Democrats: Problems of Dollars and Days

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One of the more intriguing questions of the election: Where did Hubert Humphrey's dough go? Last spring it seemed that for once in his political life the Vice President could campaign in affluence. But things did not turn out that way. The Democrats figure that by Election Day they will have spent only about $10 million, less than half as much as the Republicans have budgeted. After Nov. 5, the Democrats expect to face a deficit of perhaps $5 million. This relative penury has deprived Humphrey of the prime air time that Richard Nixon has been able to employ with marked effect.

The pinch resulted from a combination of factors, some within Humphrey's control and some beyond it. During his first month as an announced candidate, he raised nearly $1,000,000. Most of this money, plus additional cash gleaned later in the spring, was largely devoured—"wasted," say some of his aides—in primary contests where Humphrey was not even officially entered. The aim was to reduce Robert Kennedy's momentum. Among the gambits used was the quiet funneling of money to McCarthy headquarters via labor unions. Humphrey's organization was so sloppy or overconfident during that period that when Angier Biddle Duke sent a letter volunteering to solicit funds, as he had successfully done for Lyndon Johnson, no one in the Humphrey headquarters even took the trouble to reply.

Psychedelic Lights. When Kennedy was killed, anticipated contributions from businessmen, who did not like Humphrey so much as they feared Kennedy, failed to materialize. Eugene McCarthy soaked up some cash that otherwise would have gone to Humphrey during the summer. Finally, Nixon's 16-point lead in the Gallup poll after the G.O.P. Convention persuaded many potential big contributors to save their money for more hopeful causes.

In recent weeks things have improved. Wall Street Financiers John Loeb and Sidney Weinberg have done some strenuous pleading that has begun to pay off. Humphrey is even going after the loose change. Last week he paid a post-midnight visit to a Manhattan discotheque called Nepantha, where the younger, swingier set had paid $50 a head for the Humphrey cause. As he stood in the psychedelic lights, someone yelled: "You're beautiful, baby!" The event netted $10,000.

A brief pitch for funds at the end of his televised foreign policy speech on Sept. 30 brought in $300,000, or more than twice the cost of the network air time. A similar appeal in his speech on crime Oct. 12 also stimulated sizable mail contributions. Over-the-transom donations, averaging $3,000 a day just a few weeks ago, were averaging $35,000 a day last week.