ASHUA, N.H. - Frustrated with his own party establishment, but resolved to remain in the Republican presidential primary, Dan Quayle is pinning all of his hopes on New Hampshire.
His not-so-secret strategy: ''Camp out here.'' Quayle has even begun leaving clothes at former Governor John H. Sununu's home in Salem, where he has practically taken up residence.
With his disappointing eighth-place showing in August's Iowa straw poll and recent surveys putting his support at just 4 percent here, the former vice president has been running short on money and battling rapidly diminishing expectations. His best hope, he believes, is to concentrate his campaign on the first-primary state, at the expense of Iowa and other areas of the country.
''You have to pick the state where you have the best opportunity to get some momentum and have the media recognize it,'' Quayle said yesterday. ''The media's still concentrated on the East Coast. It's easy to get to New Hampshire, they pay a lot more attention to the New Hampshire primary than the Iowa caucuses.''
If he can get that media attention, Quayle is hoping voters will come to see him as the conservative alternative to George W. Bush, the Texas governor with the Texas-size warchest.
Quayle has plenty of company on the conservative side of the GOP field. But he sees himself as the only one among them with a claim to electability. Religious conservative Gary Bauer, he believes, is not going to make the cut, and neither is billionaire publisher Steve Forbes.
''He can write the biggest check he wants,'' Quayle said of Forbes. ''But the Republican nominee is going to be somebody that's been elected to office before. It's going to be a governor, it's going to be a former vice president, or it's going to be a senator. That's the way it works. This is not an entry level job, it's a job that requires some experience.''
Despite his years as a congressman, senator, and vice president, Quayle confesses to feeling discouraged by the money Bush has raised, calling it ''staggering and unprecedented,'' and by the inordinate amount of attention Bush receives.
''I confess readily that I am frustrated with this whole inevitability coronation factor,'' Quayle said, in a message he repeated in a talk to Bedford business leaders and in appearances on two radio talk shows.
In Bedford, at the New England Council's Politics and Eggs breakfast, Quayle vented his frustration at the Republican Party establishment and its willingness to embrace Bush.
''A campaign without ideas is no campaign at all,'' Quayle said. ''It seems the hierarchy in the party is interested in just winning rather than discussing ideas that provide for winning.''
The Republican Party, he said, needs a wake-up call. Quayle said he identifies with the unhappiness expressed by New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith, who recently left the Republican Party to become an independent, and the commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, who's thinking about leaving the GOP.
''If there are no real differences (between the parties), then people say, `What difference does it make?''' Quayle said.
Quayle described himself as a reformer, touting term limits and the simplification of the tax code. He would also require losing litigants to pay legal fees when a judge deems a lawsuit to be frivolous. Quayle also said the health care system must be changed to put doctors back in charge of patients' care, rather than ''health insurance bureaucrats.''
Though he is frequently identified as a social conservative, and he often speaks to anti-abortion activists at pregnancy crisis centers, Quayle did not discuss abortion or prayer in schools during his appearances yesterday.
And despite his aggravation at the Bush money and momentum, he appeared to be having fun as he signed autographs throughout the day and answered scores of questions.
His supporters, who were passing out Quayle stickers in Bedford, were enthusiastic, too.
Mary Griffin, a state representative from Windham, was adamant: ''Is there anybody else? I like everything he stands for and he's morally strong,'' she said.
