Battling to take on Reagan

Monday, Oct. 10, 1983 By GEORGE J. CHURCH

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Current case in point: last week's Maine straw poll. Such polls select no convention delegates and are not even a guide to voter sentiment, since they are often taken at meetings of the party faithful; the one in thinly populated Maine should have been especially meaningless. But after California Senator Alan Cranston packed a June Wisconsin caucus and won a straw poll there, Mondale vowed to tolerate |no more such upsets; his troops hit Maine like Eisenhower's armies assaulting the Normandy beaches. Fifteen paid Mondale workers and 35 full-time volunteers canvassed the state's two congressional districts for 2½ months. Mondale himself stumped for ten days. According to rivals, he spent $200,000, or more than $100 for each of the 1,849 party pros who cast straw poll ballots at the caucus in Augusta. And all that for a contest in which Glenn made a token effort. Mondale's chief opposition came from Cranston and South Carolina Senator Ernest Hollings, who were desperate for a victory that might win some press attention. Results: Mondale 51%, Cranston 29%, Hollings 11%, Glenn 6%. So Mondale won — what? Little more than a chance to crow and privately sigh with relief.

Mondale has some advantages that previous front runners did not enjoy. In 1984 there will be no opportunity for a little-known candidate to build momentum gradually, as George McGovern did in 1972 and Jimmy Carter did in 1976. The early bunching of primaries and caucuses puts a higher than usual premium on precisely the factors that are Mondale's strengths: money, organization, a well-known name and a sharply defined appeal to party loyalists. Those strengths are so formidable, in fact, that it will be difficult for Glenn to score a knockout, even if he wins the early rounds. By the same token, Mondale will be hard pressed to K.O. Glenn, whose hero status gives him a staying power unavailable to most ordinary politicians. So much for the sudden-death first-inning theory.

Through the early half of this year, Mondale had raised roughly $5 million, just about twice as much as Glenn. True, Mondale's expenses are higher—for example, he had to stage that extravagant sideshow in Maine—and Glenn currently is about matching him in fund raising. But as far back as the beginning of 1982, Mondale had a computerized list of 25,000 people around the country who could be tapped for small contributions by direct-mail solicitation. Glenn's aides are only now putting together a similar list.

Mondale has the best organization money can buy. Concedes Glenn's press secretary, Greg Schneiders: "If we had a choice between our organization or Mondale's, we'd take his." Mondale and his aides usually fly first class; press secretaries and other campaign assistants tend to him in relays. On a campaign swing to Maine, Chivas Regal Scotch flowed and the sandwiches were lobster.

Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, and New Hampshire's earliest-of-all primary give those states weight way out of proportion to the number of delegates they choose. In both places, Mondale's aides hunch over smart new computers, while Glenn's operatives scribble on yellow legal pads. This week Mondale will open six field offices throughout Iowa; no other candidate has an office outside Des Moines.