Why Should the Rich Back McGovern?

THE McGovern campaign has had large support from small contributors, but even the prairie populist also needs help from millionaires. In fact, McGovern has been able to outspend all his primary opponents. To a surprising degree, the man who wants to redistribute the nation's wealth is attracting affluent donors.

One new sign of such McGovern success is creation of the Woonsocket Club, a group of about 35 wealthy people most of whom have given at least $25,000 to his campaign. The club is named after the town in South Dakota where McGovern and his wife Eleanor first met and fell in love. The club's chairman, California Real Estate Dealer Harold Willens, explains that the members have "fallen in love symbolically with George." They include Co-Chairmen Liz Stevens of Washington and Marjorie Benton of Chicago, Xerox Executive Committee Chairman Max Palevsky, Los Angeles Manufacturer Miles Rubin, Actor Warren Beatty, General Motors Heir Stewart Mott, and San Francisco Socialite June Degnan. The members will be invited to attend the Democratic Convention as VIPs, wearing identifying pins. A similar Washington-based club, called "VICS" (Very Important Contributors), requires only a $5,000 donation. Its members have been invited to a McGovern picnic at Ethel Kennedy's home, Hickory Hill.

Given McGovern's announced plans for a massive redistribution of wealth, for higher personal and inheritance taxes, why should the wealthy give to him? "The commitment of the money people to McGovern is basically ideological, not financial," contends Rubin, who organized the Senator's California primary campaign. "The alienation and disaffection in this country cuts across economic lines; many rich people feel the moral necessity for someone like George McGovern."

McGovern's opposition to the Viet Nam War, his determination to divert defense funds to attacking domestic problems and his sense of social justice are cited by many of his wealthy supporters as overriding reasons for their donations. If McGovern's election will mean that they will have to pay higher taxes, a common reaction is: "We can afford it"--suggesting that he is perhaps more of a worry to middle-income groups. Moreover, some feel that they and others who are rich should pay more to help the poor. Asks Henry Kimelman, McGovern's national finance director: "How can a wealthy man go to bed at night knowing that there are five million people going to sleep in this country hungry at the same time?"

Others see McGovern's economic policies as similar to the once-radical ideas of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s. Contends Jack Kaplan, former owner of Welch's Grape Co.: "People accused Roosevelt of plotting the destruction of the capitalistic system, but the fact is that it emerged stronger as a result of his efforts."

There is also a feeling among some McGovern millionaires that he will moderate his tax-reform and redistribution-of-wealth proposals once he has a chance to consider their full implications and get more advice from the financial community, including Wall Street. If he does not, contends Kaplan, "the Congress would never pass them anyway." Other wealthy donors do not see the McGovern tax programs as all that revolutionary. Declares McGovern Backer Howard Samuels, a New York millionaire: "Hell, Wilbur Mills is talking about throwing out the whole tax structure."

Certainly, McGovern is far from universally accepted by the nation's rich; most of them probably abhor his views. But the rationale among the wealthy McGovern supporters is thus a confusing combination of a traditional wealthy liberalism that seeks to help those who are less fortunate, a pragmatic belief that fundamental changes are necessary if U.S. society is to hold together, and a contrary attitude that his financial proposals are really not so radical anyway--or if they are, they will not become law. If much of that seems contradictory, it is only typical of the way in which the McGovern candidacy has so far appealed to people with a bewildering variety of personal motivations.

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