Over the Top, Barely

Claiming victory, Mondale tries to unify the Democrats

  • Share
  • Read Later

(3 of 9)

Hart hoped to use his California victory to block the Mondale bandwagon. But he was slow to capitalize on it, mainly because he had been caught off guard by the magnitude of his California win. His last day of campaigning had gone dismally. After some morning stumping in New Jersey, where his weariness had earlier caused him to praise a supporter for coming "here for the New Hampshire primary," Hart's aides found that early exit polls indicated he was going to lose the state. Shortly after his chartered Boeing 720 took off from Philadelphia, an engine caught fire and the cabin filled with smoke. Hart's wife Lee ran from a rear seat through the plane because "I thought we were going down and I wanted to be with my family." The aircraft landed safely, and Hart's shaken entourage took Ozark Air Lines planes to St. Louis and California. Unaware that he was on the way toward a dramatic and offsetting win on the West Coast, Hart canceled election-night network interviews in Los Angeles, missing a possibly vital chance to call attention to his California triumph. NBC had promoted its scheduled interview with Hart on the nightly news. When he bailed out, Correspondent Roger Mudd put questions to an empty chair, a bit of low-blow journalism that enraged the candidate when he heard about it later.

Hart awoke Wednesday morning to discover belatedly that he could declare sa "spectacular, prodigious ? victory" in California. He also whipped Mondale, 51% to 39%, in South Dakota, where Jackson got just 5%. Hart had almost as large an edge in New Mexico, 46% to 36% over Mondale, with Jackson at 12%. In West Virginia, however, where unemployment runs at 16% and the coal-mining industry is depressed, Mondale won easily, 54% to Hart's 37% and Jackson's 7%.

What mattered most, however, was New Jersey and California, two states that were considered somewhat similar in their demographic makeup but turned out to be in contrasting political moods. Hart's blunder in lamenting that he had to campaign in New Jersey amid toxic wastes 'while his wife had the pleasure of stumping California had hurt him in the sensitive Garden State, which lives in New York's shadow. Mondale, on the other hand, could not overcome Hart's more macho appeal in California, where the image of a Colorado outdoorsman backed by a bevy of movie celebrities gets a friendlier reception than that of a buttoned-up Washington-trained political operator. Mondale ran well in urban districts around Los Angeles and in one San Diego district but was blanked throughout northern California.

Even though its impact was muted in the East, the California result gave Hart an important lift, at least delaying any concession that Mondale had the nomination wrapped up. Said Hart: "Welcome to overtime." He declared his campaign "must go forward, and we will." Oliver Henkel, Hart's campaign manager, insisted that "Mondale's claims of 2,008 delegates are bravado. He's still in the 1,800s by our best counts." David Mixner, a key Hart strategist in California, argued that even if Mondale winds up 200 votes over a majority by convention time, "it's a slim margin. One event, one thing done wrong, and he's gone." If Hart kept Mondale from a first-ballot win, delegates might desert Mondale in droves.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9