January 13, 1999

Ashcroft out, but Bauer may be in race
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--Religious conservatives lost one potential Republican presidential candidate while gaining another last week.
___Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., announced Jan. 5 he would not seek the GOP nomination in 2000, while Gary Bauer said he was taking a leave of absence from his job as president of the Family Research Council to explore a presidential run.
___Bauer, 52, a one-time White House domestic-policy adviser to ex-President Ronald Reagan, said on CNN he would decide whether he will run by the end of January. If he does, Bauer said he would present himself as a Reagan conservative on economic and social issues.
___Bauer also has headed the Campaign for Working Families, which calls itself the nation's sixth-largest political action committee. It raised $7 million for conservative candidates during 1998.
___Bauer has consistently spoken uncompromisingly about abortion and other issues important to religious conservatives. He also has faulted conservative GOP leaders for being too quick to compromise in order to attract moderate voters to Republican ranks.
___However, Bauer never has run for political office, and some Washington political insiders have expressed concern that Bauer is too conservative and too unknown to win a presidential race.
___Ashcroft's decision to pull out of the race for the Republican nomination came as a surprise.
___He was considered the early favorite of religious conservatives and had spent a year laying the groundwork for a campaign.
___Ashcroft said he now would concentrate on winning re-election to the Senate.

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