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— . . .. ■ - March 6i 1996 _
* ■ ' - r.-.' ' - \ ■
Dole seizes
By John King
the Associated Press
Sen. Bob Dole swept eight prima
ries on Tuesday, seizing an overwhelm
ing lead in the Republican presidential
race.
GOP voters
blocked Pat
Buchanan’s con
servative challenge
and turned the
party’s attention to
November.
i “We’ll return
* conservative lead
ership to the White
House,” Dole told
cheering supporters. “And I will be
very proud to carry that banner.”
Dole’s victories were so over
whelming that two lagging rivals —
former Tennessee Gov. Lamar
Alexander and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar
— were preparing to quit the race on
Race narrows for Republican rivals
Wednesday.
“I always felt in my heart it was
going to happen, but you never know
until the people vote,” Dole told The
Associated Press, flushed with confi
dence that his third bid for the GOP
nomination would be successful.
“Tonight we have proven the Re
publican Party is not spinning apart
but coming together,” Dole told a vic
tory rally in Washington. He said the
mission for Republicans now was to
defeat Clinton.
“Tonight we found a leader,” Dole
said.
Dole won primaries in Georgia,
Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland,
Maine, Massachusetts, Colorado and
Rhode Island - a “Junior Tuesday”
primary sweep. There also were cau
cuses in Minnesota and Washington to
begin choosing their convention del
egates.
Dole entered the night with 91 del
egates and was winning at least 174 of
the 208 at stake. That gave him at least
265 delegates, more than a quarter of
the way toward the 996 needed to
clinch the nomination. Publisher Steve
Forbes was a distant second, with 63
delegates.
Dole predicted his lead would bulge
even more after New York’s primary
Thursday and then again in next week’s
“Super Tuesday” contests in Texas,
Florida and five other states. New York
awards 93 delegates; 362 are at stake
the following Tuesday.
“I think we are in a very strong
position to win the nomination,” the
Senate majority leader said, and for
once there was no voice in dissent.
Dole s victories were even more
striking in their size. In Maryland,
Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, and
Rhode Island, Dole won by 2-to-l
margins. In Massachusetts and Maine
his lead was over 20 points. Only Geor
gia was relatively close — and Dole
was beating Buchanan by eight points
there, a state Buchanan had framed as
critical to his fast-fading nomination
hopes.
Some GOP leaders said the race
was all but over.
“If he doesn’t have it wrapped up,
he’s close,” said Illinois Gov. Jim
Edgar. He urged others to clear the
field: “There’s no need to keep fight
ing among ourselves.”
Buchanan vowed to fight all the
See PRIMARY on 3
Delegate
Count
Hi
count
who
Source: AP Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Parties finish
campaigns as
voting begins
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
Stepping it up
Matt Miller/DN
Brian Bazata, a junior accounting major, works out on the stair stepper at the Campus Recreation Center Tuesday
afternoon.
ASUN candidates and officials again showed
their differences in the last day of politicking
before students headed to the polls, ending a
-(lackluster campaign season.
ASUN Polls open today at 8 a.m.
Campaign across camPus anti wdi dose
Officials in the two par
ties vying for victory in the
AssociaTionofStudcntsofthe
University of Nebraska elec
tion again distanced them
selves from each other and
made one last pitch to voters.
Kevin Gregorius, second
vice presidential candidate for OFFICE, said
the party’s campaign strategy was to show stu
dents it could change ASUN.
“Our goal was just to inform students that
they did have a legitimate choice,” he said.
Gregorius said OFFICE candidates targeted
student groups on campus not represented well
by ASUN, such as the Residence Hall Associa
tion and the International Student Organiza
tion.
He said those groups, particularly residence
hall governments, appreciated that OFFICE
would be there to represent them throughout the
year, not just during the election.
Campaigning showed students the OFFICE
See CAMPAIGN on 6
Many Nebraska candidates face little opposition
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter •
Running for political office in Ne
braska is slowly becoming an outgo
ing trend, one UNL political science
professor said.
Robert Sittig said a greater-than
usual number of races in Nebraska are
uncontestcd this year because elected
government positions are not seen as
appealing to potential candidates.
“The benefits of public service no
longer are worth the cost of public
service,” Sittig said.
Candidates for statewide and na
tional office were required to file in
Nebraska by March 1.
One-third of state senators up for
re-election face no opposition. Gov.
Ben Nelson is running uncontested in
the Democratic primary for the U.S.
Senate.
Reps. Doug Bercuter and Jon
Christensen face no Republican oppo
sition in their races for U.S. Congress,
and Rep. Bill Barrett faces no opposi
tion in either the primary or general
elections. Patrick Combs and James
Martin Davis face little opposition in
their Democratic primaries.
“That’s somewhere between sur
prisingand embarrassing,’’Sittigsaid.
Sittig said the compl ications of cam
paigning made running for political
office unappealing.
Candidates have to invest massive
amounts of time and money into politi
cal campaigns, Sittig said, and criti
cism during the campaign makes the
job even more unattractive.
Adam Branting, deputy director of
the Nebraska Democratic party, said
candidates could be discouraged by
the low level of pay and high level of
stress that came with the job.
In races where Democratic candi
dates are uncontested in primary elec
tions, other candidates don’t join the
race because the party is satisfied with
the candidate running, Branting said.
“Sometimes the caliber of the can
didate is so good, you would vote for
him yourself.”
Chuck Sigerson, chairman of the
Nebraska Republican party, said Rc
publ icans encouraged more candidates
to run, even when a strong candidate
was running.
Sittig said voters benefited from
having more candidates in the race.
“How is a voter supposed to evalu
ate choices iftherc’sonly one choice?”
In the clear^f
An unusually large number of candidates will make it through the primaries unopposed.
U*Si Senator U*S. Congress - 2nd District
Jttancrat - Ben'RelwKi6^ Jfiemocrat - Jess Pritchett
^Republican - Don Stenberg . Democrat - James Martin Daves
Republican • Chuck Hagel <, I Republican - Jon Christerr^^£etf}
ULS. Congress - 1st District U.S. Congress - ^ District
Democrat - Marlin Pals . Republican - Bill Bartet£££®sec?/
yr —i
Democrat • Patrick J. Combs
yH^pubHcan - Doug BereilS^^^/
Source: Lancaster County Election Offices Aaron Steckelberg/DN