New Politics and Old

Successful political Candidates usually ascribe their victories to the wisdom of the voters. But not the Rev. Robert Drinan, the Jesuit who last week upset Congressman Philip Philbin, a 14-term House veteran, in the Massachusetts Democratic primary. "It was a miracle," said Drinan, who is on leave from his deanship at Boston College Law School. It was, however, something a lot more mundane that made Drinan almost a sure bet to become the first Catholic cleric in 145 years to go to Congress.

An outspoken dove, Drinan blended new technology and causes with the old techniques of ward politics. Fifty young campaign workers oversaw a house-by-house survey that reached 75% of the Democratic voters in his district that includes liberal Boston suburbs and rural upstate towns. The canvassers fed the householders' views on the issues into computers, then followed up with mailings. When an election-day rainstorm held the vote down, Drinan's staff assembled 250 student volunteers in an hour's time and put them to work driving the computer-identified faithful to the polls.

Vain Reminder. Drinan's well-honed campaign was made possible by the peace movement's decision not to hobble its effectiveness by splitting its votes among several dove candidates, as had happened in 1968. A "citizens' caucus" nominated Drinan, then threw money and volunteers behind him. Drinan, 49, conducted an expensive television campaign and was photographed with such prominent personalities as New York Mayor John Lindsay and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Philbin, 72, barely bestirred himself. He relied on the state's tradition of renominating House incumbents. He also reminded voters that, as No. 2 man on the Armed Services Committee, he attracts defense spending to the district. That approach had been effective in the past, but not against Drinan's young machine. The count was Drinan, 28,612, Philbin, 22,132.

In Boston proper, it was the hard-lining, non-campaigning candidate who won nomination for Congress. City Councilwoman Louise Day Hicks captured the Democratic designation for the seat held by House Speaker John McCormack, who is retiring. Mrs. Hicks made her name three years ago with her vociferous opposition to school busing for integration. Pre-campaign poll showed that all but 1% of the voters knew who she was. So she ran a subliminal campaign that avoided public forums and policy statements and concentrated on kaffeeklatsches.

"The hardhats," she says, "they're my kind of people." One TV station offered her seven opportunities to debate her lesser-known opponents, Black Lawyer David Nelson and State Senator John Moakley; she refused, counting on the public's memory of where she stood. She won with 39% of the vote, and may run for mayor of Boston next year.

Suburban Victory. The man who beat Mrs. Hicks in her mayoral race, Kevin White, lost his own city last week, but carried the suburbs and won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. White was in a four-way fray with State Senate President Maurice Donahue, former Lieutenant Governor Francis Bellotti and Kenneth O'Donnell, one of John Kennedy's closest political aides. O'Donnell ran a poor fourth, thereby holding to the losing pattern among former J.F.K. associates who run for office. White faces an uphill fight against incumbent Republican Francis Sargent.

Edward Kennedy was unopposed for his party's senatorial nomination. The principal interest in the Senate primary was focused on the identity of Kennedy's Republican opponent. G.O.P. voters chose Josiah Spaulding, the former Republican state chairman, over John McCarthy, onetime state commissioner of administration and finance. McCarthy had promised a no-holds-barred race that would not shy away from attacking Kennedy's conduct after the Chappaquiddick accident last summer. Spaulding says that he will campaign on Kennedy's Senate record, asserting that Kennedy has not kept his 1962 campaign promise to "do more for Massachusetts." Whatever the Republican approach, Kennedy still seems unbeatable in his home state.

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