Portsmouth Herald
RAN 2/21/96 Pg. A3
NOTES, QUOTES FROM A NIGHT AT THE PRIMARY WRITE-INS, STAND-UPS 
HIGHLIGHTS OF EVENING    
Herald Staff
FROM THE POLLS:
   With 206 of 300 precincts reporting, Bill Clinton led even some Republican
contenders with write-in votes from Republicans.
   Clinton had 69 percent of the write-in vote, ahead of U.S. Rep. Bob Dornan
of California, whose name was on the Republican ballot and had 449 votes with
279 of 300 precincts reporting.
   Those Democrats choosing to write in a candidate selected Pat Buchanan the
most with 1,780 votes, just ahead of former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander's
1,769 votes, with 211 precincts counted. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole took
626 write-in votes among Democrats; publisher Steve Forbes took 632. Even
Dornan took some Democratic votes: 17.
   
THE LIBERTARIANS:
   With 227 of 300 precincts reporting, the Libertarians had made a clear
choice for their nominee. It was Harry Browne, with 407 votes and 65 percent
of the total, over Irwin A. Schiff with 221 votes and 35 percent.
   
FROM THE BUCHANAN CAMP:
   Forget balancing the budget.
   Balancing from foot to foot was clearly the issue at Buchanan party
central last night, with a sinister chair shortage forcing hundreds to stand,
balancing drinks in one hand and a plate of chips and cheese balls in the
other.
   Shortly before 7 p.m., the function room began to fill. A line formed at
the bar. The chink of ice hit the glasses. And then came that awkward moment.
   No place to sit.
   People stood with drinks, making conversation, awaiting the man of the
night. Some found upper lumbar support by leaning against pillars. Others
just plopped to the ground.
   Folks got creative.
   Mary Lou Bailey of Stratham, who drove out with husband Dave, found the
rungs of a ladder helped.
   ``I'll just sit here,'' she said, settling in for a brief respite. Her
husband, who just had a cast removed from one of his legs, stood.
   But the two said they really didn't mind. They were both there to support
their candidate.
   They expected to stand, having done the same at the Buchanan rally in
1992.
   ``They can't put very many chairs in here because there wouldn't be enough
room for the crowds,'' she said.
   At 7:30 p.m., the rock band Bittersweet began strumming and drumming 1950s
tunes. And the room temperature began to climb.
   ``You know, Pat grew up in the 1950s,'' the singer said, breaking into a
rendition of Elvis Presley's ``Don't Be Cruel.''
   The band continued to play, drowning out the news reports that first began
to show Buchanan's victory.
   By the conclusion of the event, the room temperature had some supporters
and reporters sweating heavily. But attempts to cool down the room by opening
a door were thwarted by Secret Service agents who repeatedly chased people
away from the door. Many were cracking open the door to breathe in the
refreshing night air. People continued to fan themselves with cocktail
napkins.
   Although the drinks were reportedly fine, the food was not much. Cupcakes,
cheese balls, nacho chips and other empty calories filled tiny paper plates.
   Where was the beef? Over at Steve Forbes' party. The menu included roast
beef sandwiches and Swedish meatballs.
   Lamar Alexander had ham and chicken salad, fruits, and crackers.
   Bob Dole's party did not include food.
    
FROM THE FORBES CAMP:
   Can we talk? Joan Rivers evidently was not interested in talking but she
was interested in making a quick run through the Forbes campaign party
election night in Nashua. Rivers, wearing a Forbes button, was surrounded by
a group of bodyguards, shook a few hands, talked with a TV reporter, and then
went on her way.
   
FROM THE ALEXANDER CAMP:
   Catherine Crier, the ABC News correspondent, delivered her report for the
network news in her stocking feet.
   An Alexander campaign staffer, decked out in the standard plaid shirt as
were dozens of others, had wrapped his infant in a bib with ``I know my
Alexander Beats Clinton.'' The baby was getting as much media attention as
former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett. 
   Soon after the results were known, some campaign staffers were predicting
that if Buchanan went on to keep winning primaries, there would be a brokered
convention, offering to put most of Buchanan's ideas into the platform, but
to step aside for Alexander to take the nomination.
   Campaigns apparently have staffers for everything. Alexander's campaign
had people specifically assigned to distribute stickers - and one person for
each type of sticker. There was another person for buttons and another for
food, even to hand out napkins.
   There is also a hierarchy among the candidate's trademark red-and-black
plaid shirt. Some wore the unadorned version, but those close to the campaign
wore plaid shirts stuck with a small plastic pin, designating it as a shirt
directly given to the wearer by 
Alexander. About 100 of those buttons exist.
   
FROM THE DOLE CAMP:
   Sen. Dole's campaign center was in the ballroom at the Center of New
Hampshire in Manchester, a room that was bulging at the seams with only some
of the media inside. The use of the small room continued a trend of the
campaign throughout the primary season.
   The spin doctors were at work early. A campaign worker was telling anyone
who would listen that the New Hampshire primary will establish only the
challenger to the front-runner, who they said was Sen. Dole. 
   A Buchanan supporter who walked through the lobby of the Center of New
Hampshire carrying campaign signs for his candidate was followed closely by
two members of the Dole staff and two security guards.
   Once a mini-mall, the formerly abandoned Center of New Hampshire saw more
life last night that it had in years as host to the throngs of media and the
Dole headquarters.
   Executive Counselor Ruth Griffin and former State Rep. Gene Ritzo arrived
early, predicting a victory for their candidate. It was not to be.
   
THE EXIT POLLS:
   Pat Buchanan won New Hampshire's presidential primary as a candidate who
``stands up for what he believes in'' and Bob Dole lost because a little more
than half the voters who once backed him defected, an exit poll found.
   Lamar Alexander, who finished a close third, ran strongly among moderates
and won points for vision, according to the survey.
   Buchanan remained a strong favorite of the most conservative voters, but,
in a harbinger of Republican primaries to come, these voters played less of a
role last night than they did in the Iowa caucuses last week, the poll found.
   The findings were from an exit poll conducted by Voter News Service, a
consortium of The Associated Press, ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. The poll sampled
2,555 voters as they left 60 polling places around New Hampshire. The margin
of sampling error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
   As in Iowa, Dole was badly hurt by defections: 44 percent of GOP primary
voters said that at some time this year they had planned to vote for him, but
a little less than half of those voters actually did.
   That means that 24 percent of voters last night were Dole defectors.
Alexander got 37 percent of them, Buchanan 36 percent, and Steve Forbes 13
percent.
   Even a last-minute surge of support for Dole wasn't enough. A quarter of
voters said they decided yesterday whom to support, and Dole and Alexander
each got a third of them, compared with about 15 percent each for Buchanan
and Steve Forbes.
   In all, two-thirds of voters said they made up their minds in the last
week, and Alexander held an edge among them.