Dukakis Dons Front-Runner Mantle, Girds for Illinois

With the three largest Super Tuesday states in his column and a broad smile on his face, Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis met hundreds of cheering supporters late Tuesday to assume the mantle of front-runner.

“Now I know why they call it Super Tuesday,” the Massachusetts governor said. “And one week from today, we’re going to have another Super Tuesday, right here in the state of Illinois.”

With his wife, Kitty, at his side, Dukakis spoke before a bright blue bank of 75 TV monitors and five large overhead screens in a high-tech North Chicago disco called Clubland.

If the venue was unusual, Dukakis’ remarks were virtually a rehash of the stump speech he has given over and over since winning the New Hampshire primary three weeks ago.

Surprised by Gore

One reason, aides said, was that Dukakis had severely edited an earlier prepared text on the flight to Chicago--clearly, the campaign had been thrown off guard by the surprising success of Albert Gore Jr. The revised version of his speech was then hastily retyped in the club basement.

Dukakis made only a passing reference to Gore in his speech. But meeting reporters later, he threw down a gauntlet of sorts to the youthful Tennessee senator.

“I hope we can get back to the real issues that face this country,” Dukakis said. “Maybe that’s a vain cry. Maybe that’s a vain hope given what I’m hearing from the Gore camp tonight.”

It apparently was a reference to Gore’s statement earlier that Dukakis represented the kind of “old ideas” that had cost Democrats the White House in four of the last five elections.

Dukakis said his victories in Texas, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Idaho “establish us as a national campaign, a national candidacy.”

In his speech, Dukakis also took a final parting shot at rival Richard A. Gephardt after weeks of bitter trench warfare between their two camps. Gephardt won only his home state of Missouri.

“From coast to coast, the voters have said ‘no’ to the past and ‘yes’ to the future,” Dukakis said. “ ‘No’ to the politics of resentment and ‘yes’ to the promise of opportunity.”

With the Illinois primary one week away, the Dukakis campaign began airing two TV ads late Monday in Chicago, Rockford, Springfield, Peoria and Champaign. Aides said he fights an uphill battle against Illinois residents Sen. Paul Simon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The Dukakis campaign opened an office here in September and has budgeted at least $500,000 for the state. Dukakis will campaign at least four days here this week.

Aides said Dukakis would focus his efforts on white ethnic areas of Chicago, where Simon has found limited support, and economically depressed areas like Peoria and Rock Island-Moline.

Mike Bakalis, Dukakis’ state campaign chairman, said he was unsure whether Simon, who ignored the Super Tuesday contests, would hold his strong lead in recent state polls.

“I guess a lot of people think his campaign is over,” Bakalis said. “I don’t know if voters here want to throw away their votes. Paul comes in with zero wins. . . . I don’t know if anybody’s going to think he’s still viable.”

But other aides worked overtime to argue that Dukakis faced an impossible task against the two favorite sons.

Charlie Baker, Dukakis’ national field coordinator, denied he was trying to lower expectations for the leader of the pack.

“We have no expectations, so how can we lower them?” he said with a smile.