The Strategy for Campaign '74

There has been little doubt for months that the consuming issue of the 1974 mid-term vote will be Watergate. But with Election Day just seven months away, candidates and leaders of both parties are increasingly realizing that much of the campaign may unfold against more than just a scandal: it could well coincide with the first presidential impeachment proceeding in more than a century.

Most Democrats are baffled about how best to exploit this unique circumstance. They worry about whether their party's most effective course is to try to make capital out of the possible impeachment proceedings or make a show of ignoring it under the pretense of solemn nonpartisanship. Lately, Democratic Chairman Robert Strauss has been trying a bit of both strategies.

On the one hand, Strauss was notably impressed that the Democrats' most spectacular victory in the recent round of special congressional elections was scored by the candidate who most strongly made Watergate an issue and advocated impeachment--Richard VanderVeen, winner of the Michigan House seat that was occupied by Vice President Gerald Ford for 25 years.

As a result of these Democratic successes, Strauss has advised candidates to harden their attacks on President Nixon for "lack of leadership, inflation, unemployment--everything." These criticisms, of course, carry the hard-line message that the U.S.'s real problem is a President crippled by Watergate, and that the nation would be better off if Nixon left office, whether by resignation or impeachment.

On the other hand, Strauss has given strict orders that not a single reference to the possibility of impeachment be made on a national fund-raising telethon for the Democrats scheduled for June 30. Figuring that the House might well be near (or just beyond) an impeachment vote at that point, Strauss says: "It would be bad politics to talk about impeachment when the House may be ready for a vote." Presumably, Strauss is concerned that open talk about impeachment by the opposition party would be considered in bad taste, and might create a sympathy backlash for Republican candidates.

A strategy of silence raises the possibility that some of the '74 campaign might be conducted with both incumbent Democrats and Republicans pleading that as potential jurors in the President's case, they are not free to discuss it--or perhaps even to spend time campaigning. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield held last week that any trial in the upper chamber should take precedence over electioneering altogether. Should the House vote for impeachment, said Mansfield, "I would expect that the people would want their Senators back in Washington doing their job."

Stay Away. Republican candidates seem to be primarily concerned with making sure that Nixon stays away from their campaigns--the farther the better. The Associated Press questioned the eleven G.O.P. Senators who are running for reelection, and only one said that he planned to ask the President for campaign help. He was Oklahoma's Henry Bellmon, who served as a national campaign chairman for Nixon in 1968. Oregon's Bob Packwood said that "most people would now regard close association with the Administration as the kiss of death."

Both parties are running into trouble raising campaign funds through expensive dinner parties. Last week the annual Republican affair, which Nixon attended, took in only about $650,000, down by nearly a third from last year. A similar Democratic bash netted an equally disappointing $600,000. Since campaign funds from many special-interest groups seem to be as flush as ever, the reason behind the low turnout for both parties' public events may simply be that many potential donors no longer want to be seen at political rallies. That alone is sadly eloquent testimony to Watergate's impact on U.S. politics.

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