NOW May Skip ’88 Campaign, Cites ‘Dull’ Field

The National Organization for Women will sit out the 1988 presidential election unless Colorado Rep. Patricia Schroeder or another candidate acceptable to the group decides to run, NOW President Molly Yard said Monday.

“We don’t see yet presidential candidates who are going to lead this country any differently than it has been led in the last handful of years,” Yard told reporters at a luncheon.

“We’re not going to spend our substance, energy and time to elect someone who yet again will not pay attention to what we think is important,” she said. “If we have a candidate like (Schroeder), we will certainly be very active in presidential politics.”

Decision Next Month

Schroeder, the senior woman in the House, has said she will decide next month whether to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

NOW was instrumental in getting vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro on the Democratic ticket in 1984 and endorsed Walter F. Mondale for President. After the election, some party officials blamed the Mondale defeat on the demands of “special interests,” and Democratic National Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. said he wanted to abolish the party’s caucuses for women, blacks and others.

“Do we have to be kicked around every four years?” Yard asked.

“We were blamed for (Jimmy) Carter’s loss in 1980 because we didn’t play, and we were blamed (for Mondale’s loss) in 1984 because we did play,” added Sheri O’Dell, a NOW vice president. “The problem is dull candidates who don’t excite anybody.”

Yard and Eleanor Smeal, outgoing president of the feminist group, dismissed most of the current crop of Democratic candidates in general terms, although Yard said she voted for the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the 1984 primary, and “he does speak about many of the issues in a way NOW members understand.”

Republican candidates were generally worse, Yard said, but “let’s put it bluntly, we’re tired of picking the lesser of two evils, and we don’t intend to do it anymore.”