Hart’s ‘New Ideas’ Not So Different Anymore : Other Candidates See Gains From Re-Entry

Ever since Gary Hart re-entered the presidential race, Democratic presidential hopefuls have again proved an old truth: Politicians can find a cheery angle to almost any news.

Senior Democratic Party officials and other strategists may see Hart’s move as an unmitigated disaster, but not so the other candidates. Each of them has a ready explanation for why he will benefit, and aides to several have been energetically peddling the new lines to reporters.

Several of the explanations seem more hopeful than realistic, but as the candidates completed the first round of the campaign and headed home for brief Christmas vacations, some had already begun to alter their strategies both in Iowa, where the campaigns will have their first test on Feb. 8, and here in New Hampshire, where the first primary of the year will be held Feb. 16.

“It’s a whole new ball game, a new campaign,” said Mark Johnson, spokesman for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), adding hopefully that “it gives Gephardt an opportunity.”

Optimism is virtually de rigueur for candidates at this point, when they are faced with the need to motivate supporters, attract contributors and persuade voters. “At this stage in the campaign, everything has to be good news,” said Times political consultant William Schneider.

Each of the candidates has taken a different tack, from a frontal assault on Hart by former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt to benign neglect by Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., who said after Hart returned, “if you can’t say something nice about someone, you shouldn’t say anything.”

Gephardt’s staff, meanwhile, argued that the new situation would “shift the focus of the debate” to issues that both Hart and Gephardt have highlighted and on which they disagree, particularly on the economy.

Babbitt’s Stance

Babbitt’s aides took a similar stance. Hart’s candidacy will focus the campaign on “new ideas,” they said, adding, needless to say, that when that happened, their man would emerge as the true new ideas candidate.

Gephardt and Babbitt, who had sunk to the bottom of polls before Hart’s decision, were the quickest to try to turn Hart’s re-emergence to their advantage. Both had little to lose and could hope that Hart, by unsettling the race, would create an opening through which they could rise.

Babbitt challenged Hart quickly over the newly reborn candidate’s claim that the rest of the field had not been discussing the issues. He also wondered aloud whether the proper model for Hart’s return was “Sugar Ray Leonard or Jim and Tammy Bakker.”

Gephardt issued a speech two days after Hart’s re-entry in which he attacked Hart’s economic policies and contended that he, unlike Hart, had proved able to get his ideas enacted into law.

‘Positive Message’

Back in the spring, spokesman Johnson noted, Gephardt had expected to debate economic policy issues with Hart, hoping to contrast his emphasis on preserving traditional American manufacturing industries with Hart’s emphasis on high technology. Now, having Hart in the race will “help the positive Gephardt message resonate,” he predicted.

Getting such a debate going could be Gephardt’s last hope. Once the front-runner in Iowa, largely on the strength of his arguments for tough trade legislation, Gephardt appears to have declined steadily in popularity in the last two months.

By contrast, the candidates who had been strongest in the polls before Hart’s return--Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois--have been more reluctant to attract attention to Hart by taking him on. Both, however, have theories about why the changes in the race are good for them.

“This has to focus attention back on character and integrity,” said a senior Simon adviser in New Hampshire. “To me, that’s the man in the bow tie.”

‘I Think He’ll Fade’

Simon, campaigning in New Hampshire and Boston before heading home for Christmas, repeatedly told reporters that only they, not the voters, were asking questions about Hart. “It’s just a guess,” he said, but “he rose rapidly, and I think he’ll fade.”

Dukakis, meanwhile, avoided talking about Hart at all. His staff, however, has been energetic in playing the “expectations game.” Hart, they told reporters, helps Dukakis by reducing the pressure for a big victory in New Hampshire.

For months Dukakis has been stuck with a no-win situation here. He has had years of extensive, generally favorable, publicity on Boston television, which reaches most of this state’s voters. Because of that, political analysts have expected him to win, and win big. His staff worried that in the eyes of the analysts, anything other than a big victory would be viewed as a defeat, while even a big victory would be considered small news.

Hart “unsettles the expectations” in New Hampshire, said Schneider, The Times’ political consultant. “It makes it harder for (Dukakis) to win, but more impressive” if he does, he added.

‘A Cagey Operative’

Charlie Baker, Dukakis’ campaign manager in New Hampshire, said: “I don’t underestimate Gary Hart here. People who do are trying to wish him away, and that’s not smart with as cagey a political operative as Gary Hart. This guy knows more about running for President here than anyone else in the race.

“We have always believed that winning New Hampshire is going to be a very significant event,” he said. “The win will be that much more significant with Sen. Hart in the race.”

An extensive poll Tuesday by NBC News showed Dukakis retaining a strong lead in New Hampshire over both Hart and Simon. Of the 701 Democrats polled, 43% said they supported the Massachusetts governor. Hart and Simon each drew 16%. Like other polls done since Hart returned to the race, the NBC survey showed him generating strong negative feelings among voters. In this case, 35% of those polled said they viewed Hart favorably, 53% unfavorably.

Distance From the Pack

As for Gore and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, both have been building campaigns around the notion that they are different from the rest of the pack. Gore has tried energetically to distinguish himself as the only Southerner in a race full of non-Southern liberals. Hart adds one more to that group.

And a leading supporter of Jackson, Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.), told reporters that Hart’s move would only further divide white voters in the race, making his candidate Hart’s true beneficiary.

Staff writer Bob Drogin contributed to this story.