Dukakis, Gore, Leave Illinois Before Polls Open

These two strangers got out of town long before sundown.

Two of the Democratic candidates who rode triumphantly through Super Tuesday just a week earlier had holstered their guns and left Illinois well before Tuesday’s showdown became a walk-away victory for favorite sons Sen. Paul Simon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

By the time polls opened Tuesday, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis was back in Boston and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. was in Michigan stalking key endorsements.

Dukakis finished a distant third in Illinois and Gore finished fourth. Both tried to put the best face on their losses, denying that they had been dealt any setback.

“We did what I think I can characterize as a respectable third, and now we go on to Michigan,” Dukakis told a press conference at a Boston television station shortly after the Illinois polls closed. He noted that he entered the presidential race exactly a year ago today, and that “it’s been a remarkable adventure.”

Although each man spent at least $200,000 on media messages in the final stretch of the Illinois campaign, both heaped blame on time constraints and favorite-son advantages.

“The time frame was very short,” Dukakis said. “If you come out of Super Tuesday, the granddaddy of them all, when we did very well, then we had a very short window to compete against two highly respected, very strong favorite sons. The fact we’ve done what we’ve done is, I think, good.”

As to his third-place finish: “Whether or not I won people’s votes, I think we’ve come out of Illinois with a lot of good will, a lot of potential support in the fall election, and that’s very important.”

Gore said:

“We didn’t have a real opportunity to tell our story because we had only a few days to campaign after Super Tuesday. It was not a fair test of my message because of the presence of two favorite sons.”

“We were just too late,” his press secretary, Arlie Schardt, lamented. “We didn’t get in here in time.”

Both expressed confidence. “I’m leading in the delegate race. A year ago if anyone had told me I’d be ahead in delegates, I wouldn’t have believed them,” Dukakis said. Gore said: “I’m expecting to have 40% of the delegates” at the convention.

Dukakis is to arrive for a two-day stay in Michigan on Thursday night, after a day of campaigning in Connecticut.

On Tuesday, Gore tried to jump-start his Michigan campaign by meeting with the editorial boards of Detroit’s two major papers, apparently hoping for the kind of endorsement he got from the Chicago Tribune.

In Lansing, Gore garnered the endorsement of two state legislative leaders. And waiting for him as he left a meeting were about a dozen teen-age girls squealing “Ooh, Al! Al!” An aide tossed Gore-for-President buttons into the air and the young women leaped to catch them. Gore shook their hands and thanked them, although only one was old enough to vote.

“I think it’s important that I do extremely well here in Michigan. We’re the underdog, but we’re coming on strong,” Gore said. “The campaign moves on without being affected greatly by the results in Illinois,” Gore declared.

Staff writers Bob Drogin and Ron Harris and researcher Eileen Quigley contributed to this story.