Carter Goes A-Wooin' and Wins Some

Like the new gentleman caller, Jimmy Carter went visiting the old Democratic power structure in Washington last week, a bouquet of primary victories under his arm. The night before his smashing victory in Illinois, he courted 30 heavyweight Democrats and journalists over dinner at the Georgetown home of Liberal Columnist Clayton Fritchey. The guests included Washington Post Publisher Katharine Graham, CBS Commentator Eric Sevareid, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, former Xerox Corp. Chairman Sol Linowitz and former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford. Moving from table to table between courses, Carter charmed nearly everyone and surprised many with his grasp of the issues. Said Fritchey: "He made some real time with those people." Added Clifford: "I found him quite well informed and perceptive."

Open-Minded. Next day Carter made a similarly low-keyed pitch to Jerry Wurf, president of the 700,000-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Many other labor leaders are backing Carter's rivals, Henry Jackson and Morris Udall, or prefer Hubert Humphrey, or are staying neutral. But Wurf, like the top people at the United Auto Workers, is open-minded about Carter, and is favorably impressed.

That afternoon Carter wooed the congressional Black Caucus, which was turned off by Jackson's tough "I am against busing" stand and has doubts about Udall's staying power. The black Congressmen pointed out that they strongly favor the Humphrey-Hawkins full-employment bill, which Carter opposes. He told them that he still has trouble with the idea that Government should guarantee a job to every willing American, but he promised to reconsider the recently modified version of the bill and report soon."

Carter also tried last week to prove that a down-home country boy can have a good grip on foreign affairs. Six weeks earlier, he had asked three of his foreign policy advisers--Professors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Richard Gardner of Columbia and Milton Katz of Harvard--to prepare an outline for a comprehensive policy statement. Using that document, Carter and his staff worked up drafts for a speech, consulting with Cyrus Vance, a Deputy Defense Secretary in the Johnson Administration.

The final speech, delivered to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, repeated familiar complaints about past U.S. errors and about Henry Kissinger for operating "personally and in secret," but in general was balanced. Carter made the ritual bow to the Middle East crisis: "The U.S. should ensure Israel's security while at the same time encouraging both sides to address themselves to the substance of a genuine agreement." He also endorsed "the objectives of detente" but faulted Kissinger "for giving up too much and asking for too little" in negotiations on limiting nuclear arms. On the other hand, Carter rapped Jackson's hard line by rejecting "the strident and bellicose voices of those who would have this country return to the day of the cold war with the Soviet Union."

A Tailspin. Meanwhile, Carter's campaign was picking up speed on the hustings, where he has won four of the first five primaries. He decisively beat George Wallace for the second time in Illinois and was expected to do so again in North Carolina this week. Wallace's loss--he got only 28% of the vote to Carter's 48%--threw his campaign into a tailspin, though he vowed to keep going (see story following page). The third-place finisher, Sargent Shriver, was so discouraged by his 16% of the vote that he became the fifth Democrat to quit.

His place in the race as a long-shot liberal alternative to Carter and Jackson was taken by Idaho Senator Frank Church. He told 5,000 cheering supporters in Idaho City: "It's never too late nor are the odds too great to try." But he was given little chance of doing well in the primaries because he lacks money and a political base. His strategy assumes that all the leading candidates will be so badly chewed up in the early primaries that he can rapidly pick up delegates in the May and June contests.

There is no sign of that happening.

Indeed, in Illinois Carter stunned even his own supporters by turning Mayor Richard Daley's last hurrah in a national primary into a half-smothered harrumph. Aiming to be an old-fashioned power broker at the Democratic Convention, Daley fielded candidates for all 155 of the delegate contests. All were pledged to Senator Adlai Stevenson, a favorite son. But Carter confounded Daley's strategy. Steering a careful course to avoid antagonizing the mayor, Carter did not oppose 72 of the 79 Daley candidates in Cook County. Elsewhere in the state, Carter organized skillfully and campaigned hard. He took about 70% of the races outside Cook County, winning 52 contests to 81 for Daley.

Fresh Blood. The outcome was a blow of sorts to Hubert Humphrey, who hopes that favorite sons will control enough delegates to make a convention deadlock more likely. But Carter's surprising showing in Illinois suggests that favorite-son candidacies elsewhere --Senator Lloyd Bentsen in Texas, Governor Jerry Brown in California and possibly Senator John Glenn in Ohio--may not be so formidable. Moreover, there are signs that Daley may ultimately support Carter. Grumbling to friends about the "old faces" who are vying for the nomination, the mayor says, "What we need is young, fresh blood in the party."

The Illinois victory was Carter's first in a northern industrial state. But the contest's importance was reduced somewhat by the absence of Jackson and Udall, who are also skipping the North Carolina primary. Thus the three major candidates will not be in the same arena until April 6, when the New York and Wisconsin primaries take place.

Jackson is still thought to have a clear lead in New York, but the combined efforts of Udall and Carter may well pull him below the more than 50% "landslide" that he has riskily predicted. Carter is also playing catch-up in Wisconsin. Udall started stumping there more than a year ago, is better organized, and has predicted that he will score his first campaign victory in the state. But Carter has assigned Wisconsin to one of his best organizers, Phil Wise, who headed his Florida campaign. Outside experts now see a close race between the two, with Jackson third.

However the voting goes that day, no candidate seems likely to emerge as being on a steamroller. That probably cannot happen at least until April 27 in Pennsylvania, which is shaping up as a pivotal primary. Carter, Jackson and Udall plan to mount major drives in the Keystone State, and all have high expectations. Says Mark Siegel, executive director of the Democratic National Committee: "It's going to be Armageddon."

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