Acting Ornery in New Hampshire

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The cool Hart grew warmer in the spotlight. He dropped his diffidence and reached into crowds. On the stump he was clear and forceful. "Your sons shouldn't be sent to Central America to serve as bodyguards for some dictator," he declared at a Women for Hart rally in Concord. His oft repeated pitch that he represents a "new generation" of leadership found a receptive audience. New Hampshire's growing population of Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals) made a natural constituency: exit polls later showed that Hart won the under-40 vote by almost 3 to 1. Some 40% said they voted for Hart because he offered new ideas Those earning more than $30,000 favored Hart by better than 2 to 1.

In the final week, the Mondale camp began to pick up warning signals. Four days before the voting, students at Memorial High School in Manchester aggressively questioned Mondale about his ties to unions and why he seemed to promise everyone something. Mondale gamely insisted that "my hands aren't tied by any body." Fully half the Democratic voters, it turned out, believed that Mondale was too close to labor. Al most 60% agreed that Mondale "promised too many things to special interest groups," according to an NBC exit poll. Of that group, 54% voted for Hart and only 9% for Mondale.

Mondale's vast organization (1,000 volunteers by primary day, 31 paid staff members, labor support and hundreds of phones) did its job, reaching two-thirds of the voters in the state by phone or canvass. But after the third or fourth phone call bad gering them to vote for Mondale, some voters rebelled. As it turned out, only one-third of those contacted by the Mondale camp voted for him.

The shift in voter attitudes intensified the weekend before the balloting. The so-called second tier of candidates collectively collapsed as early "supporters began to feel that they would be wasting their votes on Alan Cranston, Reubin Askew, Fritz Hollings and Jesse Jackson. Many of these voters switched their allegiance to Hart. At the same time, thousands of the undecided joined the Hart stampede. Half the voters decided in the last week, and more than half of this group decided for Hart. Those who made up their minds on the final weekend chose Hart over Mondale by 67% to 10%. Even Hart's aides were stunned by the enormous voter swing.

"Sunday was the first day I really thought we would come in first," said State Coordinator Jeanne Shaheen.

"And I never thought it would be by so much."

The upheaval caught the Mondale camp off guard. For months their man had been fending off Glenn's challenge, not realizing that Hart was quietly stealing a march on the flank. Indeed, Mondale only rarely mentioned Hart by name. Mondale's last private poll, taken the Saturday before the primary, showed him still leading Hart by 12 points, 36% to 24%. No one in the Mondale campaign expected serious trouble on Tuesday.