Smith of N.H. to announce for president

Associated Press, January 3, 1999

CONCORD, N.H. -- Shrugging off a poor showing in the polls, US Senator Bob Smith, the New Hampshire Republican, plans to file his candidacy for president tomorrow, he said yesterday.

Smith, a conservative who has made the rounds in Iowa and his home state to gauge support for his candidacy, said he would be the first to file with the Federal Election Commission, though several others have established exploratory committees.

Smith said the reception he has received in 20 or so states in the past 1 1/2 years convinced him to run, though he has barely registered in the polls, even in his home state.

"The cynics out there, doomsayers, say you don't show up in the polls. The polls don't mean anything. Nobody's running for president today," Smith said by telephone from Washington.

He said he would conduct a grass-roots campaign and spend a lot of time in New Hampshire and Iowa, the states with the earliest primary and earliest caucuses.

"Victories there would be the way to propel me into the front of the race," he said. "Clearly, I have to win New Hampshire."