For the Record

The GOP assembled in Dallas to cheering news. Less than three weeks after Democratic Convention, Ronald Reagan was leading Walter Mondale by 10 to 15 points in major polls. … A Gallup breakdown (July 30) showed Mondale-Ferraro support squishy soft. Of 42 per cent who favor them, only 19 per cent said they “strongly backed” ticket. Reagan-Bush figures: 32 out of 52 per cent who back GOP ticket are “strongly” in favor. . . . Gallup monthly rundown on how President is handling his job shows approval rating ranging from 51 to 53 per cent in last eight months. Comments Richmond Times Dispatch, “a trend of this sort in a presidential year is unprecedented in Gallup history.” . . . Why couldn’t Democrats capitalize better on their convention, particularly after stemwinders by Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson? Respected Congressional Quarterly offers a shrewd guess. Absent from the convention, it says, were “those centrists and conservative forces that are the source of party strength in many regions of the country. Nobody at this convention,” added CQ, “called for construction of the MX missile, nobody defended income-tax indexing, nobody publicly disputed the gay-rights plank in the platform. The people who used to do that, with a few notable exceptions, no longer attend Democratic conventions.” . . . Has Mrs. Ferraro helped with Italian Catholics? Not so as you’d notice in heavily Italian New Jersey and Connecticut, where post-convention, ante-disclosure-flap polls showed Reagan leading Mondale 55 to 35 in Connecticut (Hartford Courant) and 55 to 32 in New Jersey (Newark Star-Ledger). … A Darden poll of nine Southern states (July 24 to 30) shows Reagan getting 69 per cent of white vote, a lead that, says Kevin Phillips, can’t be offset by higher black registration. … In fact, Phillips now predicts a 6-to 12-point lead for Reagan on November 6, Mondale-Ferraro having failed to create “the sort of gender gap, generation gap, or registration dynamics the Democrats need to win.”

Some House races of national interest: In California’s 38th CD, former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, who was redistricted out of the House two years ago, is off and running in conservative Orange County against incumbent Jerry Patterson. Dornan’s problem: to convince District voters that Patterson (ACA 14; ADA 90) really is a liberal. . . . Incidentally, in California’s 8th CD, Eldridge Cleaver, who had been running as an independent against radical Rep. Ron Dellums, has dropped out. Money problems. . . . Polls conflict in Oklahoma’s 1st CD, where two conservatives, Frank Keating and Tom Cantrell, are battling it out for chance to run against Democrat Jim Jones, chairman of powerful House Budget Committee. All polls show Keating ahead, but figures vary substantially. Primary is next week. Jones could lose in November. . . . Watch Arkansas’s 2nd CD, where conservative Republican Judy Petty is running a Right-Left campaign against Sheriff Tommy Robinson. Mrs. Petty first came to national attention ten years ago when she took on House Speaker Wilbur Mills and came close to completing the job stripper Fanne Foxe had started a few months earlier, i.e., ending his political career. … In Senate races, West Virginia Charleston Gazette shows political newcomer John Raese running surprisingly well against Gov. Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller holds narrow 8-point lead. . . . In Michigan, it’s former space-shuttle astronaut Jack Lousma against liberal Democratic Sen. Carl Levin. Lousma beat out former Gypsy Moth Rep. Jim Dunn in close primary. Levin could be vulnerable. . . . Public-relations consultant Victor Kamber’s Politicards ’84 are now on sale. The only deck in the world, he says, “where Tip O’Neill, George Bush, Nancy Reagan, Jesse Jackson, and James Watt add up to a straight!”

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The GOP assembled in Dallas to cheering news. Less than three weeks after Democratic Convention, Ronald Reagan was leading Walter Mondale by 10 to 15 points in major polls. … A Gallup breakdown (July 30) showed Mondale-Ferraro support squishy soft. Of 42 per cent who favor them, only 19 per cent said they “strongly backed” ticket. Reagan-Bush figures: 32 out of 52 per cent who back GOP ticket are “strongly” in favor. . . . Gallup monthly rundown on how President is handling his job shows approval rating ranging from 51 to 53 per cent in last eight months. Comments Richmond Times Dispatch, “a trend of this sort in a presidential year is unprecedented in Gallup history.” . . . Why couldn’t Democrats capitalize better on their convention, particularly after stemwinders by Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson? Respected Congressional Quarterly offers a shrewd guess. Absent from the convention, it says, were “those centrists and conservative forces that are the source of party strength in many regions of the country. Nobody at this convention,” added CQ, “called for construction of the MX missile, nobody defended income-tax indexing, nobody publicly disputed the gay-rights plank in the platform. The people who used to do that, with a few notable exceptions, no longer attend Democratic conventions.” . . . Has Mrs. Ferraro helped with Italian Catholics? Not so as you’d notice in heavily Italian New Jersey and Connecticut, where post-convention, ante-disclosure-flap polls showed Reagan leading Mondale 55 to 35 in Connecticut (Hartford Courant) and 55 to 32 in New Jersey (Newark Star-Ledger). … A Darden poll of nine Southern states (July 24 to 30) shows Reagan getting 69 per cent of white vote, a lead that, says Kevin Phillips, can’t be offset by higher black registration. … In fact, Phillips now predicts a 6-to 12-point lead for Reagan on November 6, Mondale-Ferraro having failed to create “the sort of gender gap, generation gap, or registration dynamics the Democrats need to win.”

Some House races of national interest: In California’s 38th CD, former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, who was redistricted out of the House two years ago, is off and running in conservative Orange County against incumbent Jerry Patterson. Dornan’s problem: to convince District voters that Patterson (ACA 14; ADA 90) really is a liberal. . . . Incidentally, in California’s 8th CD, Eldridge Cleaver, who had been running as an independent against radical Rep. Ron Dellums, has dropped out. Money problems. . . . Polls conflict in Oklahoma’s 1st CD, where two conservatives, Frank Keating and Tom Cantrell, are battling it out for chance to run against Democrat Jim Jones, chairman of powerful House Budget Committee. All polls show Keating ahead, but figures vary substantially. Primary is next week. Jones could lose in November. . . . Watch Arkansas’s 2nd CD, where conservative Republican Judy Petty is running a Right-Left campaign against Sheriff Tommy Robinson. Mrs. Petty first came to national attention ten years ago when she took on House Speaker Wilbur Mills and came close to completing the job stripper Fanne Foxe had started a few months earlier, i.e., ending his political career. … In Senate races, West Virginia Charleston Gazette shows political newcomer John Raese running surprisingly well against Gov. Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller holds narrow 8-point lead. . . . In Michigan, it’s former space-shuttle astronaut Jack Lousma against liberal Democratic Sen. Carl Levin. Lousma beat out former Gypsy Moth Rep. Jim Dunn in close primary. Levin could be vulnerable. . . . Public-relations consultant Victor Kamber’s Politicards ’84 are now on sale. The only deck in the world, he says, “where Tip O’Neill, George Bush, Nancy Reagan, Jesse Jackson, and James Watt add up to a straight!”