(9 of 10)
Wide, Not Strong. Humphrey, meanwhile, has been making progress on two fronts. Recently he has collected a bag of delegates in state conventions and caucuses in Maryland, Delaware, Arizona, Wyoming, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska and Maine. Humphrey has also been doing well against Kennedy in public-opinion polls, outdistancing him by nine points in the Gallup sampling of Democrats reported last week. In April, Kennedy led by four. Humphrey has labor backing and strong support from businessmen, who by and large still distrust Bobby. He has even been gaining among younger voters—ostensibly Kennedy's strongest bloc. The May survey, however, was taken before Indiana and Nebraska: these and future primaries could affect the polls in Kennedy's favor.
"Obviously," says Kennedy, "I'm going to have trouble with Vice President
Humphrey." Larry O'Brien acknowledges that "Humphrey's base is relatively wide—now—but it is not strong." That is, many of the delegates now counted as committed or favor able to Humphrey are under no compulsion to remain so. Also, there have been no binding stands taken in some of the biggest Northern delegations, such as those from Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, although Humphrey is thought to have considerable strength in several of them. Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, who could be the single most influential delegation chief at the convention he will host, maintains a cagey silence, although he did allow last week that Kennedy's Nebraska showing was "impressive."
One Last Push. Oregon and California will present new problems to Kennedy. Oregon is underdog territory, and McCarthy's campaign there is better organized than it was in either Nebraska or Indiana. Although the Minnesotan himself appears discouraged, his troops on the West Coast seem to be of a mood to give one last push for Gene. Kennedy enjoys support from the regular Democratic organization in Oregon, but that is puny by any reckoning in that anti-organization state. And some Oregonians remember that Bobby, as a Senate investigator in 1957, was instrumental in getting Portland's Mayor Terry Schrunk tried for bribery and perjury. Schrunk, who was acquitted, is still mayor. The party in California is traumatically split, and Kennedy's forces, headed by Jesse Unruh, the ambitious, abrasive speaker of the assembly, became bogged down in petty bickering to the extent that Kennedy agents from the outside had to scurry in to set matters right. In both states, the advance outlook is cloudy and the decisions may well hinge on the last days of campaigning.