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These contentions exasperate Mondale. Says he: "Look, Hart isn't 26, he's 47. I'm not 86, I'm 56." But Hart does seem to be tapping a deep vein of longing for a new accent in leadership, particularly among a group known as Yuppies, for young urban professionals. These are well-educated people in their 20s and 30s who turn out to vote in large numbers and make dedicated, articulate campaign workers.
To many non-Yuppie Democrats, Hart appeals simply by keeping open the prospect of a genuine choice in contests that before New Hampshire had seemed likely to be meaningless because they would occur long after Mondale had locked up the nomination. California, for instance, will choose more delegates than any other state (345), but its Democrats had assumed there would be no race left by the time they voted in the June 5 primary. Hart's New Hampshire victory changes that. Exults Executive Director of the State Democratic Party Michael Gordon, who is neutral: "Now California has been thrust into prominence."
Translating this appeal into delegate strength is something else again. Hart will have to fight through a confusing swamp of delegate-selection rules that vary sharply from state to state.
Among the 25 primary states, some, such as Georgia and Alabama, apportion most delegate seats on the basis of the various candidates' shares of the popular vote. In theory, Hart could win more delegates than have agreed to run under his banner, filling the empty seats after the primary. In other states, prominently including Florida and Illinois, most delegates are elected directly by congressional district, in a vote separate from the presidential-preference balloting. Once listed on the ballot as being pledged to one candidate, they cannot shift and appear under the name of another. Thus in Illinois Hart will have to persuade voters in some districts to check his name on the presidential-preference section of the ballot, then go down to the delegate section and look under the names of Cranston or Askew for candidates who now say they prefer Hart.
Above all, Hart must contend with a system that was deliberately designed, by packing all primaries and caucuses into a short period between Feb. 20 and June 5, to prevent a dark-horse candidate from gradually building strength and parlaying a surprise showing into the nomination.
That is pretty much what McGovern did in 1972 (in a campaign that Hart managed) and Jimmy Carter in 1976. Despite the way the system is now stacked, says Hart, "I don't have to win the nomination in March." It will suffice, he thinks, to pick off the majority of a delegation here and there—his first target was the Maine caucuses held on Sunday, with 27 delegates at stake—and win a fair share of delegates in states that Mondale might carry, such as Florida and Illinois. That way he could keep Mondale from building an insuperable lead, and make his real drive in big states such as New York and Pennsylvania in April and California in June.