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Democrats Get a Pep Talk From Kennedy

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Times County Bureau Chief

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy warned Democratic fund-raising groups in Orange County on Friday not to try to copy the positions and strategies of the Republican Party.

The Massachusetts Democrat also criticized his party for allowing the GOP to “seize” the issues of “caring, opportunity and strength,” long considered part of the Democratic heritage.

“The last thing this country needs is two Republican parties,” Kennedy told a cheering crowd of about 200 political activists at a noon reception at the UC Irvine University Club.

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‘Hope and Opportunity’

Kennedy added:

“I quite frankly believe that the Republicans have seized our heritage. I’m mindful that when President Reagan spoke at his national convention, he did not speak of Harding, Coolidge, or Hoover and Nixon. He spoke about Roosevelt, he spoke about Kennedy. These were not passing references . . . They were a very dedicated way of this president identifying with some very fundamental commitments that our party has made to the people of this country and to the world.

“Hope and opportunity have belonged to our party, but have, basically, been seized by the Republican Party.”

Kennedy said two weeks ago in West Virginia that he may run for president in 1988. He urged party leaders, in a conference two weeks ago, to curb their usual enthusiasm for costly social programs. His statements then were interpreted as trying to derail criticism that he is an unwavering, doctrinaire liberal--a theme Gary Hart and the Republicans used against Walter Mondale throughout the 1984 presidential contest.

Guests at the Irvine reception were members of one of two Democratic fund-raising organizations--the 240-member Democratic Associates or the 50-member Foundation, both spearheaded in part by David Stein, a wealthy Laguna Beach developer.

Stein helped to raise more than $50,000 for the 1984 presidential primary campaign of U.S. Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), who trounced former Vice President Walter Mondale in Orange County and statewide. Party leaders are curious to see if Kennedy could appeal simultaneously to people like Stein and the old-line labor faction that supported Mondale.

Kennedy sidestepped such questions Friday at the University Club, saying, “Let’s leave questions about political futures until later.”

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The senator acknowledged that, historically, Democrats in presidential and state races don’t do well in California unless they run strongly in Orange County. He said he was in the county now because it was important to show that politicians “care” in non-election years.

Hart Fans in Crowd

The audience was a mixture of Kennedy and Hart admirers.

Lee Kearney, a retired Teamsters Union official who supported Mondale in 1984, said he wasn’t sure Kennedy could tap into Hart’s support among the “yuppies (young, urban professionals).”

“Maybe they would make a good ticket together,” Kearney said.

As to whether he remains a Hart supporter, Stein said:

“Yes, but that’s easy, since neither man has declared his candidacy for anything yet.”

The Democratic Associates used Friday’s occasion to recruit about 50 members, who paid $50 each to join. The reception was free to those who were already members of the Associates or the parent organization, The Foundation, in which the membership fee is $1,000. Many Foundation members later attended a private luncheon with Kennedy at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach.

Jocular Comparison

“You ought to be glad to see me,” Kennedy joked. He was dressed in a dark blue, pinstriped suit. “When your associates were getting together and thinking about what the kinds of contributions or membership obligations might be, some said that if we get Sen. Gary Hart, we could charge $100. And someone said when we get Kennedy we (can) only charge $50.”

Kennedy agreed before Friday’s visit that he would not take for himself any of the money raised.

Later Friday, he attended a party fund-raiser in Beverly Hills.

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