Carter takes control in convention

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 1

Carter takes control in convention

NZPA-Reuter New York Senator Edward Kennedy has withdrawn from the Democratic presidential race after being soundly beaten by President Car-, ter in their first test of strength at the party’s convention. ■ .

“My name will not., be placed in nomination,” Mr Kennedy said yesterday at a press conference at his hotel headquarters in New York. “President Carter’s forces have won an" im-

pressive victon' and I am a realist and I know what this result means.” The 48-year-61d youngest son of the Kennedy clan said he had telephoned, his congratulations' to President Carter, wh’o was at his Camp David mountain retreat near Washington preparing the speech he will-make after the convention formally: nominates him as the: party’s presidential candidate this evening. : •

Kennedy fans greeted the senator’s dramatic announcement with groans of “No.” Some young women supporters burst into tears.. The announcement ended an exhausting ninemonth campaign for Senator Kennedy, who led the President in the opinion polls when he entered the race, but trailed during much-.of the rest of the contest. . Senator Kennedy lost on Monday evening to Mr

Carter on a motion that would have declared the convention “open” — enabling delegates to vote for whomever they wished instead of being bound to either of the two contenders.

With almost 2000 of the 3331 delegates committed to Mr Carter, the defeat of the. “open” convention move meant the last slim chance of a party victory

for Senator Kennedy had slipped away. He was defeated on the motion by an overwhelming 1819 delegate votes to 1227, far more than even Carter aides had predicted. Senator Kennedy reached his decision to withdraw after a brief discussion with most of the Kennedy family, including his wife, Joan, two of their children, and Ethel Kennedy, widow of his brother, Senator Robert Kennedy.

Vice-President Walter Mondale, who will again be Mr Carter’s running mate, described Senator Kennedy’s move as “a class act” and said, “Democrats owe him a debt for being a ‘big man’.”

Mr Carter’s campaign chairman, Mr Robert Strauss, said the President and Senator Kennedy agreed in their telephone conversation to do the best they could in good

faith to work for Democratic principles. Senator Kennedy’s withdrawal without continuing a potentially divisive internal party struggle would make it easier for him to be a candidate in the next election, in 1984. But Senator Kennedy did not say whether he would appear with President Carter at the end of the convention tomorrow in a traditional show of party unity.