Kennedy Drew Less Than 60 Percent

Earlier this fall, many political pundits said that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) needed 60 percent of the vote in his re-election bid to keep his future Presidential hopes alive. But recently compiled statistics show that he apparently has just missed that mark.

A member of the state Bank Examiners--the organization compiling the official election tallies--said yesterday that the final count showed Kennedy with 1.247.084 votes, or 59.28 percent of the total.

The senior senator's Republican opponent, Walpole businessman Raymond Shamie, pulled 37.30 percent: Libertarian Howard Katz got 90 percent, and 2.52 percent of the voters in the general election declared no preference.

The showing was Kennedy's worst since his initial campaign in 1962, in which he drew 55 percent of the vote. In the three elections since then, he has never dipped below 62 percent.

Gillian Gansler, Kennedy's local press secretary, yesterday downplayed the importance of the latest numbers, saying. "His only goal all along was to win."

Eugene Eidenberg, executive director of the Democratic National Committee, concurred. "I don't think that 59 point x percent versus 60 percent is the issue. If he decides to run [for President], he'll be a strong candidate," Eidenberg said.

But Lori A. Forman, who did polling for Shamie as well as other major GOP candidates this year, said that "as a rule of thumb, an incumbent who does not pull 60 percent shows vulnerability."

In the November 2 election, Kennedy faced the biggest challenge he had ever seen in his 20-year political career. Shamie put in almost $1 million of his own money, and independent conservative political action committees more than matched that figure.

Consequently, Kennedy spent more time and money in the state than he had in previous campaigns.

The election count will be presented to the Governor's Council on Wednesday. If the figures are accepted without a challenge, the results will become official.