The Coattail Elections

...In the light of this arithmetic and Reagan's high standing in the polls, it is not surprising that most Republicans running for Congress are eager to grasp his coattails...

...With minimal moaning and groaning about the perpetual straw man of American politics—"the candidate's dumb staff"—Democrats are pitching Andrew Mollison is the chief political writer for the Cox Newspapers...

...There the standard-bearer is the one with the short coat...

...Mondale has counterattacked with "you too" arguments—declaring, for example, that Reagan has "a secret plan" to hike taxes...

...The same pattern has emerged in the three other close Senate races, in Massachusetts, Texas and North Carolina (although in the Tarheel State Republican Senator Jesse Helms and his adversary, Democratic Governor James Hunt, admit that on some issues their respective standard-bearers are a mite too liberal...

...In any case, the President's staff counters complaints from the Hill by pointing to the $4 million of his unused primary war chest diverted to voter registration, contending that this helps the whole party...

...Democrats and Republicans are singing different lyrics this year...

...Instead of attempting to float above partisanship the way Jimmy Carter did in his initial White House bid, though, Mondale has sought logistical and financial support from his party's state organizations and from Democratic candidates and officeholders down the line...

...Mondale said he did not appreciate his rival's seeking to don Kennedy's mantle after he had headed "something called Democrats for Nixon" in 1960...

...To be sure, farm policy, local industries, constituency service, the Equal Rights Amendment, and personal abilities do get some attention...

...In 1982, without his presence on the ballot, they failed to strengthen their hold on the Senate and lost 26 seats in the House...

...He has made his own suggestions for cutting the domestic budget, raising defense outlays and fighting the deficit...

...Not until the very closing stages of the campaign will Reagan's handlers decide whether to move him out of the Presidential swing states...

...Small wonder that he first became genuinely indignant about Reagan when the President repeatedly tried to appropriate those stars of the Democratic pantheon...

...The situation on the Democratic side is quite different...

...Percy's campaign slogan is "The Illinois Advantage" and he responded, "That's what we call in Chicago 'clout.'" Simon, who stresses the Administration's responsibility for the state's worsening farm problems and unemployment rate, riposted: "It's clout that hasn't brought jobs to Illinois, let me add...

...Nor does he hesitate to plug Mondale regularly, insisting that he doesn't expect his stand to hurt him: "President Reagan won my congressional district in 1980 with 60 per cent of the vote, and I won it with 60 per cent of the vote...

...Some of them, moreover, do not appear to share the view that bigger GOP numbers in Congress would be an unalloyed blessing: Newly elected enthusiasts might well resist the messy policy reversals that could be needed to deal with the economy during a second term...

...and offer "unilateral and unwise concessions to the Soviet Union"—all "in the name of compassion...

...The only scheduled exceptions to focusing on this T-shaped zone—stretching from Massachusetts and New York to Iowa along Interstates 80 and 90, and from Georgia to Michigan along Interstate 75—have been events in California, Texas and Utah (with the last on his itinerary because the American Legion convened in Salt Lake City...

...He also has campaigned almost exclusively in states where his own prospects are least secure, thus far rejecting pleas from Capitol Hill that he venture more often into places where he is well ahead but promising Republican candidates require an extra boost to upset entrenched House and Senate Democrats...

...The President is head of the ticket, and I'm right next to him," gloats a shaky Senator Roger Jepsen in Iowa...

...Democrats practically everywhere, meanwhile, are extending theirs to the trailing Mondale...

...Still, a switch of a mere 45,000 votes distributed in the right places would have preserved Democratic control of the Upper House in 1980, and Reagan supporters who went on to vote the straight party line could have made the difference...

...But he avoids proposing new spending, and leaves unassailed the President's assumptions that domestic programs ought to be controlled, taxes should remain low, and the general level of defense expenditure must continue to rise...

...As the strategy shows, Reagan's advisers are principally concerned about consolidating his personal lead...

...In 1980, when Reagan's campaign trail wound through almost every state, the Republicans picked up 12 seats for a majority in the Senate, and achieved a net gain of 33 seats in the House...

...Nevertheless , most of the concerns bruited about since the conventions have been those Reagan has framed—a tribute to his mastery of television, political instincts, and skill at plucking the national heartstrings by rising above details...

...Granted, economic conditions worked for the GOP in 1980 and against it in 1982...

...They reason that an unassailable mandate will enable him to duplicatehis first-term success in cowing Congress before key votes by making direct broadcast appeals to the nation...

...Unlike Reagan and Jimmy Carter, Lone Rangers who originally ran against their parties' establishments, Mondale is a Regular...

...It was pledges from the 15 per cent of the Democratic Convention's slots set aside for elected and party officials that kept him ahead in national delegate counts as he lost primaries to Colorado's Senator Gary Hart...

...make government bigger than ever and deficits even worse...

...Next door in Illinois, embattled Republican Senator Charles Percy was acutely embarrassed because Reagan, on a recent third visit to the state, forgot to mention him...

...In almost every public appearance he has succeeded in pressing the charges put forward in his Dallas acceptance speech: The Democrats would raise taxes, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation...

...Democrats have two incentives for helping Mondale: personal salvation and loyalty...

...Senate and House races have largely replicated this fundamentally conservative dialogue because the local electronic media imitate the three networks in their concentration on the Presidency...

...After Percy observed that Reagan had labeled challenger Paul Simon an "ultraliberal," the Democratic Congressman noted that the President had simply allowed his signature to be used when "you handed him a document to sign...

...As Reagan's popularity has risen, it is noted, the proportion of registered voters who identify themselves as Republicans or leaning toward the GOP has increased, too...

...But more important is the fact that he is one of them...

...Unfortunately for Mondale, the outpouring of support from his party's current and aspiring governors, senators and representatives has failed to prevent the President from deciding the issues to be discussed in the national contest...

...cut back our defense preparedness...

...Economically distressed Iowa and Illinois are not the only places where congressional candidates have chosen to identify themselves with their national slates...

...Both men have been issued political safe-conduct passes in the racial wars dividing Cook County Democrats: Chicago's Mayor Harold Washington hopes to win friends and influence people by proving he can deliver black votes for whites, while County Chairman Eddie Vrdolyak, the leader of the City Council majority, wants to reestablish his party credentials in the wake of a covert dalliance with the Reagan-Bush forces...

...And at San Francisco, the votes of these "superdelegates" carried him over the top...

...in with gusto to help their old pal Fritz...

...Poor Fritz started out so badly that he threatened to drag many candidates down to defeat, particularly in marginal areas...

...Great as that is, its overall impact come November is surely debatable...

...One result has been the "Presidentialization" of most of the close congressional contests, said by both sides to add up to five in the Senate and some five dozen in the House...

...But from Texas to Maine, from Oregon to Georgia, they have followed the President's tune...

...A second has been that the decentralized and consequently hard to measure Democratic effort being witnessed by reporters on the road has largely eluded many of their counterparts ensconced in Washington or chained to network desks in New York, who tend to be mesmerized by the President's popularity...

...Reagan has set aside barely any time for the personal television endorsements his party's candidates desperately want...

...For moral legitimacy he has recalled his lifelong attachment to the policies of FDR, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy...

...In the process Reagan's social issues, abortion and school prayer, receive more attention than Mondale's social issues, fairness and equal rights...

...Simon declines to back away from Mondale— a sign, he says, of his consistency...

...The argument seems to be carrying some weight, for more Republican candidates are waving the GOP flag in their television commercials than have done so in years...

...Republicans around the country are reaching for Ronald Reagan's, of course, yet as they do so the President steps adroitly away...

...Given the challenger's abysmal showing in the early polls, perhaps what is especially interesting and significant is that his party has not left him twisting in the wind...

...His imposing opponent, Representative Tom Harkin^ replies, "Fmnotrun-ning against Ronald Reagan...