Consensus Sought as Democratic Leaders Begin Drafting ’88 Platform

In sharp contrast with the acrimony of past presidential campaigns, Democratic leaders Friday began drafting their party’s 1988 platform, seemingly committed to the proposition that consensus in the spring can mean victory in the fall.

“We have not only to speak to ourselves, we have to remember those so-called swing voters and where they are going to wind up in November,” said national party Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr., setting the tone for the opening of the three-day meeting at this island resort’s Grand Hotel.

Some of those in attendance said the idyllic setting of this northern Michigan retreat, with its lilacs in full bloom and its verdant hills rimmed by the sparkling waters of Lake Michigan, probably contributed to the spirit of harmony that seemed to prevail between the supporters of prospective nominee Michael S. Dukakis and his most formidable challenger, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Much Briefer

But of more direct importance was a decision by party leaders to follow advice offered by Kirk and attempt to draft a platform that would be much briefer than past platforms and also avoid most of the specific commitments that have usually marked such documents.

The 1984 platform, for example, ran 40,000 words. But, as a starting point here, the 16-member platform drafting committee was given a “discussion paper” prepared by Theodore C. Sorensen, former speech writer for President John F. Kennedy. It is a 2,000-word compilation of positions that Sorensen said were derived from the campaign speeches of 1988 Democratic presidential contenders.

His idea, Sorensen explained, was to avoid the problems caused by platforms of the past which he said typically amounted to “a book-length laundry list of promises and commitments that no one ever reads but the Republicans who use them against us.”

Both former Maryland Rep. Michael Barnes, the Dukakis campaign’s representative at the drafting sessions, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, former director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, his counterpart from the Jackson campaign, praised Sorensen’s work as a start, although both said the finished document needed more specifics.

‘Substantial Work’

Barnes said “substantial work” needed to be done and Norton said more details were needed “so people know who we are . . . .”

As the discussion gets more specific in future sessions, disagreements are likely to develop on some issues if only because the Jackson campaign is believed eager to dramatize at least some points of difference between its candidate and Dukakis.

But Philadelphia Rep. William H. Gray III, a Jackson supporter appointed to head the drafting committee in a demonstration of inter-campaign amity by Michigan Gov. James J. Blanchard, a Dukakis supporter, made clear that he wants to postpone and minimize any such discord.

“Hopefully, we will leave here closer together,” Gray said in his opening remarks to the committee, which is made up of six members appointed by Jackson, six by Dukakis and four by Kirk.

In stressing that the committee would operate informally, Gray said: “I am not going to measure this weekend by Roberts Rules of Order. Who knows,” Gray, a Baptist minister, added, “at times we may let the Holy Spirit work its will.”

Once the preliminaries were out of the way, the committee spent two hours discussing, with little disagreement, the issues of drugs, health care, education, housing and civil rights.

The drafting committee’s output will be submitted to the full 186-member platform committee, which will meet June 25 in Denver, prior to the national convention in Atlanta next month.