Sen. Bob Dole, kicking off a Wisconsin campaign swing Sunday, flipped two coins into a wishing well, thinking perhaps of a badly needed win in Wisconsin's April 5 primary. As he strolled around a sports exposition at the city's convention center, Dole was asked by reporters about a Milwaukee Journal poll suggesting Vice President George Bush led him by a margin of nearly 3-1 among Wisconsin voters considered likely to vote in the Republican primary. ``There are no secrets,'' he said. ``I've got a lot of hill to climb before April 5,'' he said later in an interview. ``I met a lot of friendly people out there. It's tough when you're losing. It's a lot more fun when you're winning,'' he said. ``But I still have a lot of supporters out there. And we want them to know Bob Dole is a fighter, that we're going to stay in this race.'' The Kansas senator said, however, that he would have to reassess his standing if he lost in Wisconsin. ``We shouldn't be into this game about are you going to run or are you going to drop out,'' he said. But he added that after Wisconsin, he would have to do some thinking about whether to stay in the race. ``We've been hearing the end is near, but people forget George Bush stayed in eight weeks after he began losing to Ronald Reagan,'' Dole said. ``Eight weeks was enough for him to lose. But I think eight weeks would be enough time for me to turn some things around.'' At the sports exposition, he was presented with a fishing rod and fisermen's vest, and viewed a tank that served as an artifical fishing pond containing trout. A demonstrator cast a few lines but came up empty. Dole was also visiting a Veterans Administration hospital on Sunday. On Monday, he was attending a farm day in northwestern Wisconsin, visiting a vocational school in Eau Claire and touring a brewery in La Crosse. Dole's state campaign chairman Michael Grebe said he expected the senator's visit to be ``the kickoff to a strong effort in Wisconsin.'' ``We expect to have a direct mail effort, radio and television advertising and continuing volunteer effort and volunteer phone banks,'' Grebe said. Dole was trounced by Bush on Super Tuesday, and lost again last week in Illinois. He has indicated he intends to remain in the race at least through the Wisconsin primary. The Milwaukee Journal poll of 732 Wisconsin residents showed 69 percent of those planning to vote Republican preferred Bush, 25 percent chose Dole and 6 percent chose Pat Robertson.
