Nashua Telegraph
RAN 2/8
By KEVIN LANDRIGAN
Telegraph Staff
 CONCORD - Republican presidential candidate Lamar Alexander is still
waiting for a meteoric rise in popularity but refuses to lose the image of
the nice guy in the middle of mud wrestlers running for president. 
 And to prove the point, Alexander made a quick trip to the L.L. Bean
store in New Hampshire's capital city to buy the tallest "mud boots" he
could find - $102.50 worth, marked down to $77.62 - and the candidate paid
in cash. 
 "I got up this morning and saw seven, consecutive negative ads. I figured
I would need these and before I'm through I might need a pair of waders,"
Alexander said. 
 The former governor of Tennessee and onetime education secretary has
rejected calls by even some supporters to hit back harder at wealthy
magazine publisher Steve Forbes, who has aired ads attacking Alexander's
background as a politician and businessman. 
 Alexander's only response has been to dismiss the war between Forbes and
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole as a fight between candidates "throwing
mudballs" and tried to offer himself as the reasoned alternative. 
 But this may change soon. The Alexander campaign has prepared and was
expected to have aired by now ads that call into question the
qualifications of Forbes to serve in the White House if elected. 
 A recent poll done by Dartmouth College and WMUR-TV in Manchester
suggests that Alexander has been hurt by the Forbes barrage. 
 Among likely Republican primary voters, 29 percent had a favorable
opinion of him but nearly the same number - 27 percent - had an
unfavorable view. 
 That's a 50 percent jump in the total of those who had an unfavorable
view only three weeks earlier. 
 "We still believe there's more room to grow in this campaign than any
other," said Alexander state campaign Chairman Bill Cahill. 
 The campaign has struggled to get out of single digits with a general
message of giving more power back to the states and an assault on the
Forbes flat tax plan with claims it would hurt real estate and charitable
giving in the state. 
 Alexander couldn't resist a jab at the most disappointed candidate in the
field Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who lost the Louisiana
caucus to Patrick Buchanan on Tuesday after insisting it would be his. 
 While storming through the discount store, Alexander spotted a canoe
loaded with life preservers. 
 "Maybe I should send one of these to Senator Gramm," Alexander joked. 
 Alexander media consultant Mike Murphy said the strategy remains to
contrast their candidate with the two front-runners even though Dole is
behind Buchanan in virtually every poll of likely New Hampshire primary
voters. 
 "We are better prepared than Forbes and have fresher ideas than Dole,"
Murphy said. 
 Meanwhile, the Forbes campaign aired a new commercial today that targeted
Dole as the recipient of campaign checks in exchange for doing favors for
commodity traders and other special-interest groups.