Hart ‘ahead of Reagan’

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 10

Hart ‘ahead of Reagan’

NZPA-NYT Atlanta Reports of a surge of support across the nation for Senator Gary Hart since his victories in New England presidential primaries have been bolstered by a Gallup poll showing that he leads President Ronald Reagan in a national sample of voters. The new Gallup poll, taken by telephone among 719 registered voters between March 2 and March 6, confirmed what political specialists generally believe to be a very volatile situation among the electorate five days before the primaries and caucuses in nine states.

The poll found that in a trial heat for the presidency, 52 per cent said they favoured the Colorado senator to 43 per cent for Mr Reagan. When matched against Senator Hart’s two leading rivals in the poll, Mr Reagan led Walter Mondale, 50 per cent to 45 per cent, and Senator John Glenn of Ohio 52 per cent to 41.

The Gallup organisation said the poll contained a possible margin of error of 5 per cent in either direction and that a similar poll taken a few days earlier showed fast-changing opinions among voters, but

with Senator Hart rising "on a straight line.” Aides to Mr Mondale acknowledged a "tremendous momentum” building for Senator Hart in the three southern states that will hold primaries on Tuesday, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

"There is still tremendous momentum that flows from the New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont voting,” said James Johnson, the chief Mondale strategist. “I think the task for us in the next five days is to take this situation and raise the stakes in the election, to make it clear this is a very important choice, to define the different records and different traditions from which the two candidates come and to define the issue differences as clearly and aggressively as we can.

“If we can’t get that job done,” he said, the momentum for Senator Hart "has a lot of potential.” To meet that challenge, Mr Mondale in the last few days has cancelled a scheduled return to Washington and stepped up his drive across the south, speaking to farmers, trade unionists, the elderly, legislators and predominantly black audiences.