IOWA CAUCUS RESULTS Republican 97% of precincts reporting Bush 41% Forbes 30% Keyes 14% Bauer 9% McCain 5% Hatch 1% Democrats 98% of precincts reporting Gore 63% Bradley 35% Percentages will not necessarily add to 100. MORE COVERAGE FROM THE GLOBE Bush, Gore wrap up Iowa The votes tell the contentment Lesson of Iowa: Counterattack quickly Candidates have one goal remaining: closing the deal Tight-three way race in New Hampshire envisioned Gore plays it cool and girds for battle Hatch to announce he's quitting race Small-town USA sees big time turnout at polls On the road in N.H., McCain dismisses Iowa Sharing quarters, but ever so briefly EARLIER NEWS Gore, Bush easy winners of Iowa caucuses Voters say Bush best choice on moral values, can win in November Democrats: Iowa picks fighter Gore over Bradley's fresh start Republicans: Bush aims to use caucus victory to set up showdown with McCain Fiery Keyes gets strong caucus support Down-home politics shape Iowa Iowa's only the first step in picking nominee With a final flury, candidates focus on turnout Former president waits nervously as son competes in Iowa caucuses After Iowa: On to New Hampshire ABOUT THE CAUCUSES How Iowa caucuses work Why they are important ABOUT IOWA Population: 2.85 million. Registered voters: 1.8 million -- 36 percent unaffiliated, 32 percent Republican, 31 percent Democrat. Percentage of voters attending GOP caucuses in 1996: 17 percent. Race: 97 percent white. 2 percent black. 1 percent Asian. 2 percent Hispanic origin. Median age: 36.3. Median household income: $33,877. Poverty rate: 9.4 percent. Unemployment rate: 2.7 percent. Abortions: 9.8 per 1,000 women in 1995, compared with the national average of 22.9 per 1,000. 1996 vote: 50 percent Clinton; 40 percent Dole; 9 percent Perot. Average life span: 77 years, compared with the U.S. average of 75. Housing: Just over 72 percent of Iowans own their own homes, national average 66.3 percent. Crime rate: 3,816 victims per 100,000 people in 1997, vs. national average of 4,923. Tax burden: On a per-person basis, Iowa paid $4,530 in federal taxes in 1997 and got back $4,661 in federal spending.

Hatch will announce his decision on Wednesday, said the adviser, who commented only on condition of anonymity.

"We've all seen the numbers," the aide said.

Hatch mustered a bare 1 percent in the first presidential voting in Iowa on Monday night.

Hatch, 65, had counted on his four terms in the Senate and chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee to show voters he had the experience to be president. He repeatedly said he was the only candidate with the background to pick Supreme Court justices who would uphold conservative principles, such as opposition to abortion.

But Hatch jumped into the campaign only last July, months or years after other GOP hopefuls. He asked for one million donors to give him $36 each for a total of $36 million, but he had raised only about $2.3 million through December.

Of the other Republicans in the bottom three in Iowa, John McCain had 5 percent but did not compete in the state and is running much more strongly in New Hampshire. Gary Bauer, who had 9 percent, said today in New Hampshire, "We need this to be a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. So we will keep moving on."

He said of Hatch: "I can't say I'm too sad to see him go since I want everyone to go but me. But he's a good man and I'm glad he was there."

Hatch did not make a public appearance after the results Monday night but released a statement that said he looked "forward to returning to New Hampshire this week."

When he was considering entering the presidential race last June, Hatch said he had examined the rest of the GOP field and found it lacking a candidate with the experience to be an effective president.

"If I didn't think I would make a better president, I wouldn't get into it," Hatch said then.

Dropping out of the presidential race allows Hatch to focus on his re-election campaign to the Senate. Utah lawmakers had changed state law to allow him to simultaneously run for president and for the Senate.

Hatch, the only Mormon among the presidential contenders, has said anti-Mormon bias hurt him among the voters he was trying hardest to court: Christian conservatives.

"Some of these people have an absolutely loony belief that Mormons aren't Christian," Hatch said last Friday. "There's some misapprehensions and some miscomprehension about my faith."

Iowa pundits blamed Hatch's poor showing more on a poorly funded and poorly organized campaign. "The fact that he's had a lot of experience in the Senate wasn't really that exciting or enough to make people want to switch over to him," said Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt.