IOWA MILLENNIAL MOOD SOMBER.(MAIN)

Byline: CHUCK RAASCH

MONTICELLO, Iowa -- Forget the chatter about peace and prosperity, about a booming stock market and Internet millionaires, about a balanced budget and the optimism of the new millennium.

Here, in the first presidential testing ground of the 2000 elections, the mood is not nearly so unabashedly optimistic. There is consternation and anxiety amid the prosperity, and the new farm crisis that has erupted this summer is only part of the story in Iowa, where presidential dreams come to be tested.

The Republican Party of Iowa is having a straw ballot Saturday, and this first test of 2000 strength is drawing a blitz of campaigning. A …