Time for Sargent?

I've been in Government, I've been a businessman, a journalist. I'm a lawyer --and I'm unemployed. What does an unemployed guy with these qualifications do?

Sargent Shriver was speaking rhetorically when he posed that question last week to a group of college students in the town of Westminster, his Maryland birthplace. Still, he was obviously pleased when someone in the crowd shouted: "Run for Governor!" Back home after two years in Paris as the U.S. ambassador there, Shriver thus began a month or so of political sod-testing before deciding whether to run for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in the September primary. Off the campuses, however, the mod-suited, conventionally handsome Kennedy in-law may find the Maryland soil somewhat difficult to till.

Shriver has long wanted a shot at elective office, and he must establish some kind of a track record soon if he is to claim serious consideration for national office in 1972. For years, his problem has been not so much what to run for as where. In Illinois, where he managed Joe Kennedy's Merchandise Mart and courted his daughter Eunice, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has frustrated Shriver's political ambitions more than once. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey wanted Shriver for his running mate, but he dropped the idea when the Kennedy family proved unenthusiastic. Shriver's in-laws--Ethel, among them--were even cooler when he more recently thought of running for Bobby Kennedy's old Senate seat in New York.

That left Maryland. There, Shriver can count on Kennedy family support, but he also carries some troublesome political liabilities. Although the Shrivers have again leased Timberlawn, the 30-acre country estate in Montgomery County that they rented during Sarge's Washington days, he nonetheless faces charges of being a carpetbagger. A more serious obstacle is the fact that to run for the statehouse, Shriver must first knock off Incumbent Marvin Mandel, a fellow Democrat and the first Jewish Governor in Maryland history. Last January, the legislature chose Mandel, the longtime speaker of the House of Delegates, to fill out Spiro Agnew's term. Because Democrats enjoy an overwhelming 2 1/2-to-l registration edge in Maryland, Mandel looks sure to win the November election --if Shriver stays out.

Bitter Standoff. If Shriver enters the primary, however, the result might be a bitter standoff that could make a winner of the dark-horse candidate, Demagogue George Mahoney ("Your Home Is Your Castle--Protect It!"). Mahoney won the 1966 primary in just such a standoff; as the Democratic candidate, he scared moderate Marylanders into voting for Agnew, then a virtual unknown.

Shriver has other problems too. Although pipe-sucking Mandel looks somewhat mossy in comparison with his ebullient rival and is taking speaking lessons to improve a lame oratorical style, he does remain well ahead in the polls. He also has a $550,000 campaign chest that Shriver, who is not wealthy, cannot match without money from the Kennedys or other generous contributors. Nonetheless, there is no sign that the old Peace Corps and OEO boss will back out. Last week camera crews were busy in Union Mills, Md., filming scenes of the old Shriver family gristmill for a campaign documentary.

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