DES MOINES, Reuter: “We’re all here,” jokes Republican Presidential candidate Pierre Du Pont when asked why he is racing around this farm state, shaking voters’ hands more than two years before the 1988 Presidential election

Du Pont, a former Governor of Delaware and the first official entry in the race to succeed Ronald Reagan, was referring to a whole pack of potential 1988 contenders five in all who were out stumping in Towa on a recent weekend.

*Asked if his uphill campaign for the Republican nomination, declared last month, might have left the starting gate a little early, Du Pont said no.

“Iowa and New Hamsphire pick Presidents in America”, he told Reuters during his Des Moines stopover.

“It takes a lot of time to get your ideas across to people. You have to travel and go to the different towns and cities. So here we are. We’re hard at it”.

Sparsely populated Iowa and New Hampshire lead the parade of primary ballots and party votes to determine the two major party nominees in U.S. Presidential elections, and thus have political clout out of proportion to their size.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 24, 1986