Crucial Texas win for Mr Mondale

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 6

Crucial Texas win for Mr Mondale

NZPA-Reuter Austin, Texas

Mr Walter Mondale won a crucial presidential preference vote in Texas yesterday and swept further ahead of the struggling Mr Gary Hart in the race to become the Democratic party’s candidate in November.

A Black leader, Rev. Jesse Jackson, took some of the lustre off the former Vice-President’s big night, trouncing him in a simultaneous Louisiana primary and adding stature to his own crusade for minority race political power. But Texas was the big prize with 169 delegates to the Democratic nominating convention at stake. Early returns showed Mr Mondale comfortably ahead in the contest. This could reduce Mr Hart’s candidacy to desperate straits. CBS News projected Mr Mondale as the winner as official returns, slow to arrive under the cumbersome caucus system, gave him 56 per cent of the vote with 14

per cent counted. Mr Hart stood at 27 per cent, Mr Jackson had nine and the rest was uncommitted. Mr Hart’s Texas campaign chief, Mr Martin Frost, conceded defeat, saying, “Mondale will win, there’s no doubt about that.”

“It’s one of the biggest wins we’ve had in the nominating process,” Mr Mondale said at a campaign stop in Ohio, which will hold the next major primary on Wednesday. For Mr Hart, a loss in Ohio could push his “new ideas” candidacy to the brink of elimination in the battle between opposition Democrats seeking to face the Republican President, Mr Ronald Reagan, in November.

Mr Hart has won nothing but small-scale contests since his last major triumph in Connecticut on March 27, while Mr Mondale has scored in the states with large numbers of delegates — Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania. Before yesterday’s bal-

lots, unofficial estimates gave Mxf Mondale 1201 of the 1967 delegates needed to win the nomination at the party’s July convention. Mr Hart had 661, Mr Jackson 201 and 330 were uncommitted.

Texas’ cumbersome caucus system could delay definitive vote totals for a day or more, but Mr Mondale clearly will win most of the 169 delegates and push his total for the year to about two-thirds of the number needed for nomination.

Mr Hart seemed sure to score a consolation caucus vote win tomorrow in his home state of Colorado, which has 43 delegates. But the real and perhaps final test for Mr Hart will be on Wednesday in Ohio, North Carolina, Maryland and Indiana where 368 delegates are at stake and he is the underdog in almost all contests.

The only silver lining for Mr Hart yesterday was Mr Mondale’s embarrassment, and Mr Jackson’s personal triumph, in Louisiana.

Nearly complete returns in the southern state showed Mr Jackson with 42 per cent to 27 for Mr Hart and 24 for Mr Mondale.

The surprising third-place finish was a rarity for Mr Mondale.

The victory was Mr Jackson’s second primary win of the year and second in four days. He won in predominantly black Washington, D.C., last Wednesday and the same factor, a large turn-out by blacks, gave him the upset win in Louisiana as well. The outcome added leverage to Mr Jackson’s effort to negotiate with Democratic leaders for reforms in party rules that he considers racially discriminatory. Voter apathy and light turn-outs marked both contests. This worked to Mr Jackson’s advantage in Louisiana, where the dropoff was mostly in white areas, but it helped Mr Mondale in Texas, where his strong organisation brought out the faithful.