Sorensen Recruits for Hart Campaign

Nearly 20 years after he first came to Harvard to author a tribute to his slain mentor, former Kennedy aide Theodone C. Sorensen was back on campus yesterday working for his protege. Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Gary Hart (D-Codo.)

After leaving the White House in February of 1964. Sorensen went to the comparative quiet of Leverett House to write his memories on the presidency of John F. Kennedy 40, Resuming his New York law practice. Soirensen stayed out of the political limelight until he became involved in the McGovern campaign in 1972.

There he became impressed with McGoven's 35-year-old campaign manager, Gary Hart, who was to be elected Senator from Colorado two year later.

On a campaign swing through New England campuses, the former Kennedy speechwriter stopped yesterday at the Law School for brief lunch meeting to recruit students for the Hart campaign, which he is chairing.

In an interview after the meeting. Sorensen recalled his long-standing association with Hart. "When President Carter was foolish enough to nominate me to be head of the CIA in 1977. Gary was one of the few members of the Senate Intelligence Committee to be friendly to me"

Running for office has changed significantly since the 1960 election, said the veteran of three Presidential campaigns, who coached Kennedy through the first nationally televised debate between Presidential candidates.

"Today the 32 primaries are far more important, because they make a greater impression with grass-foots voters."

The 1960 elections, he recalled, "had only a small handful of primaries." "Then, we still had to worry about swinging the votes of [local] party leaders," he adds.

Even in the 1960 election, television was "exceedingly important," said Sorenien. He added however, that while in 1960 television determined the outcome of the general election, the electronic media now plays a crucial role in the race for nomination as well.

Sorensen predicted that the added importance of television coverage would probably help Hart's chances of heating the Democratic frontrunners. He explained that TV has generally been a boon to dark horse candidates citing McGovern's upset of then Sen Edmand Muskie (D-Mc) in the 1972 primaries and Jimmy Carter's emergence from obscurity in 1976.

Despite polls that show Mart trailing in the race, Sorensen said he is optimistic about Hart's chances for the Democratic nomination: "Not one delegate has been chosen yet," he said.

Sorensen predicted that before long one of the two leading candidates at the time will "knock out the other." "If Hart survives, he will be invited by the media [into the front of the race]," he added.

Sorensen does not see the McGovern candidacy as posing any threat to the Hart campaign "George McGovern is a great friend, but I don't think he has any hope of winning the nomination," he said

Nor does he view Hart's former association with McGovern as a problem.Rather, Sorensen claimed, McGovern's entrance into the field is a boon for the Hart campaign, because it proves that Hart "is not simply a McGovern stand-in, that he is his own man"

Sorensen last left Harvard with a draft of his Kennedy White House memories. He returned yesterday with plans for a new work on the Presidency Sorensen describes the book, to be published next January as "not a historical analysis but a proposal for the next President--President Hart."