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Mondale at week's end made a controversial move to shore up Democratic strength in the South. He named Georgia Democratic Chairman Bert Lance General Chairman of his campaign and head of a search to find a replacement for Charles Manatt, who is being dismissed as Democratic National Chairman. Though no one doubts Lance's grasp of Southern politics, the choice dismayed some Democrats, who feared it would revive memories of the uproar over Lance's financial affairs that erupted when he served in the Carter Administration.
The battle for the blue-collar vote may be the most important struggle of the campaign, and it is difficult to gauge how Ferraro might affect it. She embodies the family background and religious and work-ethic values of such voters, but she is well to the left of many, who have turned conservative in economics and hawkish in foreign affairs. Ferraro overcame that drawback in Queens, but can she do so elsewhere?
That is only one of the myriad questions that make the campaign suddenly so unpredictable. Might Ferraro draw enough women's votes, and possibly pique the interest of enough men, even in the South and West, to loosen Reagan's grip there? (Feminists were fond of observing last week that Sunbelt males also have daughters for whom they have high aspirations.) How will Black and Hispanic voters judge her? How many voters of all kinds will pay much attention to the vice presidency, and how many, after the first blast of comment about a woman on the ticket, will focus primarily on the basic choice between Reagan and Mondale?
There is no experience that leads to a confident answer. Says Texas State Treasurer Richards, in perhaps the most judicious comment on the choice: "All the old saws are out the window. There is no way, even with our sophisticated polling procedures, that we can measure a factor that is unprecedented. We are only going to know on Election Day." — By George L Church and Ed Magnuson. Reported by Robert Ajemian and Sam Allis with Mondale, Douglas Brew/Washington, with other bureaus