California

...The "Big Daddy" image...

...At Valley State College I heard him answer a student harangue by shouting, "bullshit...

...In 1968 Robert Kennedy had put 12 college students on his slate for the Democratic convention...

...Tactics...

...Unruh has said that per sonally he wouldn't hire Miss Davis, but he defends the autonomy of the academic process...

...After the student effort began, Brown rose dramatically in the polls, shot ahead of the better-known John Tunney, then lost the COMMENTS AND OPINIONS Senate nomination when Tunney put on a barrage of TV spots, recoiling in unctuous horror as he announced that the mild-mannered Brown believed in violence, that Brown had "voted against ending the war," etc...

...Unruh's advertising will run these denials along with the original promises...

...The Sunday before the June primaries, Reagan got flustered under direct questioning and denied on TV that he had made most of his 1966 campaign promises...

...Unruh," they greeted him, "you're screwing us.', "That's right," he said, "I'm screwing you...

...A campaign where the governor can only win by "rising above" what is happening in his state, and the challenger will make it the central issue, has got to be chock-full of "relevance...

...If Unruh does succeed in forcing a public debate, it will be the most dramatic political occasion since McCarthy debated Robert Kennedy— and not nearly so likely to fizzle...

...Unruh represents a hard-boiled and practical rejection of the war in Vietnam...

...Given the hysteria of California, a more liberal position would mean that Unruh would be com pelled to spend his whole campaign on the de fensive, in behalf of a woman who has already received far more attention than her political importance merits...

...As majority leader in Sacramento, Unruh modernized the legislature and got the state's most progressive legislation onto the books...

...The applause drowned out the boos and jeers, but many of the activists present were turned away by Unruh's inability to proclaim all-out identification...

...Seeming sincere and guileless from a distance is one of the high arts of politics, and those who master it always turn out to be pompous and sneaky when you get up close...

...Like McCarthy, Brown was neither a doer nor a leader, but his positions were the best to be found...

...But the campaign will be muddy in terms of the issues...

...In the fall, when the faculty defies the Regents, Reagan vs...

...In this they are the direct descendants of the affluent liberalism they despise...

...Unruh does not hesitate to name such people, and he will be specific about what they are doing...

...But after the assassination, Unruh added McCarthy people and Humphrey people to the delegation, hoping to make it more representative and effective at Chicago...

...No one knows for sure whether student support will in the last analysis have a positive effect in California...

...One of Unruh's weaknesses as a campaigner is his tendency to discuss these problems in overlengthy detail...

...At any rate, people in California came here in search of a better life and are deeply frustrated by rapidly worsening living conditions...

...When he urged Robert Kennedy to oppose Lyndon Johnson, he laid his political career on the line...

...OBVIOUSLY, Unruh will be the underdog in California...

...Under Reagan, California has come to the brink of disaster in education, environment, employment, and taxation...

...He still has the reputation of a political boss par excellence...

...In his salad days in Sacramento, Jess Unruh weighed 300 pounds and, as he says, "I didn't care whose arm I twisted to get things done...

...The current recession has had an intensified effect on the West Coast, which is heavily dependent on government contracts...

...Compared to Reagan's slickly "sincere" TV presentations, Unruh sometimes seems uncertain and nervous on the tube—a behind-thescenes man rather than a polished candidate...

...His success may well depend on whether the mainstream of campus activism will back him up and validate his position...

...My own contact with Unruh makes me wish he could solicit each voter one at a time...

...But when he is being that terrible thing, a politician, he is straight, credible, and working with obvious zest for the things the performers are supposed to believe in...

...But it is a pleasure to have a candidate who can do that...

...As far as TV is concerned, Unruh will openly admit that advertising is Reagan's bag...

...Yet there was little action for Unruh...

...The election of Unruh could have a strong effect on the quality of life in the country's largest state...

...In the face of this Unruh will try to present an approach of sanity and support for education, at the same time carefully distinguishing himself from the snobbery and destructiveness of the apocalyptic Left...

...Some degree of student support is necessary for the kind of campaign structure Unruh is trying to build...

...Tunney now has an excellent chance to defeat superhawk George Murphy, who is hurt by his ill health and scandalous financial connections...

...Reagan's ad ministration is a holding company for monied interests that perpetuates itself by creating and exploiting violence among students and black people...

...In Chicago, Unruh put together a delegation that included all three factions and yet held together in support of every motion for peace and party reform...

...For the following reasons: • No other victory would represent a more direct repudiation of that mixture of hawkery, racism, student-baiting, corporate patronage, and patriotic piety through which Nixon governs and Reagan out-Nixons him...

...He is planning to invest a major part of his finances in a strong organization rather than in lavish TV saturation...

...Reagan will launch another offensive against the universities...

...With the right kind of help, and luck, his fall campaign could put him face-to-face with the people of California...

...Activists who have held back from Unruh point to his position on Angela Davis, the Communist professor whom the Regents are trying to oust from UCLA...

...Reagan floundered again when pressed on his statement that if a "bloodbath" was needed on the campus, then let there be a bloodbath...

...That discrepancy will become all the more obvious, if, as Unruh believes, the state will be sunk in economic depression by election time...

...If he feels himself slipping, he will try for spectacular confrontations...

...It would be tonic for American politics to show that that sort of thing won't work anymore, that it can be defeated by political participation...

...He will concentrate instead on a daily challenge to Reagan to debate the issues, both on TV and in public appearances...

...The most practical campus development this spring was a revulsion against destructive "confrontation" tactics, and a growing acceptance of the responsibility to take the issues to the people...

...It is ironic COMMENTS AND OPINIONS that his public "image" is tinged with undertones of manipulation...

...Aside from Reagan's past popularity, Unruh must tackle some distinct liabilities...

...But this much is obvious...

...second, to bring to the polls a maximum number of black people, Mexican-Americans, and workers—in behalf of whom both his record and programs are excellent...

...Student skepticism...

...If Reagan accepts, there is evidence that he will crack in an unrehearsed pressure situation...

...To do this successfully he must attract an impressive number of volunteers—first, to show his political strength...

...The more indignantly he explained, the clearer it became that the man meant exactly what he said...

...Unruh prides himself on being able to come to the campuses...

...As an administrator, no one else would have a better chance to get the job done...

...Perhaps an ancedote will best express Unruh's quality as a leader...

...His leadership there impressed everyone who came in touch with it...

...Let him come to us," they said, and when Unruh got the message he cheerfully came to their room...

...After the assassination, Unruh again stuck his neck out by coming out (unsolicited) for Gene McCarthy, a move that antagonized both Kennedy hard-liners and ever-hopeful Humphreyites...

...But as a self-made man among the children of leisure, he simply cannot mouth the buttery phrases about "a whole new generation...

...During the campaign, however, Unruh has grown in confidence and learned to laugh off the boss image...

...On primary night, after beating Sam Yorty 2 to 1, Unruh said in his victory speech COMMENTS AND OPINIONS that he wanted "to give California back to the people"—taking it away from the oil companies, real estate interests and big money men who run Reagan...

...He even threatens to stop freewaybuilding and put in a mass transportation system...

...If the trend continues, Unruh's chances may be better than the conventional wisdom has so far recognized...

...This would leave Reagan and his antiintellectual counterparts working together to ravage the university, while Unruh joins the majority in trying to stop the war abroad, keep the peace at school, and generally attack the root causes of student and racial alienation...

...If he would learn simply to wave a V-sign, pay homage to "doing your thing," and duck into a limousine, perhaps he would not be tabbed as a "politician...

...As long as Reagan refuses (which he will do as long as he can), the refusal is an issue in itself...

...A "ministry of fear," Unruh has called it...

...The most impressive operation was in behalf of George Brown, a kind of McCarthy without charisma, who has been against the war from as early as anyone and is the only congressman never to vote a cent for war appropriations...

...Davis will pull big publicity...

...Unruh, from a Texas tenant-farm background, is running a distinctly populist campaign...

...When schools were suspended in the wake of Cambodia and Kent, California students quickly set up large-scale canvasing for peace candidates...

...He's the only politician I ever met who is completely without pretension—who can laugh at himself without losing authority...

...Later that same afternoon, Unruh stood in the California sun for hours answering student questions and arguing headon where he disagreed...

...College students, however, find nothing more relevant than moral purity...

...Whether he goes to Watts or to a Sunday interview on the tube, he will invite Reagan along and comment on his absense...

...In a stage show of public sincerity, Unruh can't compete with Nixon or Reagan...

...He might just do that—no one has yet accused him of not knowing how to use power...

...A NOTE for liberals and radicals who have decided to give politics in America yet one more "last chance," as well as for those committed for the duration, win or lose: Jess Unruh's campaign against Ronald Reagan is the most important contest we have going for us in 1970...

...the cautious Tunney did not even support the grape strike...

...Unruh has said that he would use his position as governor to influence the California congressional delegation in stronger efforts against the war...

...The Berkeley kids lost their chance to serve on convention committees, and when the delegation caucused at a hotel in Sacramento, they refused to call on Unruh...

...Knowing he can't beat Reagan as an actor, Unruh can afford to relax and be himself—practical, factual, and very much engaged—using all his experience to point up the discrepancy between Reagan's rhetoric and the reality of California...

...Face to face, Unruh registered, and the kids came away respecting him...

...I'm doing it to get us more power in Chicago...

...He has begun to believe that declaring himself a professional politician may be an asset in a state where an amateur has let things go to hell...