Lecturer to poll for Buchanan

Last semester Frank Luntz taught over 70 University students about presidential campaigns. Now he's working on one. Luntz, a 1984 College graduate and a lecturer in American Civilization for the past three years, has been appointed as the pollster, which is one of the top campaign positions, for the Pat Buchanan presidential campaign. In this position, Luntz and his Washington polling firm will conduct the voter surveys and analysis crucial in formulating overall and media strategies. Luntz, a conservative Republican who is adamantly disenchanted with President Bush, is joining a campaign that recent polls say is gaining ground on Bush. According to an American Research Group poll, 30 percent of New Hampshire Republicans support Buchanan in that state's primary in six weeks. Luntz said he was "in ecstasy" when he received the job offer, and pointed to Buchanan's promise to not raise taxes and Bush's changed stand on raising them as one of the biggest factors in his joining the campaign. "I read [Bush's] lips, and I believed him and I was excited. 'This guy is going to be a great President' and then he let me down," said Luntz. But by joining a campaign that is challenging a seated incumbent from the same party, Luntz said he has been warned that he may be jeopardizing his current and future business. Acknowledging that challenging Bush is "an uphill battle," Luntz predicted that Buchanan will reach the numerous primaries held on March 10 -- "Super Tuesday." He also said the candidate will receive up to 40 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary -- more than most political pundits expect. Buchanan has held posts in both the Reagan and Nixon administrations. Most recently, he was a nationwide columnist and regularly appeared on the McLaughlin Group. Buchanan has been a controversial figure throughout his political career, but Luntz dismissed recent claims that he is an anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic fringe candidate. "He is not a racist. He is not bigoted. He is consistent. He doesn't play politics the way everyone else does. I respect that," Luntz said emphatically last night. "There is no candidate in the history of politics who has written more words on paper [than Buchanan] . . . it is so easy to take things out of context," he added. Luntz, who announced his appointment to his Monday "Current Controversies in American Society" class, said he will give his students "one and half hours to let them go at me." College sophomore Kirsten Bartok, one of his students, said many people in the class "were disturbed due to their own personal feelings about Pat Buchanan." And College junior Jefrey Pollock said last night he is proud of Luntz's accomplishment, but "cannot help than be a little disappointed because I am not sure Buchanan's stand [on Israel] is right for the United States." Luntz, who worked for Israel's Likud Party in 1988, justified his association with the anti-Israel Buchanan, by saying that "I never worked for a candidate that I agreed with 100 percent." "But I do agree with him enough," Luntz said. Luntz first met Buchanan as a graduate student at Oxford University when they teamed up for a debate in 1987. In 1992, a debate with George Bush is definitely in the Buchanan strategy, Luntz said. And if Bush refuses to debate his conservative challenger, Luntz hopes Saturday Night Live's Bush impersonator Dana Carvey will debate Buchanan. "If you can't get the real thing why not the next best thing," Luntz added. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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