Sen. Phil Gramm spoke to a packed house of Baltimore County Republicans last night in Towson -- and wowed them.
Mr. Gramm, a Texas Republican running for the party's presidential nomination, delivered a punchy stump speech to an enthusiastic audience of more than 700 of the GOP faithful, taking shots at Democrats and his primary opponents, and punctuating the address with one-liners.
Carrying forth the GOP gospel of the "Contract with America," he spoke of cutting taxes and the size of government, of fixing what he termed "the moral crisis" in the nation, and of putting more money back into the pockets of the American family by limiting government spending.
In a Texas drawl, he peppered his speech with anecdotes about his own climb from poverty and missteps in school, telling of how he failed the third, seventh and ninth grades -- only to go on to earn a doctorate in economics because of relentless prodding from his mother.
Mr. Gramm pledged to "make a balanced federal budget my No. 1 priority as president.
"And I will not run for re-election, unless I get the job done," he said.
But he has a way to go before checking in at the White House. He is running second in early polls -- nationally and in Maryland -- behind Republican Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas.
The enthusiastic reception Mr. Gramm received last night may have been a little misleading, given that he trailed Mr. Dole in a March poll of likely Maryland GOP primary voters, 42 percent to 22 percent.
He was, after all, on very friendly turf -- in the heart of territory belonging to his state campaign chairman, Ellen R. Sauerbrey, the former Baltimore County legislator who lost the governor's race last year and who introduced him last night.
Many Republicans have yet to line up behind candidates for the March 1996 primary in Maryland, but the crowd clearly liked what they heard at the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee's annual Lincoln Day Dinner at the Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel in Towson.
Mr. Gramm, a former Democrat who owns a vacation home on the Eastern Shore, has worked hard to curry favor with local Republicans and labored on behalf of General Assembly candidates in last year's elections.
Afterward Mr. Gramm said, "If the election were today, we'd win in Maryland."
