We’re dead even: Mondale

Press, 24 July 1984, Page 10

We’re dead even: Mondale

NZPA-NYT Grand Marais, Minnesota Walter Mondale, citing the results of a new poll, said that he believed he and President Ronald Reagan were “dead even” at the start of the Presidential campaign. A poll conducted for “Newsweek” by the Gallup organisation and released yesterday showed Mr Mondale with 48 per cent and Mr Reagan with 46 per cent. The poll was conducted as the Democratic national convention was concluding last week. A spokesman for the Reagan re-election campaign said that he was sceptical about the poll’s findings. A similar poll,

taken before the convention, had the Democratic nominee trailing Mr Reagan by about six percentage points. In the latest poll, 6 per cent of those surveyed supported other candidates or were undecided. The survey of 1006 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. Forty-five per cent of those surveyed said that what they saw or read about the Democratic convention had made them more likely to vote Democratic, and 29 per cent said that they were now less likely to do so. Fifty-two per cent said that the nomination of Geraldine Ferraro, of New York, to the ticket had

made them more likely to vote Democratic, while 26 per cent said that they were now less likely to do so. Relaxing at a fishing resort in Minnesota, Mr Mondale said yesterday that he believed the rise in popularity could be attributed to the acceptance by Americans of the “wisdom” of his “message” and the selection of Ms Ferraro as his running mate. “She’s a very strong person. She knows what she is doing, she understands the issues, she is clear and direct and it’s something the American people want to do,” he said. In Washington, a Reagan campaign official, said that recent polls had shown a

swelling of support for the Democratic ticket, especially since the Democratic convention last week in San Francisco. “You always have to expect that after a three-day television commercial for a party the nominee is going to have a surge of five to eight points,” he said. Reagan-Bush ’B4 officials expected a similar swing towards Mr Reagan after the Republican national convention in Dallas next month. Mr Mondale plans to spend the next week in virtual seclusion, fishing and relaxing in waters in northern Minnesota on the United States-Canada border.