At Play in a World Without Hart

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The disintegration of Gary Hart's candidacy left a void where the structure of the nomination contest should be. Though Hart had been a weak leader of the pack -- short of deeply committed supporters and ready campaign cash -- his place at the top dictated the shape of the race. Each of the seven other Democrats had to strive to become Hart's chief rival in the winter carnival of early caucuses and primaries.

Now the battlefield will be a mass of political Silly Putty. Of the seven, only Jesse Jackson has an established national reputation -- yet he has virtually no chance of winning. Current party practice bars informal tests of strength. "There is no mountain to climb, no way for one of them to show off," says Bob Strauss, the former Democratic chairman who reigns as party sage. Says John White, another chairman emeritus: "The campaign goes back to ground zero." Polls taken last week, just after Hart's final agony became public, demonstrated why some skeptics call the active contenders the Seven Dwarfs. In Iowa the Des Moines Register survey of Democrats showed that the only real beneficiary was "undecided," which went up twelve points while Hart lost nine. The other seven who have been campaigning there -- Jackson, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, Illinois Senator Paul Simon, former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore -- made negligible gains or none at all. Among Democrats and independents questioned in a national TIME survey, New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a non-candidate, ran second to Hart and well ahead of anyone else. When Hart supporters were asked whom they would favor for a second choice, 54% expressed uncertainty.

The situation cries out for at least one of the party's heavyweights to join the festivities. "That's the most likely next big event," says Pollster Stanley Greenberg. "An established national figure who comes in reluctantly, someone who stands apart from the rush of present candidates, would change the game." Cuomo or New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley would attract instant attention, as would Georgia Senator Sam Nunn.

Bradley combines star quality from his basketball career with a reputation as a sober policy maven able to score points on complex issues like tax reform and international debt. Like Hart, he could occupy the "big think" niche while appealing to baby boomers. Cuomo, the old baseball player, hits oratorical home runs as he mixes traditional Democratic themes with odes to pragmatic governance. He has a following among Democratic ethnics in the North. Nunn, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is an acknowledged master of national security policy. His conservatism could win him bales of white votes in the Southern contests now packed into Mega Tuesday, March 8. Among liberals, however, Nunn could meet resistance.