Bush and Dukakis Wrap It Up With Bicoastal Blitzes : Democrat Sees Gains by the Hour

Democrat Michael S. Dukakis, claiming the White House race is “getting tighter by the hour,” raced the clock today in a go-for-broke coast-to-coast campaign sprint to spark “a November surprise” on Election Day.

The Massachusetts governor and one-time Boston Marathon runner, who often likened his 17-month quest for the presidency to a 26-mile road race, put in the final kick today by literally chasing the sun across the nation.

The dogged Dukakis campaigned as a fresh Harris poll today found he had narrowed the gap with Republican George Bush to 4 points. The poll put the race at 50% for Bush and 46% for Dukakis.

Two Hours of Sleep

Dukakis again scoffed at the polls today. Getting about two hours of sleep aboard his campaign jet, he flew from Spokane, Wash., to a 7 a.m. rally in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park and asked a crowd at a United Auto Workers hall, “Is Ohio going to let the pollsters and the pundits decide this election? Or are you going to send a message tomorrow that will be heard all around the country?”

The daybreak foray into the Buckeye State, apparently leaning toward Bush, was aimed at seizing the 23 electoral votes there. Dukakis then flew to Missouri, where the race is spotted a tossup, and told an overflow rally in St. Louis that he can win.

“They talk a lot about October surprises. Tomorrow we’re going to have a November surprise,” Dukakis said. “This race is very, very tight and it’s getting tighter by the hour.”

Evening in Los Angeles

From St. Louis, Dukakis headed for a rally in San Francisco and an evening event in Los Angeles.

Dashing back East, Dukakis planned a predawn rally in Des Moines, Iowa, at 3:30 a.m. local time Tuesday and a Detroit appearance later that morning was hastily added to the schedule. The governor then planned to go to Boston to vote and perhaps to sleep until election returns start to roll in.

Between Sunday and Tuesday, Dukakis will have logged 8,500 miles in 11 cities in nine states--Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Missouri, California, Iowa, Michigan and Massachusetts. California, with the top electoral prize of 47 votes, is counted a dead heat.

At every stop today, as he has for the last two weeks, the governor made his populist appeal to Democrats who strayed from their party to vote for Ronald Reagan. The pitch and the stepped-up pace of his campaign apparently helped Dukakis close a gap with Bush that was as wide as 17 points three weeks ago.

On Side of Workers

“Which candidate will stand up for working families in this country?” he said in St. Louis. “Which candidate will work to build an economic future all over this country that provides genuine opportunity for all and not just for some of our people? Which candidate is on your side?

“We want to help every American family make it. We’re on the side of the people that Democrats have been fighting for all their lives--people that work hard, pay their bills, pay the nation’s taxes, fight the nation’s wars.

“If you believe in . . . a fair shot at the American dream for every single citizen in this land, then we’re on your side.”

Dukakis also has used the historical reference to the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy to spur supporters. In St. Louis, he said, “Kennedy had this to say about our Republican friends; he said (Vice President Richard) Nixon is running; not President Eisenhower. The lead elephant is about to leave the circus.

“And the No. 2 elephant (this year) has stopped in his tracks. Mr. Bush is slipping and sliding,” he said. “We’re going to work hard until those polls close on Tuesday. We’re taking the case directly to the American people.”