Harkin in Trouble in New Hampshire

SALEM, N.H.--As Iowa voters fill homes, schools and churches to take part in their state's quadrennial caucuses tonight, they are expected to give overwhelming support to one man: favorite son Sen. Tom Harkin (D.-Iowa).

But here in New Hampshire, one of the most conservative states in the union, Harkin has had a more difficult time. The man who calls himself "the only real Democrat in the race" for the presidency is shown by the polls to have a dismal rate of support among party voters--about 10 percent.

Still, Harkin supporters in New Hampshire appear to be solidly behind the Iowan, citing his unabashed liberalism.

"The others are closet Republicans," said dyed-in-the-wool Harkin supporter Tom M. Record, a volunteer in the Harkin New Hampshire campaign. "They're frauds. They're phonies. They're failures."

Record, 51, commutes from Worcester, Mass. to Harkin's Salem field office. Like many of the candidate's supporters, the father of three sees the election as reminiscent of 1932's.

"He's a Franklin Delano Roosevelt," Record said, "a demand-side Democrat, not a fascist Republican."

And as supporters compare Tom Harkin to FDR, they also equate his economic proposals with those of the New Deal.

Field Office Coordinator David Brown encouraged that notion as he met with students from Boston-area colleges who had volunteered to canvass Salem neighborhoods.

"I want you to think CCC, FDR, WPA," Brown said, referring to the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, two programs designed by Roosevelt to battle the depression.

"Older people have a real attachment to that," he added.

Surrounded by Harkin campaign signs--91 by one count--the canvassers said they were taking those ideas to heart.

"I like it when he says the best social policy is a job," said Angel Taveras '92, who made the one-hour trip with students from Tufts University, Wellesley College and Emerson College.

The invocation of Depression-era politics may be well-advised. After all, Roosevelt carried New Hampshire for four general elections in a period of remarkable success for the Democratic party.

Indeed, with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 landslide, the Democrats have not captured New Hampshire's electoral votes since Roosevelt.

But regardless of whether the Democrats take New Hampshire in '92, indications here are that Tom Harkin is unlikely to be the party's candidate. The bulk of the state's Democratic voters say they are skeptical of the Iowan's politics.

"I think he was fine for the '40s and '50s but he's not aware of the economic realities of the world," said Art I. Grand, a 40-year-old Nashua resident.

Grand, who supports former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, spoke in an interview before a Nashua town meeting yesterday. Compared to Tsongas, Grand said, Harkin--and the other Democrats--is "not nearly as smart."

"He's 20 or 30 years behind the times," Grand said.

Others, however, say that Harkin's ideas are not necessarily bad but that his campaign has been ineffective.

"He's had some ideas, but somehow he falls short," said brewery worker David Hudon, 51, a life-long New Hampshire resident. "He just doesn't have any momentum."

And one Harkin supporter, attending a conference in Manchester on Saturday, saw the problem in much the same way.

"He'd be a great president, [but] he's a terrible campaigner," said Bob Egbert, 48, of Manchester. "He can't campaign worth shit."

Even so, Harkin fans demonstrate a depth of support uncommon in other Democratic voters, many of whom seem hesitant in their commitment to candidates.

Egbert, who teaches political science at Plymouth State College, complains that unabashed liberalism is exactly what the Democrats need.

"The rest are trying to out-Reagan Reagan andout-Bush Bush," Egbert said.

And Record, the ardent Salem campaigner, calledHarkin the "most noble, patriotic" candidate.

"It's time that this need for patriotism isfulfilled," Record said.

Tomorrow: The effect of religion on NewHampshire voters.

"The rest are trying to out-Reagan Reagan andout-Bush Bush," Egbert said.

And Record, the ardent Salem campaigner, calledHarkin the "most noble, patriotic" candidate.

"It's time that this need for patriotism isfulfilled," Record said.

Tomorrow: The effect of religion on NewHampshire voters.