MR Steve Forbes, an amateur politician with a mischievous smile and very deep pockets, emerged over the weekend as an unlikely but real threat to Senator Bob Dole in the fight for the Republican nomination in the 1996 Presidential race.
A poll in New Hampshire, where the first primary contest will be held on February 20th, showed Mr Forbes surging ahead of seven other challengers to Mr Dole. He has 17 per cent support among Republican voters, compared to 33 per cent for Mr Dole. In Delaware, another poll had Mr Forbes only one point behind the Senate Majority leader.
Mr Forbes, who has never held elective office, has endeared himself to many Republicans with his proposal for a flat tax on income of 17 per cent across the board. Tax returns can be mailed on a postcard, he claims, most people will pay less tax and the economy will take off.
The nine Republican hopefuls appeared together in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday. They took part in a nationally televised debate for the first time for the right to challenge US President Clinton in November. Mr Clinton at the same time was appearing on television with US troops in Bosnia, displaying the power of incumbency to mould a favourable image during election year.
Though, unchallenged for the Democratic Party nomination Mr Clinton's campaign staff began distributing 20,000 leaflets throughout New Hampshire at the weekend. The President, who returned from Bosnia on Saturday evening, also plans to visit the north eastern state to ensure a good turn out in the Democratic primary.
But for now the spotlight in a low key presidential election year has turned on Mr Forbes, a shy, uncharismatic figure who entered the race late and has now pulled well ahead of rivals such as Senator Phil Gramm, commentator Pat Buchanan and Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
In the debate the other candidates took potshots at the bespectacled, 48 year old publisher. Mr Alexander said "The Forbes tax plan is a truly nutty idea".
For an amateur in the tradition of Mr Smith Goes to Washington Mr Forbes showed professional steadiness under fire. Mr Alexander "raised taxes as governor so he doesn't know the magic of tax cuts," he said. The Tennessee governor retorted "The only thing you've ever run is a magazine you inherited and you raised the price."
But as the audience laughed, Mr Forbes shot back that subscriptions to the magazine were voluntary. Clearly relishing the attention, he said the attacks showed his message was taking hold, adding, These lifetime politicians don't get it. They never will.
Mr Forbes is publisher of Forbes magazine, which he inherited, along with a considerable fortune, from his father, Malcolm Forbes, a flamboyant playboy, publisher, balloonist and one time escort of actress Elizabeth Taylor. Unlike his father he is an earnest and reclusive family man. He and his wife of 24 years, Sabina, have five daughters and live on a farm estate in New Jersey.
He decided to enter the race 10 months ago at a meeting in his office with Mr Jude Wanniski, editor of a financial newsletter and former Reagan campaign manager, Mr John Sears. "It might be fun," he said.
Mr Wanniski, a top Republican political operator, distrusted Senator Dole's tendency to compromise with President Clinton and saw Steve Forbes as an ideal supply side candidate in the mould of President Reagan.
Mr Forbes is spending millions of dollars on television advertisements to explain his flat tax ideas. Everyone would pay 17 per cent on earned income, with a typical $36,000 exemption for a family of four and no tax on investment income or capital gains.
This would result in a drop of 540 billion immediately in revenue, but Mr Forbes said this would he made up by economic growth. Critics maintain that a flat tax would make the rich richer.
"The lax code is a monstrosity," Mr Forbes said when campaigning in Iowa. "Scrap it, kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it and hope it never rises again to terrorise the American people."