"King of the Klondike"

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ANCHORAGE: Though only 9,172 Alaskans voted, at least two Republican presidential candidates crowed over the results of Monday's balloting in the nonbinding, three-day, statewide Republican poll. One was Pat Buchanan, who called his 33 percent (2,988 votes) of the tally "a phenomenal victory" and immediately proclaimed himself "King of the Klondike." The other "victor" was Steve Forbes, who placed a close second with 31 percent and whose Alaska campaign manager declared the results "a major wake-up call for Bob Dole." Dole, still the nominal Republican frontrunner in most national polls, was a distant third in Alaska with just 17 percent (1,565 votes). The Kansan, who was campaigning in Iowa for the much more significant caucus vote there next month, dismissed the whole episode as a rich man's folly: "Forbes spent a lot of money in Alaska." Dole made no campaign stops in Alaska, which provides only 19 of 1,990 delegates to the Republican convention and commands a scant three of the 538 electoral votes.