He would
be king
Page 5B
Run,
Jesse
Run
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Supreme Court Judge_2B
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PRIMARY 1984
UNITED STATES PRESIDENT
Hart, Mondale — their views and positions
tditors note: Jesse Jackson and his stance on
the issues can be found on page 4B in a separate
article.
As the candidates head into the final stretch
of primaries before the Democratic National Con
vention, Walter Mondale and Gary Hart are trying to
gain the momentum that will make them the one to
hold the reins of the Democratic donkey.
On Tuesday, Oregonians will get their chance
to vote for whomever they decide is the best man.
Who are these men and what do they stand for?
The Emerald has tried here to give a picture of the
men and the issues to help you when you have to
push the lever in the voting booth.
Mondale, the son of a minister, grew up in
Minnesota. His interest in politics began when he
was in college as he worked on Hubert Humphrey’s
campaign and for the Democratic Farmer-Labor Par
ty of Minnesota. In 1960, he became attorney
general of Minnesota.
In 1964, Mondale was elected to the U.S.
Senate where he attained “the most liberal record
in the Senate,” he says.
As Carter’s vice president in 1976, Mondale
was respectful, but when he disagreed with the
president, he often said so. For example, Mondale
expressed his support of the Warren Court rulings
that expand the rights of criminal defendants after
Carter criticized them.
Since the Carter-Mondale defeat in 1980, Mon
dale has been gearing up for the 1984 presidential
race, building support within the traditional
democratic party and creating a strong campaign
organization.
After the last group of primaries, Mondale
leads the race with about 1,400 delegates. He
needs 1,967 to cinch the nomination at the conven
tion in July. But none of the delegates are commit
ted, according to the national Democratic party
rules, so it could be anyone’s ball game.
And Sen. Gary Hart is hoping to be the one to
hit the home run and wind up as the Democratic
Party candidate.
Hart was raised in Ottawa, Kansas. He was
shaped intellectually by a philosophy professor at
Bethany Nazarene College in Oklahoma, Prescott
Johnson, and he decided to become a philosophy
professor himself. He abandoned that plan after a
couple years, but got his divinity degree from Yale
Divinity School anyway.
He was much influenced by John F. Kennedy.
After receiving his law degree, he served a a junior
civil rights lawyer in the Justice Department and
later worked for the Interior department.
His arrival on the national political scene came
when he wrote Sen. George McGovern a memo on
how to organize his campaign for the West and
McGovern asked him to be his campaign manager.
After that experience he ran for the U.S. Senate in
1974. As a senator, he has worked to achieve
military reform and has achieved a basically strong
liberal ratings.
Hart has presented himself as the candidate of
“new ideas.” He has about 880 delegates com
pared to the 1,967 needed to win the nomination.
What are the ideas behind the campaign?
Following is a brief summary of Hart’s and Mon
dale’s views in key areas.
Education
Mondale and Hart agree on the basic issues in
education — it is important and it ought to be sup
ported. They both blast Reagan administration
policies that cut education programs.
“We must reaffirm our commitment to quality
public education,’’ Hart said in 1983. "Our nation’s
very existence as a democracy depends on an
educated citizenry.”
Mondale would not disagree.
“We must give our children the opportunity to
succeed in life, and that starts with education,”
Mondale said in a speech to the National Associa
tion for the Education of Young Children in
November 1983. “Nothing is more important for our
future. I am absolutely committed to making this
next generation the best educated in our history.
They both endorse a build-up in the quality of
teaching in math, science and foreign languages.
Hart has sponsored a bill, the American Defense
Education Act, that would provide funds for that
purpose. Mondale has proposed creating an
“Education Corps” that would attract talented
students to teaching through incentives like forgiv
ing student loans if they teach for a given period
of time in the field.
Perhaps the greatest difference between Hart
and Mondale in education is that Mondale has a
specific plan which he has released to the public
and Hart does not. Mondale places a top priority on
education, saying it will be at the “top of his agen
da” and giving it an $11 billion price tag. Hart is a
little more lukewarm, mainly pointing to his actions
as a senator that opposed cuts proposed by the
Reagan administration.
A key portion of Mondale’s plan for education
is a "Fund for Excellence.” He would ask every
community to create a commission for excellence
in education. The Fund for Excellence monies
would be available to the communities directly to
Continued on Page 4B