Mondale's Demanding Suitors

By William R. Doerner

Hart offers a truce, but women are getting more restless

The meeting did not start well. Walter Mondale, who had walked over from his hotel 15 minutes earlier, met his dogged challenger Gary Hart at the front door of the elegant Manhattan townhouse. The Colorado Senator, who had been up late, told Host Arthur Krim that he could use some coffee. "Your people said you'd want tea with your bacon and eggs," said Krim, a motion-picture executive. "That's the trouble with my campaign," replied Hart. "I like lots of coffee, and I don't eat eggs."

Once the two adversaries had sequestered themselves in the study, shirtsleeves rolled up and notes at their sides, the mutual accusations began, each man coldly recalling stinging statements made by the other during the campaign. But after two touchy minutes, the ice was broken: both admitted that much of the rhetoric had been ill advised and, while offering no direct apologies, agreed that they were sorry that things had got out of hand. They then put the final touches on an accord that, by removing the threat of a Hart challenge to the credentials of Mondale delegates, effectively ended their bitter Democratic nomination battle. Mondale's next summit in his quest for a peaceful convention will be in Kansas City on Tuesday, when he meets with Jesse Jackson.

For Mondale, the truce with Hart was a welcome relief amid his anxiety over how to deal with Jesse Jackson. But the worries of the presumptive nominee are hardly over. Hart still plans to continue his own candidacy, a muted challenge that could force Mondale to offer him the second spot on the ticket. At the same time, the chorus urging Mondale to select a woman running mate has unexpectedly swelled; what seemed a few weeks ago a daring option for Mondale now threatens to foreclose any other option.

Mondale and Hart had briefly spoken by telephone two days after the last round of primaries on June 5 and agreed that they needed to talk in person at some point. But Mondale insisted on hammering out a detailed agreement before sitting down with his defeated rival.

His primary goal was to prevent a convention challenge to the validity of some 600 delegates whose elections, Hart charged, had been "tainted" by contributions from political action committees. For his part, Hart was mainly interested in gaining support for a "democracy package" of campaign reforms in 1988 and, in particular, revising rules that worked to his disadvantage this year. One was the inclusion of 568 "superdelegates" chosen from among the party Establishment, most of whom favored early Front Runner Mondale. The other was a requirement in some places that a candidate collect at least 20% of the vote in a primary or caucus before winning any delegates.

The deal was close to being struck two weeks ago, when Senator Edward Kennedy entered the picture. Having remained neutral throughout the primaries, Kennedy telephoned Mondale with an offer to fly to Minnesota and announce his backing. Mondale invited Kennedy to spend Sunday night at his home in North Oaks. Just before boarding a jetliner at Boston's Logan International Airport, Kennedy called Hart from a VIP lounge to review the Coloradan's bargaining position, making notes on a yellow legal pad. After arriving in North Oaks, Kennedy urged his host to compromise on a couple of unresolved points. "We're getting close, but we're not there yet," said Mondale over cigars and Scotch. Prodded Kennedy: "Fritz, I think this thing can be wrapped up tonight."

Mondale told Kennedy he would agree to a panel to review campaign rules; he promised to support substantial reductions in the number of superdelegates and lowering the threshold for winning delegates from 20% to 15%. Kennedy put in a second call to Hart and handed the receiver to Mondale. The two rivals went over the terms of their accord one more time and agreed on the session in New York.

Krim's four-story East Side residence was so mobbed by newsmen and TV technicians during the breakfast that police were forced to close the block to automobile traffic. As the closed meeting wore on, the mood outside grew slightly surreal; the two candidates' press secretaries, Maxine Isaacs and Kathy Bushkin, appeared on a second floor balcony at one point and tossed flowers to the crowd below. When Mondale and Hart finally emerged, they tried hard to convince their audience that the hatchet burying ritual had indeed been genuine. Said Hart, carefully using Mondale's nickname: "Fritz knows that throughout this contest he and I have been friends, are friends and will continue to be friends." Agreed Mondale: "I think we respect each other. I said during the campaign if we could just get two good nights' sleep I think that would become obvious. I've had my two nights' sleep. " In a wry reference to George Bush's famous crack in 1980 that his then rival Ronald Reagan believed in "voodoo economics," Hart pointed out that "neither of us accused the other of witchcraft."

Though that statement seemed at least an unconscious reference to the No. 2 spot on this year's Democratic ticket, both men insisted that a vice-presidential nomination for Hart had not been discussed. Perhaps not, but Hart's advisers have become unanimous in their belief that the Colorado Senator should accept the position if offered . Hart flashed his wild card the next day when asked how he might choose his running mate. Answered Hart mischievously: "I can choose a woman, and I can announce my choice before the convention."

That would certainly put Mondale in a bind. Struggling to keep his own running-mate options open, he continued to hold his well-publicized Veepstakes interviews.

Last week he met with Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, who followed Los Angeles' Tom Bradley as the second black chief executive of a major city to receive a look over invitation. This week Mondale is scheduled to talk to New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro and Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins; they join San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who favorably impressed Mondale during her session, as women contenders. Also due in North Oaks is San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, the first Hispanic to be considered. Despite the lengthening parade of applicants, at least one experienced pol was convinced that Mondale's vice-presidential field was quickly narrowing. Predicted House Speaker Tip O'Neill: "It's going to be Hart or a woman."

The latter possibility was gathering a critical and potentially explosive force of its own last week as women activists coalesced around the idea like no other issue since the struggle to pass the ERA. "All of a sudden women are thinking, 'My God, we're going to fight for it,' " says Eleanor Smeal, former president of the National Organization for Women. The case for a female running mate, supporters argue, is practical as well as ideological. Says Kathy Wilson, president of the National Women's Political Caucus: "Show me someone who could help beat Reagan more than a woman, and I'll drop this argument."

The most frequently mentioned woman candidate now seems to be Ferraro, who primed herself for her interview by reading a biography of Mondale, particularly the section describing how he impressed Jimmy Carter in Plains, Ga., during a previous vice-presidential search. Ferraro perhaps put more pressure on Mondale than she meant to when she suggested she would allow her name to be placed in nomination as a "symbolic gesture" if Mondale selected a man. She quickly added that she would not take part in any serious effort to overturn Mondale's choice.

That possibility, however, was discussed by a group of activists, including five Congresswomen, who dubbed themselves "Mondale Women." They will meet with the candidate in Minnesota this week to press the case for selecting a woman. One member of the group caused a furor by speaking openly of staging a convention walkout if the No. 2 spot does not go to a woman. The Congresswomen present quickly denied that such a threat existed.

"We're running on the same ticket," said Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut. "We have our careers to think about too."

The pressure on Mondale peaked this weekend when he attended NOW's annual meeting in Miami, where the agenda focused on the case for a female candidate.

As the gathering opened, NOW President Judy Goldsmith warned that failure to pick a woman would make a convention floor fight "a very strong possibility." Said Goldsmith: "This is not in the nature of a threat. This is in the nature of a prediction. The weatherman cannot stop the thunderstorm." At a Mondale fund-raising coffee on Saturday, several delegates looked him in the eye while shaking hands and got off a prearranged line:

"Woman on the ticket."

When Mondale rose to address the group Saturday morning, a noisy audience of 1,300 greeted him with chants of "Run with a woman, run with a woman." Decorating the podium from which he spoke were arrangements of campaign buttons reading WOMAN VP NOW. But Mondale was not yet prepared to commit himself.

"I am considering a number of women not because they're women, but because they're among the best," he said. "And if I choose a woman, it will be because she is the best ."

By William R. Doerner Reported by Sam Allis with Mondale and David Beckwith with Hart

With reporting by Sam Allis, David Beckwith