Babbitt’s Luck Holding in Bid for Presidency

Bruce Babbitt has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

In 1978 he was a young Democratic attorney general in Republican Arizona and woke up one morning to find himself governor upon the sudden death of the chief executive.

Last year, after Babbitt had decided to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, he was in Iowa--site of the key first test in 1988--at a time when the Legislature was trying to figure out how to protect underground water supplies from pollution. Into the spotlight stepped Babbitt, whose ground water protection plan in Arizona has been hailed by environmentalists.

And more recently, as Gary Hart was pulling out of the Democratic presidential race amid personal scandal, Babbitt was coincidentally airing TV ads in Iowa focused on honesty and competence.

“Sometimes I’m amazed at how luck smiles on this guy,” said Duane Garrett, Babbitt’s national campaign chairman.

But with no Washington or foreign affairs experience, Babbitt is going to need a lot of that kind of luck to get the Democratic nomination at a time when polls show Americans desirous of Washington know-how in their next leader.

And perhaps more challenging for Babbitt is selling his “agenda for the future.” It has the former Arizona governor stretching to blend liberal ideals with Western pragmatism, a struggle that mirrors the Democratic Party’s search for an agenda in the post-Reagan era.

Babbitt has achieved only minor name recognition so far in national polls. He is concentrating his efforts here, where long-shot candidacies can sometimes take off. “I have to come out of here one of the top three,” Babbitt said.

So far, his luck seems to be holding.

“There is no way you can not notice the Babbitt campaign in Iowa, because they are doing things to make people take notice,” said Phil Roeder, communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party. “I think he is a very credible candidate now.”

For example, when Babbitt laid out $250,000 for his recent Iowa TV campaign, many believed that it was a gamble so early in the process. But the timing was uncanny. There were Iowans focused on coverage of Hart’s involvement with a Miami model--and on the televised hearings of the Iran- contra scandal--and night after night Babbitt was showing up in the TV ads discussing his values and his optimism about government.

“It was dumb luck, but sometimes dumb luck is the best of all,” Roeder said.

Debate With Du Pont

Then Babbitt agreed to a one-on-one debate with former Republican Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV of Delaware. It was at the beginning of a “Republican weekend” in Des Moines, as party members came in from a dozen states to look over their presidential candidates.

But Babbitt shrewdly realized that the debate would give him a chance to show off for the national press corps. He used humor to puncture Du Pont’s attempt to promise change while also praising the Reagan Administration.

“Let me see if I get your point straight,” Babbitt said, smirking at Du Pont. “What you are trying to tell us is that things are better than they’ve ever been--and you are the guy who is going to get us out of this mess.”

This was but one of many ripostes from Babbitt that brought laughter and applause from the audience. Reporters, more accustomed to Babbitt’s dry lectures, gave each other quizzical looks.

“He’s gotten the hang of it,” Garrett said.

So, why the doubts among some political insiders? Why are many of the former Hart operatives who were wooed by Babbitt signing up with Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis? Why is Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt far ahead of Babbitt in Iowa polls even though both have spent about the same amount of time in the state?

As one Democrat put it, Babbitt “sees himself as a bridge, but the river may be too wide.”

On one hand, Babbitt has an agenda that should attract the liberals who usually dominate the Democratic nominating process.

His first priority as President would be guaranteed medical care for all children and pregnant women. A second would be guaranteed help for the elderly who suffer catastrophic illness. And a third would be universal day care for children of all working parents, along with an emphasis on improved education at the kindergarten and first-grade levels.

Babbitt, who speaks fluent Spanish, has also denounced U.S. aid for the Nicaraguan rebels and has called for helping Third World countries to restructure their debts.

But Babbitt has joined the Democratic Leadership Council, a group determined to move the party toward the center after two thrashings by Ronald Reagan in presidential elections.

This more pragmatic Babbitt is a champion of deregulation. He infuriated labor leaders when he called out the Arizona National Guard to deal with angry strikers at a copper mine in 1983.

And he likes to lecture liberals on the touchy issue of entitlements.

“We have to go through the budget and ask relentlessly as liberals what really counts and see if we have the guts to talk about it,” Babbitt said recently to a room full of liberal, potential donors in Los Angeles.

“I’ve long been an advocate of subjecting the actuarial value of Medicare and Social Security to taxation. (We have to) focus programs on some basis on need. . . . I don’t understand why the Rockefellers and the Mellons . . . should have tax-exempt benefits.”

One Democrat, who requested anonymity, said Babbitt “does a good job of describing how people are suffering in our society, but there is no inventory of what to do. (Illinois Sen.) Paul Simon or Jesse Jackson would talk enthusiastically about jobs programs and increasing the minimum wage.”

John Russonello, a Washington consultant who has helped Babbitt with speeches and TV ads, said Babbitt’s message is that “it is time to put America in charge again, and to do that you have to be willing to stand up and say things that are different and that won’t be readily popular, but will help the country go forward.”

Sometimes it seems that Babbitt will get stretch marks trying to cover all the bases. He is for capital punishment, for example, but worries that blacks may be given it unfairly--precisely the argument that many liberals use against the death penalty.

A Roman Catholic, Babbitt is pro-choice on abortion. But he says he would prefer that the government not fund abortions for needy women--a litmus test for some liberals.

He is on sounder ground when he turns to such issues as worker productivity.

Robert Reich, professor of political economics at Harvard, says that “almost alone among the Democratic candidates, Babbitt understands that our competitiveness depends largely on how our productive organizations are organized. He grasps the relationship between management and labor, between finance and technological change.”

Babbitt has made himself an expert on such proposals as the Equity Pay Plan, which would allow workers to take some compensation in company stock, and he is especially critical of some corporate bonus practices and says on the stump:

“The next President must say that no American company will be permitted to deduct an executive bonus as a business expense unless it offers productivity pay for all its employees.”

Babbitt also boasts about his nine-year record as Arizona governor, a job he left in January after being reelected twice.

Even his adversaries in the Republican-controlled Legislature credit Babbitt with changing the job of governor from the ceremonial to the activist. His departmental appointments transformed state government into a much more professional operation, said Republican Rep. Jane Hull, the Arizona House majority whip.

His proudest achievement is the ground water plan. With water at a premium in Arizona, Republicans and Democrats became concerned in the late 1970s that underground aquifers were being polluted by industrial and agricultural chemicals. Babbitt, an ardent environmentalist, pounced on the issue.

Plan Sails Through

He set up a special task force with himself as the leader, rounded up experts to develop a pollution monitoring and cleanup system and gave the Legislature a comprehensive plan that sailed through.

“He deserves all the credit for the ground water plan; he did a good job,” Hull says.

But Hull and others in the Legislature believe that Babbitt the presidential candidate speaks too selectively when he discusses two other programs enacted during his tenure.

One is the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s alternative to Medicaid, which promoted competition among health care providers for state funds to treat the poor. Although Babbitt helped to push the idea through the Legislature, Hull and others say he soon lost interest and the program got into bureaucratic and legal troubles from which it is only now emerging.

“When Bruce is interested in something, he is great at building a coalition and getting it done,” Hull said. “But when he loses interest, there can be problems.”

The other program for which Hull and others criticize Babbitt is one set up to provide day care for children of working mothers. Babbitt brags about setting up that program, but, his critics say, what he does not mention is that it is a small experimental system that has been largely forgotten in recent years.

Although environmentalists criticize Babbitt for not dealing with sewage and copper mine pollution problems in Arizona, they say that, overall, his environmental credentials are outstanding. He has vastly improved the state park service and continues to push the federal government to create more wilderness and parklands.

Babbitt, 48, developed a love for the outdoors while growing up in Flagstaff. He and his wife, Hattie, 38, a trial lawyer, often hike in the Grand Canyon with sons Christopher and T. J.

The Babbitts met in Texas in the 1960s when he was working in a federal anti-poverty program. She can talk about the law and about hiking in the Grand Canyon with equal enthusiasm and knowledge. The Babbitt family takes health and exercise seriously: The diet at home has lots of fiber in an effort to prevent cancer, and no one rides a bicycle without a helmet.

Babbitt is a scion of one of Arizona’s wealthiest ranching and mercantile families. His father, Paul, 89, is the son of one of five brothers who moved West from Ohio in the last century. He was practicing law in Los Angeles when Bruce was born, but when his son was 7 the family went back to Flagstaff to help in the family enterprises, which include nearly 1 million acres of ranchland, Indian trading posts and department stores.

“I made my own way; I always had summer jobs,” Babbitt says. “But my father certainly had the resources to educate me.”

He got a bachelor’s degree in geology from Notre Dame, worked briefly for an oil company in South America, studied geophysics at the University of Newcastle in England and earned a law degree from Harvard.

Then, in 1965, he was drawn to the civil rights demonstrations in Selma, Ala., and decided that he wanted a career in public service.