The race between Hart and Mondale heads toward more showdowns

• Share

Bracing for a Marathon

Gary Hart can still claim momentum. Walter Mondale can still claim the lead in delegates. Neither can claim the Democratic presidential nomination just yet. Indeed, there is a chance that neither will be able to do so until the last primary ballots are counted in June—or even until the last delegate votes are tallied at the San Francisco convention in July.

That in essence was the message sent to the contenders last week by some 3.5 million voters who trooped to polling places from the Arctic Circle to the Florida Keys, from the snow-sodden beaches of Cape Cod to the sun-drenched sands of Hawaii. From Super Tuesday, with contests in nine states, through Saturday, with caucuses in five more, Super Week covered 16 states that will be sending almost 1,000 delegates to San Francisco, out of a total of 3,933. It once loomed as the decisive showdown of the campaign. Mondale initially figured to deliver knockout blows to all those rivals who survived the opening primaries and caucuses. Later, after Hart followed up his victory in New Hampshire with a string of quick triumphs in other early contests, it seemed just possible that the Colorado Senator might win enough votes during the week to leave the Mondale campaign hanging paralyzed on the ropes.

In the event, Super Week was not quite a draw but a split decision. Hart won seven states, Mondale six; "uncommitted" swept Hawaii, South Carolina and three Kentucky counties that caucused in advance of the rest of the state. An impartial political referee would probably award the match to Hart on points. He won states large (Florida, Massachusetts) and small (Rhode Island), and some where his campaign barely existed at the beginning of March (Washington, Nevada). He proved that his candidacy is not a flashy fad but a national movement.

Some of the results, however, were ambiguous. Standout example: the Michigan caucuses, Saturday's main event. The state was stacked in Mondale's favor; he had the backing of the United Auto Workers and almost every Michigan Democratic politician with a recognizable name. Some caucuses were held in unpublicized locations, others in union halls under the eyes of U.A.W. officials.

Despite all that, the fervor of the campaign drew an unexpectedly heavy turnout of 135,000 that prolonged some caucuses two hours past the scheduled closing time of 4 p.m. Mondale won, with 49% of the vote, but Hart took a more than respectable 31%. On Saturday, Mondale also won the greatest number of delegates in Arkansas and Mississippi. Earlier in the week, he scored victories where he had to (Georgia, Alabama) in order to survive and slow Hart's surge a bit—from 150 m.p.h. to 100 m.p.h., in Hart's offhand metaphor.

Indeed, thanks partly to his triumph in Michigan and partly to the fact that delegate strength is only loosely tied to the popular vote in most primary states,* Mondale appears to have won some 300 delegates last week to Hart's 245. Overall, the rough unofficial count as of Saturday night was Mondale, 458 of the 1,967 delegates needed to nominate; Hart, 289; uncommitted or pledged to other candidates, 314. But delegates this year are free to switch their votes up to or even at the convention.