Chairman Has Stressed Unity : Party Regains Will to Win Under Kirk

Trying to manage Democrats is never easy. And it gets downright daunting when the party is out of power and divided to its very soul on how to regain itself.

That’s how the Democrats began the 1988 campaign 3 1/2 years ago.

They had suffered a 49-state presidential wipeout, their fourth loss in five tries. They controlled only one house of the Congress. The word “liberal” was a kiss of death across much of the country and “conservative” a badge of honor. Democrats were low on hope--a yapping tangle of special interests.

So they elected Paul G. Kirk Jr. to preside as national chairman to take their shattered fortunes and help steer the party on the long road to Atlanta and the 40th Democratic National Convention.

A Massachusetts liberal lawyer, former aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the candidate of organized labor, Kirk won a bruising fight for his job in an election of the party’s 350-plus member national committee. Critics filled the air with warnings--he is more of the same, they said, another Democratic disaster. A group of up-and-coming party conservatives and moderates even broke away and formed a splinter group, called the Democratic Leadership Council.

Time to Remodel

A remodeling of the party seemed in order.

There was, after all, something on which Democrats all could agree: They wanted to win. With that germ of consensus, Kirk set out to make the case that Democrats had enough enemies and did not need to be cutting their own throats. So, he successfully championed:

--Elimination of special interest caucuses within the party. These groups represented women and minorities and the disabled and others. They had the effect of institutionalizing dissent and competition wherever Democrats met.

--An end to the party’s midterm conventions. Critics called these off-year meetings “playgrounds for activists,” in which conflict, disagreement and the views of single-issue advocates were highlighted.

--A more prominent role for elected officials as spokesmen and strategists for the national party organization.

--A different approach to the convention platform. Kirk argued that the complex, detailed and issue-oriented manifestoes of the past (1984’s was 45,000 words long) provided a juicy target for Republicans. He pushed for a tight platform (1988’s draft is one-tenth as long) with themes broad enough that Democrats “all over the country can run with.”

Many of these moves surprised his critics, not to mention his supporters. None occurred without a fight.

Pragmatism, Common Sense

“When I decided to run for chairman it was basically to try and bring a little more pragmatism and common sense to the way we conducted our business,” Kirk said in an interview. “The first year-and-a-half were, for me, kind of punishing.”

Amid the changes, as he had hoped, the Democrats began to fuse together in their will to win.

“The party was perceived as a captive of special interests and he has taken it to where it is seen as acting in the public interest,” said Los Angeles attorney Mickey Kantor.

Al From, executive director of the split-off Democratic Leadership Council, has converted from skeptic to admirer. “Kirk has moved the center of gravity away from the activists, away from the activist wing of the party and to the governing wing.”

Kirk, however, has never been a particularly dynamic or public figure in pursuit of his goals, and may fall short of the colorful legacy of some of his predecessors. “Public relations is not his strong suit,” said one elected party leader.

And then there is fund-raising. Indeed, this is the chief responsibility of a national party chairman.

$2 Million Short

In 1986, his first election cycle as chairman, Kirk fell $2 million short of his target. The old-fashioned, cause-oriented liberals whom he had put on the run said this proved Kirk was sapping the Democratic Party of its vital core of activist enthusiasm.

The image as a lackluster fund-raiser remains with the chairman to this day.

But party officials argue this is unfair given the $9 million in the Democratic National Committee’s “Victory 1988” fund. Some $2 million of this has been raised directly to help the presidential ticket. By contrast, the party was in debt at its 1984 convention.

In the life of a party chairman, the four-year term of office is directed at two overriding events--the national convention and the presidential election.

In the countdown to Monday’s convention opening, Kirk’s dream of a unified and orderly four days of television is caught in the tempest between nominee-in-waiting Michael S. Dukakis and runner-up challenger Jesse Jackson.

An aide to Kirk was asked Thursday what the chairman was doing at that moment.

‘Biting His Nails’

“He’s up biting his nails,” the aide joked.

It seems evident that Kirk’s record is at risk if the party leaves Atlanta in pieces. But having tangled on and off with Jackson for years, Kirk openly sided with Dukakis in this week’s tensions between candidates.

“I spoke with Rev. Jackson about that myself and I said that the numbers were clear in terms of the presidential nomination, the choice had been made with respect to the vice presidential nomination, and the party was anxious to direct its attentions . . . against the Republicans in November,” Kirk said.

Kirk will stay on as chairman through the general election by agreement with Dukakis. After that he insists he will return to private legal practice. But for now, Kirk is not looking ahead or back, but grappling with the moment.

“There are some things to take some satisfaction from,” Kirk said in his full Boston twang, racing from one pre-convention meeting to another. “But this is no time to relax or take anything for granted. We’re sort of getting to the important things, if you will.”