Nation: Carter's Professional Politician

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Tim Kraft goes all out for his boss—and wins some friends

"You could get a hearing, sure," says Minnesota Democratic Chairman Rick Scott, describing the White House during Jimmy Carter's first 15 months in office. "But the guy supposedly listening was always tapping a pencil on the table. Now it's different. They listen."

This transformation was wrought by Tim Kraft, the Hoosier with a Pancho Villa mustache who two months ago became the President's chief coordinator on political liaison and patronage. Kraft's job is to improve Carter's relations with Demo cratic Party officials and contributors, to help get the President's programs through Congress and to help get him re-elected in 1980. Although Kraft is one of the Pres ident's top staffers, he has re mained almost invisible. White House Correspondent Laurence I. Barrett reports on Kraft at work:

His close friend and mentor, chief Presidential Aide Hamilton Jordan, calls him "Crafty," a wordplay on his name, not his style. Timothy Earl Kraft, 37, has a reputation for directness and reliability as well as a dis arming aw-shucks mien and slow, quiet drawl. Says a White House staffer: "He's more of a good ole boy than the Georgians."

Kraft also has more of a taste and talent for political detail work than the Georgians, in cluding Carter, whose disdain for party regulars was an asset during the campaign but has been a weakness in office. "Some things were falling between the cracks," acknowledges Jordan, who recommended that Kraft's $56,000-a-year fence-mending post be created.

To court state party leaders, Kraft has started a series of White House breakfasts where they get a chance for candid exchanges with Cabinet officials—and a chance to see the President. Most of the guests come away impressed. "Sure, it's an ego massage," says Scott. "But it pays off. It builds a relationship." Kraft and his staff of four also try to spot opportunities outside of the White House for Carter to make allies. "We're not out to politicize the White House," Kraft says, "but we've got to use the political resources we have better than before."

Thus, when Carter last week went to Texas for a $ 1,000-a-couple Democratic fund-raising dinner in Houston, Kraft added speeches in the districts of two in fluential House members, James Wright and Jack Brooks, to Carter's schedule.

Kraft also made certain that the Presi dent would have a bouquet of good news for his hosts, ensuring a welcome in a state where his popularity has been falling fast. Carter announced that Ellington Air Force Base, which was scheduled to be closed, will be taken over instead by NASA —thereby saving about 1,000 jobs in the Houston area. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency will grant $6.4 million to expand a sewage treatment plant in Fort Worth.