POLITICS 88 : Gephardt Camp Sees Rivals’ Ad Attacks Ending

It took Richard A. Gephardt three years to scratch and struggle and slave his way to the top where he could share the glory as co-front-runner in the Democratic presidential race. Then Tuesday, in just 12 hours of voting, Gephardt was sent tumbling back into the pack, once again the long-shot challenger, not the challenged.

Exhausted, beaten and broke, Super Tuesday’s biggest Democratic loser told voters here in his home state--the only state he carried--he would fight on.

“I’m far from chucking it in,” Gephardt said, upper lip stiff as starch.

“I never told you it would be easy. . . . This is a long campaign. Those who prevail are those who don’t lose heart, who don’t lose their support, who don’t lose their courage.”

Sigh of Relief

The best the Missouri congressman’s campaign could make of his drubbing was a sigh of relief. At least now, aides comforted themselves, opponents would cease the relentless advertising attacks against him.

Opponents raised a theme that has begun to consume Gephardt--this matter of whether he is merely flexible in his views, as he says, or he is a pliable opportunist, as critics suggest. In the resulting debate, it was hard to hear the message of populist-tinged economic nationalism that Gephardt is trying to communicate.

“Somebody else can go through it now,” press aide Ali Webb said.

Strapped financially, Gephardt was out-organized and outspent, and probably outmaneuvered in the 20-state vote on Tuesday. By the congressman’s account, he was outspent as much as 6 to 1 by the combined campaigns of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. Again, by his account, half of his opponents’ spending was devoted to anti-Gephardt television advertising.

‘Money Won’

“It was a race between money and message,” said Gephardt’s strategist Robert Shrum. “And now we know--money won.”

Tuesday night, Gephardt repeatedly vowed “that will not happen again,” contending he can be more competitive on a limited budget in states where elections fall sequentially rather than in a huge bunch.

“Now that the states come one at a time, I think I can get my message out,” he told an interviewer.

Gephardt said he would go on to contest South Carolina on Saturday and Illinois next Tuesday. But, as of Tuesday night, campaign strategists said Gephardt’s best hope for a rebound rests in Michigan on March 26.

“I can’t imagine a state where Hyundai will work better than Michigan,” Webb said. Hyundai has become the advertising symbol for Gephardt on his favorite subject--protecting American jobs against imports from countries that erect barriers to U.S. goods.

Celebrated Ad Campaign

The Korean-made car is featured in a celebrated Gephardt advertising campaign in which he threatens to retaliate with tariffs to make the Hyundai cost $48,000 if Korea refuses to eliminate similar taxes on U.S. cars.