Stepping on Mondale's Lines

By Ed Magnuson

A diplomatic gambit enlivens the lethargic Democratic race

Democratic Front Runner Walter Mondale had expected to open the 1984 election year with a media blitz. He would attack Ronald Reagan's "ad-lib foreign policy" and outline his own supposedly more cohesive alternatives in a hard-hitting speech to the National Press Club in Washington, B.C. Then, in a DC-9 loaded with reporters, he would aggressively tour the South, where he hopes to wrap up his party's presidential nomination by mid-March. But when he stepped to the microphone in Washington, Mondale joined a media blitz for another candidate. "All of us are proud of the Rev. Jackson's success," Mondale began. "He deserves our thanks on this happy day for Lieut. Goodman, his family and our country."

Jesse Jackson's dramatic rescue mission in Syria was a political coup that the seven other Democratic candidates could only envy and praise. For most of a week, the black minister's exploits topped the evening news and produced big newspaper headlines. Even a primary win would not have attracted more publicity, conceded Sergio Bendixen, Alan Cranston's campaign manager. Maxine Isaacs, Mondale's press secretary, said of the former Vice President's staff, "If we were younger and less experienced, we'd be depressed." With one stroke, Jackson, by successfully gaining the release of Navy Flyer Robert Goodman, gave his campaign a credibility that it had sorely lacked. Said Andrew Young, Atlanta's black mayor: "When Jesse says something visionary now, people won't take it as ridiculous."

But will Jackson's publicity bonanza produce enough votes to shake up the Democratic race seriously? Many political experts had doubts. "Jesse can get every political prisoner released in the world, and he can't be nominated," contended Joe Reed, chairman of the all-black Alabama Democratic Conference, which has endorsed Mondale for President and Jackson for Vice President. Jackson, naturally, took a more upbeat view. "God will provide," he said. "Who could have ever imagined that there would be a black pilot from Portsmouth, N.H., being held in a jail in Damascus?" His plans to hold a political rally with Goodman in Portsmouth on Saturday were nixed by the Navy, which said its regulations forbid political appearances by servicemen.

Most analysts saw Jackson gaining as a potential spoiler in the race, possibly slowing Mondale's drive toward an early lock on the nomination. To do so, Jackson would have to show unexpectedly well on "Super Tuesday," March 13, when primaries will be held in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and three other states. "His next move is critical," said Georgia Democratic Chairman Bert Lance. "He still has the basic problems of money and organization."

Jackson's staff is so disorganized that even though he raised enough money in 20 states last year to qualify for matching federal funds, it could not assemble the required records to prove this in time to beat a New Year's deadline. The contributions, roughly $400,000, are far short of the funds needed to mount a major challenge to either Mondale or John Glenn, who have collected $9.35 million and $5.7 million, respectively. Jackson has fewer than a dozen paid staffers, compared with more than 160 each for Mondale and Glenn and about 45 for Gary Hart.

An example of the Jackson campaign's mistakes occurred when National Political Adviser Lamond Godwin mistakenly predicted that Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington would support Jackson, even though Arrington had earlier persuaded the Alabama Democratic Conference to endorse Mondale. Last week he threw his personal support to Mondale and backed Jackson for Vice President.

Despite Jackson's new reputation as a mover and shaker, he is unlikely to induce the Democratic National Committee to change its delegate-selection rules, which he claims are rigged to help front runners.

Specifically, Jackson objects to a rule that allows states to require that candidates win at least 20% of the vote in a congressional district to pick up any convention delegates. He would also like to overturn the winner-take-all provisions in seven large states.

In the Iowa caucus on Feb. 20, Jackson's Syrian success will probably not gain him much. Said Iowa Democratic Committee Chairman David Nagle: "Iowa is an organization state, and Jackson doesn't have an organization here." As for New Hampshire, any attempt to exploit Goodman's ties to the state cannot be built on race, since its black population is less than .5%. Elsewhere, in states where Jewish votes and fund raising are influential in Democratic politics, Jackson has probably slipped rather than gained, since his relationship with Syrian President Hafez Assad is a source of resentment.

Jackson hopes to enhance his new image as a leader in a nationally televised debate at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire next Sunday, a forum in which he should excel. Even if he does not steal that show, Jackson has achieved enough notice to guarantee that he will not be lost or forgotten in the pack. At the least, Jackson may be able to help shape the party platform at the Democratic Convention. Stanford Political Scientist Seymour Martin Lipset thinks that Jackson has stepped ahead of Cranston, Hart and George McGovern as the most influential candidate from the party's left wing, which includes some 20% of Democratic voters. Predicts Lipset: "Whoever the nominee is will probably have to make Jackson some promises."

However envious the other Democratic candidates might be of Jackson's unexpected dash into the national spot light, all may have benefited indirectly from his heroics. He not only made their expected November foe, Ronald Reagan, look ineffectual for not gaining Goodman's release earlier, but brought new stirrings of excitement to a Democratic race that had been drifting toward tedium almost before it began. For the moment, anyway, Jesse Jackson was the life of the party.

With reporting by Joseph N. Boyce/Atlanta and Jack E. White with Jackson