For the Record

■ Steve Forbes increasingly a lightning rod as his campaign continues to surge. Phil Gramm hit Forbes for columns in his magazine over the years advocating a $1.50 gas tax, the Panama Canal giveaway, looser immigration laws, gays in the military, and once, in 1973, a Ted Kennedy-sponsored health-care bill. Forbes says of Kennedy bill, “Unlike the Washington politicians—they’ve never tried to admit they’ve ever made a mistake—I did on that one.” . . . Bob Dole ran ad criticizing Forbes’s stewardship of Board of International Broadcasting (BIB); a General Accounting Office report found waste during his tenure, including half a million dollars in excessive pay and benefits to Forbes’s second-in-command, Eugene Pell. Forbes responds with radio spot featuring Ronald Reagan praising his work at BIB. … In New Hampshire, popular Gov. Steve Merrill appears in ad on Dole’s behalf saying Forbes flat tax would mean $2,000 more in taxes for typical New Hampshire household. Critical flaw in ad: it relies on a study that didn’t take account of the generous exemptions included in Forbes plan. . . . Forbes advisors and former Jesse Helms strategists Carter Wrenn and Tom Ellis come under fire: the New York Times reports Ellis had been a director of hereditarian Pioneer Fund; Republican National Committeeman Harry Singleton calls on Forbes to fire Wrenn for his role in controversial Jesse Helms “white hands” ad in 1990. . . . According to Robert Novak, Newt Gingrich has tried to convince Jack Kemp of adverse consequences of Forbes nomination, in effort to head off Kemp endorsement of the upstart Republican.

■ Heading toward February 20— New Hampshire primary day—both Gramm and Lamar Alexander hope the volatility of the race will make it possible for them to emerge as a top contender; one survey shows half of likely N.H. Republican voters saying they could change their minds between now and primary day. Alexander is running nice-guy ads in which he proclaims, “If you’re looking for new Republican leadership instead of mudballs, I’m your candidate.” . . . Pat Buchanan noses out Forbes in Alaska straw poll (33 to 31), deflating Gramm campaign talk of at least a second-place finish there. Predicting a “Buchanan-Forbes race,” Buchanan knocks Forbes for “represent[ing] transnational corporations who send American jobs overseas by the millions.” . . . Dole campaign still reeling from critical reaction to Dole’s State of the Union response. Dole himself attempting to sound calm amid predictions of campaign’s collapse: “If I worried about every poll, I’d have an Excedrin headache.” But he has harsh words for Reed Larson’s National Right to Work Committee, which is running ads critical of him: “It is groups like the Right to Work organization that are not very effective and, about every election, they go after their few friends. That’s why they have fewer and fewer friends.”

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Presidential Election

■ Steve Forbes increasingly a lightning rod as his campaign continues to surge. Phil Gramm hit Forbes for columns in his magazine over the years advocating a $1.50 gas tax, the Panama Canal giveaway, looser immigration laws, gays in the military, and once, in 1973, a Ted Kennedy-sponsored health-care bill. Forbes says of Kennedy bill, “Unlike the Washington politicians—they’ve never tried to admit they’ve ever made a mistake—I did on that one.” . . . Bob Dole ran ad criticizing Forbes’s stewardship of Board of International Broadcasting (BIB); a General Accounting Office report found waste during his tenure, including half a million dollars in excessive pay and benefits to Forbes’s second-in-command, Eugene Pell. Forbes responds with radio spot featuring Ronald Reagan praising his work at BIB. … In New Hampshire, popular Gov. Steve Merrill appears in ad on Dole’s behalf saying Forbes flat tax would mean $2,000 more in taxes for typical New Hampshire household. Critical flaw in ad: it relies on a study that didn’t take account of the generous exemptions included in Forbes plan. . . . Forbes advisors and former Jesse Helms strategists Carter Wrenn and Tom Ellis come under fire: the New York Times reports Ellis had been a director of hereditarian Pioneer Fund; Republican National Committeeman Harry Singleton calls on Forbes to fire Wrenn for his role in controversial Jesse Helms “white hands” ad in 1990. . . . According to Robert Novak, Newt Gingrich has tried to convince Jack Kemp of adverse consequences of Forbes nomination, in effort to head off Kemp endorsement of the upstart Republican.

■ Heading toward February 20— New Hampshire primary day—both Gramm and Lamar Alexander hope the volatility of the race will make it possible for them to emerge as a top contender; one survey shows half of likely N.H. Republican voters saying they could change their minds between now and primary day. Alexander is running nice-guy ads in which he proclaims, “If you’re looking for new Republican leadership instead of mudballs, I’m your candidate.” . . . Pat Buchanan noses out Forbes in Alaska straw poll (33 to 31), deflating Gramm campaign talk of at least a second-place finish there. Predicting a “Buchanan-Forbes race,” Buchanan knocks Forbes for “represent[ing] transnational corporations who send American jobs overseas by the millions.” . . . Dole campaign still reeling from critical reaction to Dole’s State of the Union response. Dole himself attempting to sound calm amid predictions of campaign’s collapse: “If I worried about every poll, I’d have an Excedrin headache.” But he has harsh words for Reed Larson’s National Right to Work Committee, which is running ads critical of him: “It is groups like the Right to Work organization that are not very effective and, about every election, they go after their few friends. That’s why they have fewer and fewer friends.”