the Iowa caucuses Feb. 12 and would like to
finish second or third in New Hampshire.