gop presidential race

Gay troops pose "an intolerable risk" to national security, U.S. senator and Republican presidential hopeful John McCain wrote last month to a gay rights group seeking to change his position on "don't ask, don't tell."

Iowa caucus victories behind them, Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama vowed to stick with their winning principles Friday in an abbreviated dash to the finish in New Hampshire's presidential primary campaign, despite facing a different political alignment and, as Huckabee put it, ''only a few days to close the sale.'' Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain, GOP poll leaders in New Hampshire, stood ready to try to douse Huckabee's ''prairie fire'' in a state that lacks the religious voting bloc of Iowa and has an ornery tradition of rejecting Iowa's Republican caucus winners. ''It will be a different race here,'' Romney said Friday.

Rudy Giuliani shares the lead among conservative voters in the Republican presidential race, despite the New Yorker's three marriages and moderate views on abortion, guns, and gays. Yet a close look suggests his support from the GOP's potent right wing is less than meets the eye, according to recent Associated Press-Ipsos polls. Conservatives, evangelical and born-again voters, and strongly loyal Republicans who back Giuliani tend to be less conservative, less religiously active and less supportive of President Bush than those favoring Fred Thompson, Giuliani's chief rival so far, the surveys show.

George Pataki, a gay-friendly Republican who has served three terms as governor of New York, said he will not seek a fourth term in next year's race, while leaving open the possibility of a presidential bid in 2008.