Correspondents' Correspondence Early Birds
POKORNY, BRAD
Correspondents' corresgonaence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Early Birds New Hampshire—The presidential campaign used...
...In limbering up for next February's primary, they have been jostling each other, glad-handing the nearly one million residents of this state, making speeches, and scoring media points...
...Almost every candidate or potential candidate—including, of course, the President—has been here at least once in the last six months...
...He returned to write a series that quoted some 40 anonymous sources saying Crane was often a heavy drinker and, in the words of one unnamed informant, was "always hustling a broad" at Young Republican functions...
...Because Jimmy Carter proved that good organization and early advance work can bring victory to a political unknown, the 1980 aspirants have been out early—willing to brave two winters of New Hampshire cold instead of one...
...The GOP pack has also been (locking to fund-raising dinners, an easy way for them to gain exposure—and for state Republicans to fill drained campaign coffers...
...While relative unknowns like Crane are organizing from the bottom up, the name Republicans have been working from the top down...
...Observers generally agree that so far Bush has amassed the most impressive list of names for his soon-to-be announced campaign committee, a group likely to be headed by New Hampshire's popular Republican congressman, James C. Cleveland...
...In fact, the relatively unknown and very conservative Crane has adopted the sobriquet "The Early Bird" to underline his presidential campaign strategy...
...On April 25 he held a town meeting in Portsmouth, where he warned of energy shortages, and then went on to Manchester to speak at a Democratic fund-raiser before flying to New York City...
...He has since said as little as possible concerning the attacks...
...The man who seems most intent on copying the Carter formula, though, is Congressman Philip M. Crane (R.-111...
...The reporter, Jonathan Prestage, told me Loeb did not tell him to gel Crane, but rather informed him of a letter that exposed the Congressman as a drinker and womanizer...
...In an article carried in a small frontpage box that ran alongside the first Loeb barrage in early March, Crane denied the charges leveled against him...
...Nevertheless, he stands "HX1 per cent" behind his story...
...Crane staffers, however, believe that Loeb's ire has boomeranged, and that their candidate will benefit from a substantial sympathy vote in the February primary...
...Not surprisingly, Crane has drawn considerable attention—not all of it favorable...
...Vet at the first banquet—held last December to help erase the debt of the state's newly elected senator, Gordon Humphrey—Dole stole the show from the likes of Baker, Crane, New York's Representative Jack Kemp, and Utah's Senator Orrin Hatch (who was stalking for Reagan) by presenting Humphrey with $26,(XX) in checks and cash draw n from his own personal political well...
...Correspondents' corresgonaence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Early Birds New Hampshire—The presidential campaign used to start a year before the election, but an obscure peanut farmer from Georgia changed all that...
...Gallen won, with the help of $25,000 in contributions solicited through the Democratic National Committee...
...Carter and White House press secretary Jody Powell...
...I think there's nothing to begained by commenting on them," is his standard reply...
...Former Texas Governor John Connally...
...The state's largest daily, the Manchester Union-Leader—run by the ultraconservative and pro-Reagan William Loeb—dispatched a man to Washington several months ago to dig up "background" on Crane's personal life...
...His tough-talking speech on foreign policy and economics gained him the only standing ovation accorded any of the candidates that evening...
...Dole, who has attended both major dinners given so far, once quipped that line-'em-up speaking engagements are little more than "talent shows...
...Last month, at a $100-a-plate affair that drew seven candidates—Baker, Bush, Crane, Connalh, and Hatch (again Reagan's best man), as well as ihe perennial Harold St.issen and Illinois' Senator John Anderson—Connallv took home the popularity prize...
...Brown sheepishly decided not to appear before the committee, and spent the rest of that chilly Monday evening in a nearby Concord bar, trying to patch things up with the local politicians...
...On the Democratic side, Carter has paid the most attention to New Hampshire and for the time being seems in command...
...Senator Minority Leader Howard Baker, Kansas Senator Robert Dole, and former CIA Director George Bush have all been here about a half-dozen times in recent months to court the support of state GOP leaders...
...The Gallen investment may have already paid off for Carter...
...Last fall, he sent wife Rosalynn and son Chip to campaign for Hugh Gallen, the Democratic gubernatorial challenger...
...Prestage admitted he never saw the letter, and that his deadline was suddenly advanced by several days so publication could coincide with Crane's arrival in the state to address the Legislature...
...For there have been rumors that a coalition of labor and liberal Democrats is planning a "Dump Carter" movement...
...Early in April, theGovernorof California, Jerry Brown, a possible contender, was badly burned when he showed up in New Hampshire at the invitation of state GOP leaders to testify for a balanced Federal budget amendment...
...Berad Pokorny...
...Carter has demonstrated the importance of an early start—so it's a fair bet that if such an organization does materialize, it will surface soon in this small yet important state...
...Upon his arrival, Brown was invited to the Governor's office and told—in front of about 50 reporters—that his testimony would embarrass Gallen and the state Democratic Party...
...But the President, despite his apparent early lead and the problems of his rivals, could have troubles of his own here...
...The money came, according to a Gallen aide, after the need was expressed to Mrs...
...he has made over 20 visits, hitting the local coffee klatch and Rotary luncheon circuit heavily, in the effort to scrape up grassroots support...
...At one point, someone put a quarter in the jukebox and punched in a recording by Brown's friend, Linda Ronstadt, singing "When Will [Be Loved...
Vol. 62 • May 1979 • No. 10
