Rising Stars From the Sunbelt

• Share

| WANTED: Moderate Democrats (blow-dried hair not essential) to help move the party of F.D.R. toward the center in time for the '88 elections. Applicants do not necessarily have to come from the Sunbelt, but should appeal to Sunbelt voters. Blacks, Hispanics and women welcome, although ties to unions and other special-interest groups may be held against you. Old-line old-boy liberals need not apply.

A year after its founding, the new-look Democratic Leadership Council has found plenty of support for its call for a more conservative Democratic Party --without resorting to want ads. Organized by young, centrist Governors and Congressmen, many from the South and West, after Walter Mondale's rout in the 1984 presidential election, the D.L.C. set out to do three things: shift the party away from standard-brand liberalism, stem defections to the G.O.P., and create a climate for a moderate or conservative Democrat to succeed Ronald Reagan as President. What a difference a year makes. Notes Virginia ex- Governor Charles Robb, who will shortly become the next D.L.C. chairman: "What we've done is evoke new interest in the party. We're providing a showcase for a message and for messengers."

Once sneeringly described as "the white-male caucus," the D.L.C. has recruited a number of high-profile black and women members, such as House Budget Committee Chairman William Gray of Philadelphia and San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Moreover, it has expanded its ranks from about 20 to 110, of whom 79 are members of Congress. While the D.L.C. is not nudging any closer to the party's Old Guard, the Old Guard seems to be edging closer to the D.L.C. The recent move by as many as a dozen Southern states to coordinate an influential regional presidential primary in March 1988 may push the two factions into a bona fide embrace.

To promote its views and showcase its members, the D.L.C. has conducted campaign-style road shows in five states, including California and Florida. On a recent trip to Dallas, Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and Congressman Les Aspin of Wisconsin, leaders of the military-reform movement on Capitol Hill, told some 200 local Democratic spear carriers that while the Reagan Administration's trillion-dollar military buildup had created a "museum of weapons systems," the U.S. still lacks a sound and coherent defense strategy. Doves they are not, however. Said Nunn: "We need to make sure that the public understands that the Democratic Party stands for a strong position on national security."

Initially, relations were not particularly fraternal between the D.L.C. and Paul Kirk, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kirk and other traditional Democrats viewed the D.L.C. as a kind of separatist movement of crypto-Republicans. Yet now Kirk seems almost brotherly toward the D.L.C., talking about the "positive, constructive relationship" he has with its members. Kirk has acted on the D.L.C.'s diagnosis of some of the party's problems: he has reduced the number of its special-interest caucuses and increased the proportion of elected Democrats who will be delegates at the 1988 convention. Kirk is also on the record as saying that the Democrats cannot lasso the White House in 1988 without a Sunbelt candidate on the ticket.