DOLE, BUCHANAN RUN 1-2 IN CALIFORNIA STRAW POLL.

Byline: B. Drummond Ayres Jr. The New York Times

It was certainly no more than, well, a straw in the wind, but on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Bob Dole emerged the winner Sunday of a big, though anything-but-scientific, straw poll of California Republicans.

Dole of Kansas got 36 percent, with Pat Buchanan, the former commentator, finishing second with 25 percent and Steve Forbes, the publisher who has not yet begun spending his millions in the Golden State, with 18 percent.

Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas was fourth, with 9 percent, and none of the five other candidates topped 3 percent.

While the poll, involving 21,000 registered Republicans and conducted mostly by mail by the California Republican Party, was unscientific - and a minimum $25 gift to the party was required to participate - its results nevertheless held some interest because of their timing and because of California's prominence in the American political scene.

Further, the results could be read as confirmation, tenuous though it might be, that Buchanan, coming off victories in an Alaska straw poll and the Louisiana caucuses, was getting the attention of Californians, too.

Republican officials released the poll here at the conclusion of the party's annual midwinter convention, an almost somnolent affair this year at which old divisions over abortion, affirmative action, gun control and other inflammatory issues were played down or sidestepped.

Instead, the emphasis was on the fall campaign against President Clinton and denying him California's important trove of 54 electoral votes, the largest in the nation.

Debate over who the Republican standard-bearer might be, and speculation over whether that would be decided before the March 26 California primary, were relegated, for the most part, to corridor conversation.

Most of the Republican candidates campaigning in Iowa called and had their remarks piped to the convention floor.

The poll was based on 20,000 ballots returned from a mailing of 400,000 ballots, a good response as mail balloting goes, party officials contended. Also added were 1,000 ballots cast at the convention.