Bush, Dole Remain Wary, Looking for Banana Peels

Another Tuesday--same story, different state. George Bush throttles Bob Dole in Illinois. Both men claim to want more.

In his 18th primary vote victory in a row, Vice President Bush ran up his numbers at yet another election. But he kept the game face of a man determined to go after all the rest one at a time, guarding against overconfidence, wary of a stumble. He said he was pushing on to “wherever there is action.”

“In politics like in life, you can’t take anything for granted,” Bush insisted.

The mathematics seemed to tell a different story. Kansas Sen. Dole was whipped head-to-head for the first time in his home region of the Midwest. He has not won a state since Minnesota and South Dakota on Feb. 23. He would have to win more than 75% of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination, while Bush needs not even one-third of the remaining delegates.

Dole Mutters His Message

Still, Dole said Tuesday “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Later in the day he whisked by reporters, muttering only: “Staying in. Staying in.”

It was as if both candidates, Bush out of caution and Dole out of hope, had been listening to Lee Atwater, campaign manager for the vice president.

“There is a banana peel out there somewhere, I just know it,” Atwater fretted recently.

The polls had not closed in Illinois before the two main Republican candidates traveled to Wisconsin, site of an April 5 primary.

Dole addressed the state Legislature in Madison and then went on to a student rally in Connecticut, a state that votes March 29.

He then flew home to Washington to watch the gloomy returns from his Watergate apartment. There was no gala wingding as there had been back in early February when he won the opening caucuses in Iowa. His once chummy relationship with reporters had grown chilly.

However, aides strived to make the best of events. “All this says is we continue to have a very strong candidacy, and George Bush continues to have trouble building on momentum without anything to sustain it,” declared campaign chairman William E. Brock III.

Bush went to Wisconsin to tour a shopping mall, visit envelope-stuffing volunteers at his Milwaukee headquarters, sample the goods at a sausage factory and gulp down some knackwurst and potato salad at a nearby restaurant.

Bush returned to Chicago for a victory speech and then, too, headed home to Washington “to change laundry” and rest for a few days.

In his brief thank-you to Illinois voters, Bush said he felt he touched Midwesterners with his cheery campaign themes of patriotism, education, and economic growth. “These are just some of the images that I take with me from Illinois as I campaign out across the rest of this country--as I compile the faces and voices of America in my heart and mind.”

The other active Republican candidate in the contest, former religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, meanwhile, was looking beyond the primary season to the Republican National Convention in New Orleans in August. Robertson met in Washington with Republican National Committee Chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr.

“We were discussing arrangements for the convention in August and also discussing ways where I could help Republicans gain control of key state legislatures,” Robertson said.

A spokeswoman for Fahrenkopf said he welcomed Robertson’s overtures.

Staff Writers Cathleen Decker and Bob Secter contributed to this story.