Nation IN BRIEF : RHODE ISLAND : 3 GOP Candidates Miss Shot at Primary

The crowded Republican field in next year’s presidential campaign has thinned in Rhode Island, where three GOP candidates failed to qualify for the state’s March 5 primary. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, multimillionaire publisher Steve Forbes and conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan were not on the list when Secretary of State James Langevin announced the primary slate. That leaves Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and businessman Morry Taylor vying for the state’s 16 Republican delegates--less than 1% of the roughly 1,990 delegates needed to clinch the GOP nomination.