Hart’s Iowa Backers Hope for Minimal Damage

The most important newspaper in this politically important state thinks Gary Hart’s “fitness for the presidency is open to grave doubt.”

But Hart’s supporters in Iowa, scene of the first voter test of presidential candidate strength in 1988, are split in their reaction to disclosures that he spent time last weekend with Miami actress-model Donna Rice, and to Hart’s explanation that he made a mistake but did nothing immoral.

Generally, supporters think his front-running campaign here will suffer minimal damage. But some said the episode raises serious questions that might affect their future support.

‘Character Flaw’

“It is not a good thing to have happen,” said Bonnie J. Campbell, Iowa Democratic chairwoman, who will not support a candidate until after the state’s 1988 caucuses. “He will suffer some damage . . . Some will look at this as a character flaw,” she added.

But Campbell said the controversy will “have to percolate around . . . it’s too early to tell what the ultimate political fallout will be. He has a history of being able to come back from difficult personal problems.”

The state’s major newspaper may have already set the tone for that fallout.

“What terrible character flaw led Gary Hart to all but throw away his chances for the presidency?” asked the lead editorial in Tuesday morning’s Des Moines Register.

Overwhelming Favorite

Two days earlier, Register Sunday editions reported that the newspaper’s poll showed Hart to be the overwhelming favorite among Democrats.

Hart was the first choice of 65% of Iowa’s Democratic voters, up from 59% in February, and 59 percentage points ahead of the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Forty percent of those who support Hart have no second choice, according to Wednesday’s Register.

Wednesday, the paper reported that if Hart withdraws from the race, Jackson would become the leading Democratic contender in Iowa, preferred by 24% of the state’s Democratic voters. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri would move into second place with 17% of the vote, the paper said, in a recalculation of its periodic and authoritative Iowa Poll.

But Teresa Vilmain, coordinator of Hart’s Iowa effort, and other professional campaign workers here are treating the weekend incident as a nuisance rather than a major event.

“I think it will be a short interruption in the campaign,” Vilmain said. “We are busy organizing his next trip through the state.” She added that Hart’s response to questions about the weekend incident was “direct and straightforward.”

Hart is scheduled to make a campaign swing through Iowa May 13 through 15. His wife, Lee, is scheduled to campaign for three days the following week, Vilmain said.

“It’s a three- or four-day story that will have no effect in the long term,” contended Lorraine Voles, who started work as Hart’s Iowa press aide this week.

Mayor Concerned

But the incident was troubling to Guttenberg Mayor Karen Merrick, who was a Hart delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1984.

“You have to give the man the benefit of doubt, but you have to wonder about his judgments, of being put in a position of the appearance of impropriety,” Merrick said. “If I could talk to him, I’d just ask him to explain his lack of judgment. If you’re going to lead people, you accept certain responsibility on how you conduct yourself,” added Merrick, who is now uncertain if she will support Hart in his current campaign.

“It will certainly have a negative effect,” said Gerald E. Klonglan, chairman of the Iowa State University sociology department. “A certain portion of people will start to ask questions that they would not have asked before.” Klonglan supported Hart four years ago but expects to support one of the other Democrats this time.

Short-Term Damage

“I think he’s suffered some short-term political damage,” said Steven Lynch, who has been actively campaigning for Hart in Iowa since 1982 and who intends to continue supporting the former Colorado senator.

“I think it will leave some people undecided a little longer. But I don’t see how the papers can write off a person who was the choice of 65% of the Democrats,” added Lynch, an accountant from Lawler who has spent hours driving Hart during Iowa campaign swings.

Des Moines lawyer George Appleby, another longtime supporter, said he was “heartened” by Hart’s appearance Tuesday before the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. “We all needed to see Gary come out of the blocks and make his response. He admitted an apparent error of indiscretion and we can go on from there.”

“My guess is that it will be short-lived damage to the campaign. I think things will pick up and go on,” Appleby said.

Popular Topic

Hart’s weekend meeting with Rice has been the topic of conversation throughout this politically sophisticated state. People could be overheard talking about it in restaurants, at gas stations and on elevators.

“Episodes like Hart’s do not go well in this state,” said an agricultural economist at Iowa State University who asked not to be quoted by name, adding that it was the daily breakfast-table conversation in his home this week.

But at least one newspaper thought the emphasis on the Hart weekend was misplaced.

“It would be wonderful to live in an ideal world in which presidential candidates and television preachers alike could be completely morally upstanding and have some common sense,” the Iowa State University student paper said in a Tuesday editorial.

“In this case, Gary Hart didn’t seem endowed with much of either,” the paper continued.

“But of the two qualities, we’re more interested in common sense, and if more of the media and the voters shared our view, Hart’s alleged libido wouldn’t be dominating the headlines--his politics would.”