Capital victory brightens black leader’s campaign

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 10

Capital victory brightens black leader’s campaign

NZPA-Reuter Washington The black civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, won his first United States primary ballot yesterday but Walter Mondale widened his lead in the Democratic Presidential nomination race with another and bigger victory of his own. As expected, Mr Jackson beat Mr Mondale and Senator Gary Hart in the primary in mainly black Washington D.C., adding lustre and a sweet taste of victory to his minority-rights campaign. Voting officials said that Mr Jackson was taking about 63 per cent of the vote in the capital to about 30 per cent for Mr Mondale and 7 per cent for Mr Hart. But the real fight for the Democratic Party’s nomination remained a Hart-Mon-dale affair, and Mr Mondale pulled further ahead with a solid victory in Tennessee’s primary. With 65 per cent of the vote in, he had 40 per cent compared with 30 per cent for Mr Hart, and an unusually large 26 per cent for Mr Jackson — who brought out a strong black vote once again and won the city of Memphis, where his mentor, the Rev. Martin Luther

King, was assassinated in 1968. The votes added up to a boost for Mr Mondale, prestige for Mr Jackson, and another blow for Mr Hart’s fading campaign. The primary season is entering its final month and Mr Mondale is far ahead. Mr Hart had hoped to start on a come-back in Tennessee and build momentum before the crucial Texas party caucus votes on Sunday. The pressure is now all the more intense on Mr Hart to win or come a very strong second in Texas, where 169 delegates will be

at stake and Mr Mondale leads in public opinion polls. The Tennessee results indicated that Mr Hart has not yet found the formula for stopping Mr Mondale. Mr Hart visited Tennessee repeatedly before the primary and spent SUS2OO,OOO ($NZ306,000) on a television advertising blitz attacking Mr Mondale as an outmoded liberal indebted to party and trade union bosses and saddled with the failures of the former President Jimmy Carter’s Administration. But Tennesseean political experts said that the former Vice-President had been well served once again by his projection of mature experience and the help of organised labour. While not numerous in Tennessee, trade unionists are politically active. Mr Jackson savoured his first primary election success and moved into a new role as party peace-maker, meeting various party and labour leaders whom he had criticised to mend fences and appeal for unity against President Ronald Reagan. Although he had won a party caucus vote in South Carolina, yesterday’s victory was his first in a popular election.