Hot to Trot on the Trail

The word last week was that Bayh was broke, had poured all he had into a confrontation with Henry Jackson in New York on April 6, and so would finish out of the money in Massachusetts. Bayh has spent $38,000 on T.V. in Boston, less than anyone else except Shriver and anti-abortion candidate Ellen McCormack, but he does have strong labor support. Whether that support together with whatever liberals he can pull out of the suburbs will be enough to overtake Udall is another matter entirely.

Jackson has used the "efficient government" line, too; all the liberal Democrats, with Harris going the farthest, share Bayh's orientation toward jobs. Bayh is especially good on women's rights--he sponsored the ERA in the Senate--and even though he personally opposes abortion, he would not legislate against it. Bayh's major claim to fame, however, is his fight against the Haynesworth and Carswell nominations to the Supreme Court. Andrew Kopkind of the Real Paper says that the real credit for defeating those nominations, however, should go to civil rights activist Marian Edelman, who put a lobbying coalition together in which Bayh was only the Senate spokesman. In any case, the liberals who support Udall and Shriver would be happy to settle for Bayh, but problems in Bayh's organization have allowed Udall, by virtue of his finish ahead of Bayh in New Hampshire, to slip into the role of liberal frontrunner.

Bayh's basic problem is that no one believes any longer that the presidency is the exclusive property of the Gentlemen's Club known as the U.S. Senate. He's personable, quick to answer questions, and has the brightest baby-blue eyes this side of the cradle. In a so-called "year of the non-politician," Bayh says, "I'm proud to be a politician--and I'm not against Big Government--I just want it to be more efficient."