Babbitt Enters Democrat Field for President

Former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt Tuesday announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, proposing a series of changes in economic policy that he promised would give control of their national destiny back to Americans.

“I want to see an America in charge again,” Babbitt told several score supporters gathered here in the nation’s first presidential primary state. “And that is going to take nothing less than a transformation of our economy.”

Babbitt’s announcement site, an old textile mill converted into a science learning center, was chosen to dramatize the candidate’s faith in the potential of high tech for boosting productivity.

Among the provocative ideas for change offered by the newly announced candidate:

--Raising taxes on Social Security payments to affluent beneficiaries.

--Expanding profit-sharing plans to cover two-thirds of the work force.

--Scrapping current trade agreements to allow the United States to impose stiff tariffs on nations that export far more to this country than they import.

Babbitt is the second candidate to formally enter the race for the 1988 Democratic nomination, joining Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt who declared last month. Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, the front-runner in the polls, Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are expected to make their announcements this spring. Aides to Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis say that he will disclose next week whether he will be a candidate.

Early Votes Vital

Slim and sandy haired, the 48-year-old Babbitt is known for his restrained manner and his intellectual seriousness. Like several other contenders who are little known nationally, his prospects rest heavily on his making a strong showing in the initial delegate contests next year in Iowa caucuses and then here in New Hampshire.

More particularly, though, Babbitt’s advisers say his campaign is geared to his various proposals for changes in public policy. “This campaign is going to rise or fall on the response to his (Babbitt’s) ideas on issues,” said Sergio Bendixen, a consultant to the campaign. “The essence of his candidacy is the gutsiness of his proposals.”

Indeed many of the ideas Babbitt ticked off in his earnestly delivered 30-minute announcement speech seemed certain, as the candidate put it himself in his opening remarks, “to make waves.”

For example, his proposal for boosting the tax on Social Security benefits--up to half of which are now taxable for couples with incomes above $32,000--is likely to be viewed as a threat to continued political support from the middle class for the Social Security system.

But Babbitt framed his proposal as a question of priorities. “Government can’t do everything for everybody,” he said. “Do the Vanderbilts and the Mellons really need just the same tax exempt Social Security benefit as a widow in a cold water flat?”

Productivity Pay

Similarly Babbitt’s profit-sharing proposal would be regarded with anxiety by organized labor, out of fear that it could turn into a loss-sharing scheme. But Babbitt contended: “The next President ought to say that no American company will be permitted to deduct an executive bonus as a business expense unless it offers productivity pay to every single employee,” adding that such bonuses should be exempt from income taxes.

As for Babbitt’s tariff hike idea, it seems certain to draw criticism from free traders. But Babbitt argued: “The overall value of what you sell to the world must match the overall value of what you buy. And if that is not the case and if you won’t balance your accounts, then your victims will balance them for you--with across the board tariffs that increase every year.”

In the lesser portion of his speech dealing with foreign affairs Babbitt called for a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing and a moratorium with the Soviet Union on deployment of “Star Wars” weaponry. He also sharply criticized the Reagan Administration’s arms dealings with Iran.

“We must never again trade anything of value for a hostage,” he said. “America does not have to leave arms merchants in charge of our diplomacy.”

Babbitt in effect has been running for President since early 1985 when he decided neither to try for another term as governor after nine years in that office nor to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Barry Goldwater.

Urges New Approaches

Though little known to the general public, he was already attracting attention in political circles outside Arizona because of his vigorous advocacy of new approaches to government problems in speeches and published articles.

Despite his responsibilities as governor and with the help of his own political action committee, Babbitt--like other 1988 Democratic hopefuls--began stumping around the country in 1986. He made 18 visits to Iowa and nine to New Hampshire, building a network of support for his candidacy.

The scion of a wealthy Arizona mercantile family, Babbitt was graduated from Notre Dame University and then studied geophysics at the University of Newcastle in England before earning a law degree from Harvard.

Despite his image as a neo-conservative, as a young man Babbitt was grounded in the social activism of the 1960s. He participated in the celebrated voting rights March on Selma, Ala., in 1965 and got his first experience in government on the staff of the Office of Economic Opportunity, the spearhead of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.

When he began practicing law in Phoenix in the late 1960s, Babbitt spent much time on the local legal services board and representing the interests of the Navajo Indians.

Probed Reporter’s Death

He was elected state attorney general in 1974 and won attention in that office for his prosecution of land fraud cases and for his investigation of the murder of Don Bolles, a reporter who had been looking into the influence of organized crime in the state.

Babbitt unexpectedly succeeded to the governorship in 1978 when Arizona’s incumbent chief executive died and then he twice won election in his own right.

As governor he broke new ground in a number of areas including the environment, health care and education.

He also twice called out the National Guard to avoid violence during a tense copper strike, thus provoking the hostility of organized labor in Arizona and nationally.

Babbitt and his wife, Hattie, a practicing trial lawyer, have two sons.

BRUCE EDWARD BABBITT

Born: June 27, 1938, Los Angeles.

Parents: Frances Perry Babbitt and Paul James Babbitt, retired executive in family ranching and mercantile business.

Education: University of Notre Dame, B.A., geology, 1960; University of Newcastle, England, M.S., geophysics, 1963; Harvard University, LL.B., 1965.

Military Career: None.

Occupation: Lawyer.

Family: Wife, Harriet (Hattie) Coons; two sons.

Religion: Roman Catholic.

Political career: Arizona attorney general, 1975-78; Arizona governor, 1978-87.

Accomplishments: As governor, won approval of tough water quality laws, unique Medicaid program, increased child-care and education aid. Co-founder, 1985, Democratic Leadership Council, a group of moderate Democratic officials.

Positions: For cutting Social Security, Medicare, farm and other federal benefits for well-to-do; favors trade protectionism; favors free choice on abortion; against Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law.

Strengths: Thoughtful. Articulate. Creative problem-solver. Centrist consensus-builder. Detail-oriented. Supported by environmentalists, blacks, Latinos, Indians.

Vulnerabilities: Relatively unknown. Lackluster speaker. Detached. Small circle of advisers. Strained relations with organized labor.

Quotes:

The Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law is everything that’s rotten in Washington, a statement that there are no choices. Federal buildings have the same priority as sick children, military bands the same priority as the homeless, a congressman’s junk mail the same priority as your children’s education.

Contras are a dead end. They can’t win. They don’t have any support in Nicaragua.

The Democratic Party is crossing, however uncertainly, into some post-New Deal configuration. . . . I celebrate the confusion. . . . Let a thousand flowers bloom.

My basic case against the federal government is that it is into everything, and in the process is destroying the vitality and independence of state and local governments while neglecting the things it ought to be doing.

I am one of those people who deeply resents not having been born in the 19th Century, when there were still open places to explore.