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Mondale knew it would take a big campaign kitty to run in all of those momentum-setting early primaries and that anyone without a lot of cash would have to pick his shots carefully. If a candidate guessed wrong, he might face a pivotal primary without enough money to compete.
While Mondale has been accused of being too cautious, his campaign strategy was the boldest of the bunch. It was to push for big bucks and run almost everywhere at once, trusting that his physical stamina and dollars would hold out. None of his competitors have tried to match his unstinting campaign.
Mondale did something else right: he gathered a team of seasoned pros, who seem unlikely to fold if things get tough. Acting Campaign Chairman Johnson, 40, a former aide to Mondale in the Senate and vice presidency, is cerebral, controlled and known for his keen political instincts. Campaign Manager Robert Beckel, 36, beefy and boisterous, handles the nitty-gritty details of daily tactics. Senior Political Adviser John Reilly, 55, came out of Jack and Robert Kennedy campaigns and has helped corral endorsements. Campaign Treasurer Michael Herman. 44, talkative, assertive and warm, has a firm grip on cash-flow problems.
Despite this formidable lineup, the Mondale camp occasionally seems insecure. The candidate and his aides are thin-skinned about criticism. Press Secretary Maxine Isaacs, in particular, turns icy when a reporter does not readily accept Mondale's interpretation of political issues. Some aides get rankled, especially whenever reporters note that a Mondale-supported bill requiring imported cars to contain certain percentages of U.S.-made parts and labor is "protectionist," as it clearly is. Mondale himself seems wary of journalists, rarely chatting informally with them on campaign flights.
The support of labor, whatever its impact on the public perception of Mondale as a captive of special interests, is a tremendous asset to his campaign. Some political analysts estimate that the combination of union organizational help and actual contributions is worth some $20 million, which is about a third of what Mondale expects to spend in the primaries and general-election campaign. Mondale's foes attack him for courting labor so assiduously, but most of them also did so and now envy his success.
In the early make-or-break primaries and caucuses, labor's manpower means more to Mondale's well-heeled campaign than money. In Iowa, for example, the AFL-CIO has some 100,000 members, a number roughly equal to the anticipated turnout in the caucuses. The national headquarters of the labor group has sent 35 organizers to the state to direct the drive to win delegates for Mondale. Using telephone banks, a direel-mail campaign and union newsletters, the leaders expect to reach all of the membership with pro-Mondale appeals. The U.A.W. will try to persuade its 40,000 members in Iowa to support Mondale in the caucuses. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which sent 3,500 of its members to the caucuses in 1980, expects to raise that figure to some 6,000 this year. This union is using about 900 volunteers in the state to run a voter-registration drive among its members. About 250 teachers are working 21 telephone banks for Mondale in Iowa.