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George McGovern cherishes the hope of once again carrying Massachusetts, the only state he took from Richard Nixon when he was the Democratic nominee in 1972. So, after a fifth-place, 5.2% finish in New Hampshire, he decided to stay in the race through the Bay State primary on Super Tuesday. If he does not finish at least second there, he says, he will quit; even a victory would not make him a serious threat to win the nomination. His presence could be a problem for Hart and Mondale in what has become a vital state for both, less because of its 116 delegates than because of Hart's need to build, and Mondale's to reestablish, momentum.
In and beyond Massachusetts, Hart's difficulties in exploiting his big New Hampshire win will be severe. "The immediate problem is money," said the Senator on victory night. The day after his triumph he flew to Denver to raise cash from home-state supporters. His campaign since Feb. 15 has received just enough contributions to pay current bills and stabilize its debt at an average of $300,000 to $400,000. The Mondale campaign, by contrast, had $2.5 million in the bank on Feb. 1.
Hart barely has the rudiments of a national organization, as evidenced by his ability to file full slates of delegate candidates in only the District of Columbia, Ohio and Puerto Rico. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Hart practiced "retail politics," tirelessly addressing small audiences. The strategy paid off by winning enough votes in those states to rocket the Senator to national attention, but it will be of no use in the big, delegate-rich states to which the contest is now shifting. "There are more people who vote in my congressional district than vote in the whole of New Hampshire," says Edward Vrdolyak, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. "Illinois is an election—New Hampshire is a media event."
All these difficulties, however, could prove surmountable. The money began to flow while the New Hampshire votes were still being counted. In an Atlanta suburb, Hart workers who had assembled to watch the results on TV Tuesday night were so enthused by the Senator's sweep that they chipped in $1,000 on the spot and another $8,000 in pledges. "Not bad for a campaign that had been taking in $17,000 a day nationally," observed one.
Organization, while always valuable, is less decisive in big primary states—New York on April 3, California on June 5 if the race lasts that long—where mass electorates can be quickly swayed by newspaper and TV publicity. Says Hart:
"People will know about me through what they read or what they see. They don't have to have somebody knock on the door and hand them a leaflet." And people almost certainly will be reading about and seeing a great deal of Hart, thanks to his surprise victory in New Hampshire.
With press and public interest in Hart intensifying, his policies and leadership style will come under closer examination. He portrays himself as the candidate unencumbered by dogma, with pragmatic ideas not easily pigeonholed. Claiming to speak for "a new generation of leadership," Hart says the contest between himself and Mondale is a choice "between our party's past and its future."