The Other Side of the Coin

When he was ten years old, he got into a schoolyard fight because he was rooting for Al Smith over Herbert Hoover for the presidency. Ever since, Patrick Lucey, 62, has been a stalwart of the Democratic Party, a key reason why Independent John Anderson chose him last week as his vice-presidential running mate.

Most of Lucey's life has been devoted to organizing today's strong Wisconsin Democratic Party. A prosperous real estate developer, he became Lieutenant Governor in 1965 and won the governorship in 1970 and 1974. A popular if not charismatic figure, he fought for environmental measures and earned the respect of businessmen by cutting taxes to encourage manufacturing in Wisconsin.

In mid-1977 Lucey quit his office to accept Jimmy Carter's appointment as Ambassador to Mexico. There he ran into problems almost immediately. Embassy staffers and members of the large colony of American businessmen, for example, were displeased that he spoke no Spanish and had no diplomatic experience. The White House, moreover, felt he had confused the delicate negotiations for the importing of Mexican natural gas in September 1979. Just a month later, Lucey resigned as envoy and became deputy director of Edward Kennedy's campaign against Carter.

Lucey's pedigree as a Kennedyite is two decades old. He threw his support behind John F. Kennedy in the key 1960 Wisconsin primary fight to defeat Hubert Humphrey. Eight years later, Lucey backed Robert Kennedy. At last month's Democratic Convention, as Carter beat Kennedy, Lucey stalked from the hall in righteous anger.

That walkout, says Mitch Rogovin, the lawyer leading the fight to get Anderson on the ballots, made Lucey the logical choice to be the Congressman's running mate. "Anderson had taken a leave of absence from the Republican Party," says Rogovin, "and here Lucey was taking what looked like a leave of absence from the Democratic Party. He was the other side of the coin."

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