Surrounded by his wife "Tiger," his brother Stewart, two of his six children and former Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, elated Arizona Congressman and inveterate Punster Morris (Mo) Udall told his cheering supporters at the Sheraton-Boston Hotel that "with the results here in Massachusetts, we've got mo-men turn." Indeed, after second-place showings in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the once obscure Representative and ex-pro basketball player now does have a strong surge of forward motion—at least among liberal Democrats. Senator Birch Bayh's followers in New York State, scene of Udall's next big primary on April 6, have already begun to coalesce around Udall's campaign. Says Ethan Geto, one of Bayh's New York leaders: "Based on some early soundings, the majority sentiment [among Bayh's delegate slates] so far is clearly for Mo Udall." Other liberals are planning to abandon Sargent Shriver and Senator Frank Church —due to enter the presidential race next week—to go with Udall. Having grabbed the liberal banner and proclaimed himself "the only horse to ride," Udall has already started to concentrate his efforts on wooing the minorities and the more conservative blue-collar and labor Democrats in New York.
All this represents a sharp change from Udall's relatively lonely position in 1974. That was when he started out for the presidency, a feat not accomplished from the House since James Garfield did it in 1880. Udall began campaigning around the country, mainly in the Northern primary states like New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and Wisconsin. He badly flubbed his organizing of Iowa, the first caucus state, and virtually ignored the South. Still, his early start, unflagging drive and shrewd campaigning attracted a good volunteer organization, the backing of Democratic intellectuals like Harvard Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, and many of the old McGovern-McCarthy liberal legions.
Udall comes from a highly political Arizona family, and he has won reelection seven times, with increasing majorities in a conservative state. No dogmatist in his views, he voted against repeal of the state right-to-work section of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1965 because his state fiercely favored the section—though today he says that as President, he would work for repeal. Just two weeks ago, he told a liberal Harvard Law School audience that he was against gun control. "I know I'm going to lose some of you on that one, but that's where I am." Then he added, "I don't claim total courage; I don't claim total wisdom." The hall exploded with applause.
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