Hart's New Legions

Nothing about Senator Gary Hart's campaign takeoff has confounded the experts quite so much as the identity and motivation of those who caused it--his newly acquired supporters. In short, who is the Gary Hart voter?

As Hart's standing in the polls rose last week, the question became easier to answer. Gloated Political Strategist Pat Caddell, who advises Hart: "It's everybody at the moment." Caddell agreed that the Senator's early support was concentrated in a "generational" base of voters from their 20s to their early 40s. But in the Vermont primary, Caddell pointed out, some surveys showed Hart outpolling former Vice President Walter Mondale more than 2 to 1 among the 45-to-59 age group and seniors over 60. Other breakdowns similarly showed that Hart's appeal has spread well beyond its original youthful core.

Perhaps the most obvious source of Hart's allure is his freshness on the political scene. "He appeals to younger, better-educated and independent types who have little loyalty to institutions," says Alan Baron, an editor of a political newsletter in Washington. "They see Hart as new, independent and not owned by anybody." One of them is Dayton Owens, 27, a high school soccer coach in Jacksonville, Fla.: "He's not made of the old wood trying to take us back to the past instead of leading us to the future." For others in the Hart constituency, merely finding a refuge from political monotony is sufficient reason for joining. "Nobody else impresses me at all," says Gordon Gardner, a copy editor from Savannah, Ga. "Mondale bores me to tears and Glenn is even more boring."

While few of Hart's supporters are familiar with his substantive positions in detail, a surprisingly large number mention his approach to the nation's defense as one thing that attracted them. Says Steven Nesich, 30, a marketing consultant from Seattle: "The Reaganites have a knee-jerk reaction to defense: 'Build it.' The liberals have a knee-jerk reaction: 'Don't build it.' Hart sees a leaner, tougher defense that would cost us far less and be more effective."

An unknown but sizable share of Hart's support comes from people who are along mainly for the excitement of the ride. It was certainly not the Senator's defense policies, for example, that won over Nancy Tosado, a mother of three from Huntsville, Ala. Says she: "It's been love at first sight since last Monday. That's it, nothing else."

Hart has been able to tap a vein of idealism that is a permanent feature of the American political landscape but accessible only to an occasional candidate. "I haven't felt as excited about a campaign since Kennedy," says James H. Kean, 42, an export trader and retired Marine colonel from Mercer Island, Wash. "The neat thing about Hart's campaign is that it's mostly volunteers. It's that corny American democracy."

With equal conviction, many of Hart's supporters look beyond the primary season and hardheadedly view him as the Democrat most likely to unseat Ronald Reagan in November. At .the Democratic caucus in Cumberland, Me., for example, some 70 participants spent an hour discussing the candidates' electability. Said Geologist Frederick Bragdon: "I didn't feel the Democrats were putting forward the best candidate to defeat Ronald Reagan. After New Hampshire, I see Gary Hart as a potential candidate who can do that." For Tom Puckett, 30, of Savannah, not even his personal uncertainty about Hart's program weakens that perceived advantage. Says he: "Even though you don't really know what he stands for, he has the ability at this point to beat Reagan, and as a registered Democrat that's what I want."