ES MOINES - When Elizabeth H. Dole arrived here last week to convey her endorsement of George W. Bush, she said they both ''share a deep personal faith and belief in the power of prayer.''
Her remark was overshadowed by speculation about a place for her on a possible Republican ticket headed by Bush, yet it represented another effort to buttress Bush's standing among Christian conservatives, one of the largest constituencies in Iowa Republican politics.
The Texas governor appealed to the same audience in a debate here last month by naming Jesus Christ the ''political philosopher or thinker'' with whom he felt most comfortable.
Some Washington analysts found the statement jarring. CNN's Bill Schneider called the remark ''controversial,'' while MSNBC's Chris Matthews said Bush should have cited someone else. A commentator in the Los Angeles Times said Bush's ''assertion was seen as religious pandering at its worst.''
But in this stolid Midwestern state with middle-American values, Bush's overtures to religious conservatives are considered smart politics.
''The Republican debate has religion intertwined in its discourse,'' said Dee Stewart, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. ''Our caucus attendee is not going to be offended by a discussion of God or moral values in politics.''
At least a quarter - and perhaps as many as 40 percent - of the Iowa Republican voters come from strong Christian conservative backgrounds, Stewart said. They helped ignite Patrick Buchanan's insurgency here in 1996, when an impressive second-place finish put him in position to upset Bob Dole in the New Hampshire primary a week later.
In the 1988 caucus, the Rev. Pat Robertson, the televangelist who founded the Christian Coalition, stunned the nation by finishing second, behind Dole but ahead of the man who eventually won the presidency, George Bush.
The religious forces here are composed of fundamentalist Protestants as well as Catholics dedicated to abolishing abortion rights. Among other issues, they believe in prayer in classrooms and seek government aid for parochial schools.
The movement first showed its teeth in Iowa in 1978, when Senator Dick Clark, a liberal Democrat, was beaten by Republican Roger Jepsen, after a right-to-life campaign targeted Clark. In 1980, another Democratic senator from Iowa, John Culver, was battered by a ''New Right'' media assault and beaten by Charles Grassley, who still holds the seat.
Jepsen was driven from office later in the decade, after his Christian constituency learned he frequented a massage parlor featuring ''nude encounter sessions.''
This year, secular issues may be dominating the contest in New Hampshire, but all five GOP candidates competing in Iowa in the Jan. 24 caucuses are courting the Christian faithful:
Gary Bauer, a leader of the Family Research Council and a highly visible advocate of religious causes before entering the race, enjoys a natural following within Christian circles.
Steve Forbes, a champion of the flat tax in 1996, has made opposition to abortion a pet issue this year in an attempt to make inroads among the powerful bloc that ignored him four years ago.
Alan Keyes, who won 7 percent of the votes in the last Iowa caucus on the strength of his speeches denouncing abortion, inveighing against homosexuality, and supporting prayer in schools, is striking the same themes again.
Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is also using his long record as a conservative lawmaker to woo the same groups.
(Arizona Senator John McCain is not actively campaigning in Iowa.)
George W. Bush, meanwhile, has begun speaking out more frequently about his own religious commitment. ''The Bible has influenced me a lot. I read it every day,'' he said in an interview with the conservative National Review.
Bush, who embraced his wife's Methodist faith years ago, also spoke of ''a very serious evangelical movement taking place in America. It's challenging the traditional church in many ways.''
While the numbers of the Episcopal Church, in which he was raised, ''seem to be declining,'' he said, ''the Bible church is not. There is a backlash to the cultural excesses of the Sixties and Seventies.''
The comments by the leading Republican candidate are a departure from his reputation as a ''young and irresponsible'' playboy, an image Bush had to fight off early in the campaign. As he told the National Review: ''I've sought redemption and believe I've found it. I get great strength from the Bible.''
