Drops to third place in presidential race polls
 
                 BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazilian presidential contender Ciro Gomes
                 has called a radio listener a "dunce" and said the role of his popular soap
                 star girlfriend in his ca mpaign is sleeping with him.

                 Gomes is loaded with credentials that qualify him to govern Latin America's largest
                 country, from a stint as finance minister to governor of a populous state. Yet
                 friends and political analysts say he repeatedly shoots himself in the foot.

                 "I never heard anyone say so many idiocies in such an important and closely fought
                 race as Ciro Gomes," said Claudio Couto, a political analyst at Sao Paulo's Catholic
                 University.

                 Flaunting a semi-government, semi-opposition image, Gomes became the man of
                 choice for Brazilian voters who want change without trauma. Many see him as a
                 more predictable alternative to leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a
                 former metals worker who is remembered as a firebrand.

                 Gomes, a boyish-looking 44-year-old who describes his politics as center-left,
                 jumped in July into a strong second place in polls for the October 6 vote, which is
                 shaping up to be the most hotly contested election since Brazil's return to
                 democracy in 1985.

                 But a string of rash remarks quickly cost him the No. 2 slot. Gomes plummeted 13
                 percentage points in the polls in the past month to fall behind Jose Serra of the
                 centrist government coalition, who is rising quickly.

                 "He's his own worst enemy," said one family friend, who requested anonymity.

                 Most recently, Gomes irked women's rights' groups when asked about the function
                 in his campaign of his long-time girlfriend, soap actress Patricia Pillar, who
                 endeared herself to Brazilians with a public battle against breast cancer, which she
                 beat.

                 "My partner has one of the most important roles, which is to sleep with me,"
                 Gomes told reporters straight-faced, adding quickly that he was joking when the
                 audience went silent.

                 Whether his words are taken out of context or exaggerated, Gomes's infamous
                 irascibility could prove his downfall. Serra has labelled him emotionally unstable in
                 an all-out war between the arch enemies for a place in an October 27 second-round
                 vote.

                 Brazil's election will go to a run-off if no candidate wins a majority on October 6,
                 and opinion polls suggest a second round is likely.

                 Chronically impatient

                 Gomes, whose political career dates back 20 years, defends his outbursts, saying
                 the failure of departing President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to give people jobs or
                 decent wages over the past eight years exasperates and infuriates him.

                 Cardoso, who backs Serra, ended hyperinflation and implemented free-market
                 reforms. But poverty and violent crime continue to ravage the country.

                 Former co-workers deny that Gomes flies off the handle.

                 "When he works, he doesn't fool around. He's serious, but I don't recall any
                 incidents of disrespect," said Fernando Antonio Augusto, an advertising agent who
                 designed Gomes's campaign for governor of Ceara, a beach-lined, impoverished
                 state in northern Brazil.

                 Ex-colleagues agree that Gomes is chronically impatient. He likes to make things
                 happen, and fast.

                 As governor of Ceara, Gomes overcame obstacles to build a 68-mile (110 km)
                 canal in a record 90 days, saving the water system from collapse and preventing a
                 calamity.

                 But what Serra calls the candidate's "short-fuse" has singed many.

                 "He's super intelligent, and like super-intelligent people, he doesn't admit stupid
                 questions, especially from journalists," said Arnaldo Pinho, a businessman who has
                 worked with Gomes.

                 Gomes's political career underscores his early start in government. He became state
                 deputy at the age of 24, mayor of the Ceara state capital Fortaleza at 30 and was
                 elected Ceara governor for Serra and Cardoso's Brazilian Social Democratic Party
                 (PSDB) at 32.

                 His desire to be president prompted him to move away from the PSDB when it
                 became clear that he would have to wait in line to be the party's candidate for the
                 top job.

                 Right-left-right

                 Gomes's campaign team may include relative small fry but his candidacy, for a
                 coalition of his Popular Socialist Party (PPS) with two smaller parties, has the
                 support of some of the biggest fish in Brazilian politics, on both the right and the
                 left.

                 Gomes, who as a youth briefly belonged to a far-right party that backed the military
                 dictatorship, has conservative oligarchs and former Communists on his side. He has
                 also recruited Jose Alexandre Scheinkman, a liberal Princeton economist and a
                 darling of Wall Street.

                 With that mishmash, wary investors wonder where his true loyalties lie as he makes
                 his second bid for president.

                 Gomes, who served four months as a fill-in finance minister in 1994, speaks
                 energetically about the need for growth and jobs, to be achieved by lower interest
                 rates and more exports. He would halt privatisations.

                 But he has irked markets by calling Cardoso's market-friendly economic model
                 "ruinous" and with a plan to "negotiate" longer maturities on local debt.

                 While his manner at times appears aloof, Gomes has simple tastes. He loves a
                 whiskey and smokes.

                 "Ciro is like me and you. He says what he thinks and at times uses hyperbole. He is
                 so like us that he's different to other politicians," Pillar said on one television
                 advertisement.

                 Gomes prides himself on being squeaky clean.

                 "He is irreproachably honest," said the family friend. "You can't question Ciro on his
                 morals, but maybe you can on his behavior."

                    Copyright 2002 Reuters.