Some Leaders Urge Party to Unite for Clinton

In the wake of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s victories in Tuesday’s primaries, some Democratic leaders have begun urging the party to unite behind the front-runner as the inevitable nominee, despite lingering doubts about his ability to win a general election.

“Clinton has gone through five months of some of the most grueling scrutiny and pressure anybody has ever been through in this process--particularly this last week in New York--and he has come out of it fine,” Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-W.V.) said. “That says to me it is time to coalesce around him, and has been for some time.”

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), who had endorsed former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, said: “I think it is pretty much over.”

Math alone underlines that conclusion. After Clinton’s Tuesday sweep of primaries in New York, Wisconsin, Kansas and Minnesota, he now holds 1,267 delegates--more than half the 2,145 needed for nomination. Tsongas trails with 539 delegates, and former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. has just 264.

Given the Democratic proportional representation rules that prevent candidates from quickly accumulating vast numbers of delegates, many believe that Clinton’s lead has become insurmountable--even if Tsongas, who suspended his campaign last month, decides to re-enter the race.

“The breadth of the four-state, multi-region, big-delegate win makes a point with people,” said Paul Tully, political director at the Democratic National Committee. “Anybody who looks at the math--boom, they see it. I think we are on track for the transition (to the general election) that begins now.”

Despite such declarations, there were no signs that Clinton would immediately have the field to himself. Jodie Evans, campaign manager for Brown, insisted that Clinton “doesn’t in any way have the nomination sewn up. There are lots of people who have concerns about Clinton’s character, and that’s not going to go away.”

New York exit polls found Democrats splitting evenly on whether Clinton had the honesty and integrity to serve as President, after similar results in recent national surveys.

“The central issue on the presidency in the fall is going to be whether I trust this person with the highest job in the land,” said Rep. Dennis E. Eckart (D-Ohio), who has been urging the 772 unpledged “super delegates” to remain uncommitted. “It takes a level of trust and confidence that right now I do not see evident in the voters toward Mr. Clinton.”

One group of about 15 uncommitted representatives, including Don Edwards (D-San Jose), met Wednesday afternoon to discuss their options but left without agreeing to any course of action except remaining in touch. “All we know is that this very likely could be the first convention in our experience where it is not all over on the first ballot,” Edwards said.

But in the party strongholds that have been most critical of Clinton--including Capitol Hill and organized labor--there were clear indications that Tuesday’s results had substantially deflated such maneuvering.

“I think up until now it’s been fair game to make remarks of that sort because you are trying to keep your options open,” said Rep. Timothy J. Penny (D-Minn.), who had endorsed Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. “But . . . we’re at a point where he is our all-but-certain nominee, and, because of that, continued grumbling and griping isn’t going to do anybody any good.”

Edwards acknowledged that “there is a swell of approval for Clinton going around on Capitol Hill.”

Moreover, with Clinton now in such a commanding position, other party leaders showed increasing irritation with speculation about an open convention.

“Because this is a voter-driven process, we ought to recognize that and stop this internal hand-wringing,” said Phil Angelides, the California Democratic chairman.

“Frankly, Democratic leadership on the Hill ought to be spending more time setting out alternative policies and taking on George Bush than fretting about who is going to be our nominee,” he said.

There were also glimmers of reconciliation Wednesday between Clinton and organized labor--which has criticized him over his labor record in Arkansas and support for a free-trade agreement with Mexico. Some officials said Clinton’s decision to meet with striking workers and management at Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria could defuse the hostility that led many union officials to embrace Brown in a stop-Clinton effort over the past month.

“I think this is the signal everyone has been waiting for,” one well-placed labor official said. Though some local unions might still support Brown, the official said, “the legitimacy he got from labor may begin to evaporate.”

Some Democrats maintained Wednesday that Clinton’s victories this week--in the face of repeated controversies about his past, a tabloid firestorm in New York and piercing personal attacks from Brown--would raise his esteem among elected officials who have feared that he would run poorly against Bush and perhaps endanger their own prospects of reelection.

“Winning takes care of a lot of problems,” said Rep. Michael A. Andrews (D-Tex.), who has been among those seeking to attract Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) into the race. “If the question among some of my colleagues is whether Clinton is electable, look at what he is doing.”

But the cautious move toward Clinton appears to owe as much to a sense of inevitability as to enthusiasm. “Very few people seriously think that he can be denied anymore,” a senior official in one major industrial union said. “In the wake of Brown’s victory in Connecticut, there was a sense: This is it for Clinton. I don’t sense that so much now.”

That feeling is based partly on Clinton’s substantial delegate lead, but also on the calendar. Over the next month, the race turns primarily toward Southern and blue-collar states--including Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina--where Clinton has dominated so far.

With that gantlet looming ahead, even some supporters held out little hope that Tsongas could make much headway if he rejoined the race. “It’s probably not very realistic” for Tsongas to come back in the hope of winning the nomination, Schroeder said. The only reason for re-entering the race, she said, would be “to bring the debate back up on issues--for the party’s sake, for everybody’s sake.”

As for Brown, campaign manager Evans said he plans to tone down his personal attacks on Clinton and shift his focus back toward his broader message of political reform. “He is saying, ‘I’ve got to go back to my message,’ ” she said. “The people are going to have to see Clinton for themselves.”

Allowing them to do just that is the Clinton campaign’s top goal now that the nomination is clearly in sight. As aides cautiously begin to look toward the general election, they see formidable challenges awaiting them in repairing Clinton’s bruised public image.

Clinton strategists believe that the key to moderating his high negative ratings is to convince voters that he is running for President not just to satisfy his own ambition, but to pursue basic changes in society.

For all his problems, New York demonstrated again Clinton’s formidable ability to knit together the traditional Democratic coalition of blacks, working-class whites and senior citizens. With that base, victory in November could be attainable, aides believe, if he can reach out to Northern Roman Catholics and well-educated suburbanites who have been cool to him, and inspire a large turnout among blacks.

Those considerations are likely to drive discussion of a potential vice president, one senior Clinton strategist said. Serious conversations on that subject have not yet begun, but within the Clinton camp there is already discussion of making a bold vice presidential choice--perhaps choosing someone who is not an elected official--and doing it well before the party convenes in New York in July.