Off and Running for '72

FLORIDA was packed with seasonal celebrities last week--everyone from President Nixon and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt to Jimmy Hoffa and Moms Mabley. Hotel rooms in Miami were solidly booked with fans who had come to watch the Orange Bowl game as well as the playoff between the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Colts. The Sunny Palm Lodge, a nudist colony, reported a 25% increase in business over last year. Amid all the hoopla, the big political event of the week was the arrival in Miami of New York's newly Democratic Mayor John Lindsay, who announced that he was running for President and would enter the Florida and Wisconsin primaries.

Facing 36 microphones in a small hotel room jammed with people pushing for space, the mayor struck a rather frenetic populist note. He was the only candidate, he declared, who was not running from a position of power in Washington. "Washington is a capital closed to the ordinary citizen," he said, "but open to the bankrupt corporate giants, foreign dictators and to those wealthy enough to buy privileged protection with campaign cash. There are too many politicians speaking from Washington, and there are too few speaking to Washington from America. Any single week as mayor of New York, confronting crime, disease and stunted lives, has taught me more about America than all my years in Washington." He will base his campaign on the people--partly out of necessity, his staff admitted. No big names have been rounded up for Lindsay.

Blue Eyes. But the crowds that turned out for the mayor were encouraging. They oohed, they aahed, and they touched. Lindsay moved smoothly, confidently, charismatically through a bustling shopping center. His Florida chairman, State Senator Edmond Gong, declared how he would sound the bell for his candidate: "We're going to do a lot of walking." The schedule went without a hitch, thanks to the planning of Advance Man Sid Davidoff, who had run into initial hostility in Miami. He had been kicked out of his hotel for walking his dog Horse in the lobby and by the pool. The only overt sign of anti-Lindsay sentiment was a quarter-page ad taken in the Miami News by some Forest Hills. N.Y., residents who are up in arms over a low-income housing project that is being built in their neighborhood. Warned the ad: "Don't let those penetrating blue eyes and polished acting skills hide the real John Lindsay."

After a day's vigorous campaigning, Lindsay left balmy Miami for snow-laden Wisconsin, where he struck out for Madison and Milwaukee as well as small cities and hamlets like Eau Claire, La Crosse, Cadott (pop. 977). His family, who accompanied him, gave him spirited support. His wife Mary was in a particularly candid mood. Asked rather prematurely what kind of First Lady she would make, Mary replied: "I'm too lazy to be an Eleanor Roosevelt. I'm not sure everybody is made to have causes." In the clear, crisp air of Eau Claire, Mary told the crowd: "John doesn't like to breathe air he can't see." Not too amused, Lindsay reminded her that he had improved the air in New York City by 30%. "Oh, I'm sorry, dear," she replied. "I forgot."

While Lindsay made his brisk moves, the other candidates were laying plans of their own. A surprise was sprung by Democratic Senator Vance Hartke, who indicated that he would join the long list of Democratic contenders. He was best qualified, he felt, to articulate the populist program that the times require. Though Edmund Muskie went skiing in Maine last week, he is due to declare his candidacy on television this week. Hubert Humphrey, who will announce on Jan. 10, had a rough time in Philadelphia, where he attended the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Obstreperous radicals tossed tomatoes and paper airplanes at him as he tried to speak and pressured him into signing a statement calling for the U.S. to renounce support of the Thieu regime in South Viet Nam.

The Lindsay candidacy has added to the confusion in Democratic ranks. No one expects him to win the nomination, but he has the capacity to keep some other people from getting it. He will be amply financed: one of his backers, Industrialist J. Irwin Miller, has reportedly pledged $2,000,000 to his campaign. Lindsay plans to make the most of his television appeal. His campaign will be concentrated, his aides say, in "media-oriented states," where the impression he creates is supposed to make voters forget his troubles in New York.

Lindsay's Democratic rivals gave his candidacy a cool reception. "I would say he is a slow learner. It took him 20 years to learn that he is a Democrat." said Scoop Jackson, who this week is scheduled to start what he calls a "Harry Truman" barnstorming tour of the state's northern counties. Least pleased was George McGovern, who now must share his left-leaning constituency with Lindsay. There is obviously room for only one of them in the race, and Lindsay is given the edge. He creates more excitement than McGovern, who has never managed to get more than 8% of the vote in the polls in spite of a well-oiled organization. "I don't think Lindsay kills us," says a McGovern aide, "but he certainly hurts us."

Although the New Hampshire primary is the earliest, the March 14 Florida primary will be the first crucial test for the candidates, and none of them are looking forward to it. It looms as the biggest threat to Front-Runner Muskie, whose staff is spreading the word that Florida will not mean all that much. With the vote split among a flock of liberal Democrats, George Wallace is given a good chance of winning. That would almost put an end to the hopes of Jackson, who has declared that he must win the primary or come close to it to stay in the race. Humphrey, too, must make a good showing if he expects to have a chance of overtaking Muskie. Lindsay aides claim that 20% of the vote would be a victory of sorts: indeed it would, since not much more may be necessary to win in a field of some eight or nine candidates.

Elan Vital.--After complacently enjoying the Democrats in disarray, the Republicans now have an in-house problem of their own. John Ashbrook, a virtually unknown Congressman from Ohio, announced that he would challenge the President in New Hampshire and maybe in later primaries as well. Nixon, he complained, has deserted his conservatism. The Administration does not anticipate much trouble from California Congressman Paul McCloskey, who is seeking liberal Republican votes in New Hampshire. But Ashbrook could prove to be more of a threat. Though upset over many of the President's policies, the conservative wing of the party has so far been loyal. Ashbrook gives them another option. He claims not to be interested in winning the presidency, just in "reforming" the President. "We have seen him lead the triumphant charge of the Red Chinese into the United Nations," said Ashbrook. "We have seen our ally of 30 years' standing, Nationalist China, cynically expelled while we stood by and did effectively nothing." He accused Nixon of dangerously paring the defense budget, while running up the "largest, most outrageous string of deficits in American peacetime history."

Ashbrook does not have much visible support. The leading Republican conservatives have denounced him. Barry Goldwater called his candidacy a "threat to the entire party, the entire country, the entire free world and freedom itself." His most prominent backer is the National Review, which has been picking quarrels with Nixon for some time. Agnew was sent to New York to try to dissuade Publisher William Rusher and Editor William Buckley, but they stuck to their principles. Wrote Buckley: "Mr. Ashbrook's entry into the race is the expression of an elan vital in the conservative movement, which has been strangely muted during the past several years in Congress, where the stout old soldiers of conservatism used to do round-the-clock duty."

While trying to contain Ashbrook, the White House is not unduly worried. "I don't see anybody jumping off the roof," says Presidential Aide Harry Dent. Since Ashbrook has the support of William Loeb's Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire, he might be able to outpoll McCloskey. But unless Ashbrook takes close to 20% of the vote, he is not likely to hurt the President. The White House expects to hold the middle ground, losing a little on both extremes to the opposition--just where Nixon hopes to pitch his re-election camp.

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