GOP Convention Focus Groups Liked Elizabeth Dole

SAN DIEGO (CNN, Aug. 16) -- The Dole convention team has been conducting focus groups of swing voters in two cities to test the Dole/Kemp themes for the fall campaign and to test the effectiveness of the major prime time convention speeches, CNN has learned.

"We wanted to see if our message resonated," Dole campaign manager Paul, Manafort told CNN. "We wanted to test our message, our themes, to make sure that all was working."

The focus groups were also conducted to help the campaign "spin" the message after each convention session, to test the "rhetoric for the fall campaign," and to see "who would be better campaigners" in the fall," sources familiar with the focus groups said.

Elizabeth Dole's Wednesday night speech was better received than Gen. Colin Powell's Monday night speech. "Her scores were higher then Powell's," the sources said. New York Rep. Susan Molinari's keynote speech was a "strong" speech, but "not as strong as expected."

Wednesday was the strongest night. Monday night with Powell, the salute to President Ronald Reagan and the appearance by President Bush and President Ford, was also a good night in the focus groups, sources said. Tuesday night with Molinari's keynote speech was not as strong.

The focus groups were coordinated from under the convention podium by Dole advisor Fred Steeper in conjunction with Dole senior strategist Don Sipple, according to Dole campaign officials. Why under the podium? Manafort said because he wanted to "know how the convention was going."

Those tested in the focus groups were "swing voters," including "lean Republicans, lean Democrats and Independent," Republican sources said. There were focus groups of 40 persons each in hotels in Denver and Atlanta.

GOP Convention Focus Groups Liked Elizabeth Dole

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