Nation: Playing the Florida Game

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On the other side of Fort Lauderdale, in a loft on U.S. Highway 1, volunteers in blue Kennedy T shirts were also working at a bank of phones, trying to line up blocs of voters—from elderly residents of condominiums to youthful opponents of nuclear power. The volunteers are fired up with a sense of mission. Said Salesman John Adams: "The whole world is watching. We have a chance to bring big change in the country, right from this county."

Nowhere is the battle between the two camps fiercer than in Dade County, which includes Miami and will select the most delegates, 188. The Kennedy side is led by Mike Abrams, who operates out of a public relations agency on Biscayne Boulevard. At a meeting of 400 workers in the grand ballroom of the Dupont Plaza Hotel, he announced that the Kennedy workers would wear "K" stickers on caucus day so that they can be identified and served Cokes as they wait in line. Joked he: "The other side will probably have caviar, but all of you bring 25 people and we will win." His fleet of caucus-day vehicles includes seven black limousines from funeral homes.

Abrams' former wife Nancy is a leader of the Carter forces in Dade County. She is a veteran of the 1976 Carter presidential campaign and works out of her own public relations agency in Miami. Said she: "Mike is a good organizer, but we have most of the party organization, and we are outmaneuvering him." Her chief complaint is that Mike took a list of 3,000 activist party people with him when he joined the Kennedy side and refuses to share it with her. Griped Nancy: "We need those badly. We're denied access." To which Mike and the other Kennedy people replied in effect: "Hogwash."

Be that as it may, Nancy Abrams and crew were doing their best to out-cola the Kennedy people in taking care of the voters on caucus day. Said Nancy: "Whoever takes care of them best has the key." In addition to cold drinks, she and her workers will offer them umbrellas and seats. She boasted: "We have plenty of buses, all air conditioned." Said she of her side's supporters: "Sure there's dissatisfaction with Carter, but people aren't ready to switch. There are underlying bad feelings about Kennedy."

Given the small turnout that is expected, as few as 100 votes could decide many of the contests, even in the big counties. In any event, no matter who wins the caucuses, President Carter is the heavy favorite to carry the straw vote in November, because his followers dominate the party machinery and hold most of the elective offices. Of 135 seats at the convention already assigned by party executive committees, Carterites claim they have all but ten. Said Carter volunteer Chip Ford of Miami of the caucus results: "Who is to say who has won? The true meaning of it all, who knows?" On the other hand, observed Lawyer Bill McCarthy, a Kennedy backer in Miami: "Since everyone is looking, what we are doing is important."