Open Call

By Laurence I. Barrett

Any presidential candidate worth the cost of a private poll knows it is never too early to visit Iowa and New Hampshire, sites of early delegate contests in 1988. Now Democrats who dream of life in the White House have one more stop on that long and winding road: a meal and a chat with a group called Impac '88.

Dollars, not delegates, are what draw candidates to this band of 40 veteran fund raisers, who have the ability to raise several million dollars by mid-1987. Some of Impac's members want to unite behind one Democrat by next spring. Even if only, say, half of the group were to stay together, Impac's endorsement would give an early edge -- financial and psychological -- to the candidate of its choice. In the large field now forming, only one prospect, New York Governor Mario Cuomo, starts 1987 with a respectable treasury. "We would love to have their backing," says a strategist for Colorado Senator Gary Hart. "Many insiders will view (Impac's decision) as the first Democratic primary of 1988." Says an aide to Delaware Senator Joe Biden, who has already assembled an informal team of campaign advisers: "This group can make or break a candidacy early in 1987."

That is the goal of one of Impac's founding members, Nathan Landow, a Bethesda, Md., real estate developer who chairs the party's 1988 convention- site-selection committee. A man fond of speaking in large sums ("We could pledge $6 million to $8 million in a minute"), Landow, 53, looks the part of a big moneyman with his gold Rolex, monogrammed shirt and perpetual tan. More important, Landow delivers: he collected $1.25 million for Walter Mondale in 1984.

Several days before Mondale's defeat, Landow and two colleagues on the Democratic candidate's 24-member finance board, Lawyer William Crotty of Daytona Beach, Fla., and Real Estate Developer Thomas Rosenberg of Chicago, discussed keeping the group together. More than fellowship was involved. Michael Berman, the Mondale campaign treasurer, recalls that they wanted more influence on political strategy. For instance, they questioned Mondale's wisdom in promising a tax increase. "This was not a group of flaming liberals," Berman observes.

Most of Mondale's financial team eventually joined Impac '88, and other party fund raisers were invited to participate. Impac's members are veteran Democratic centurions, centrist in outlook and combative in style. By shopping for a contender as a group rather than waiting to be wooed two or three at a time, Landow & Co. hope to win more clout in shaping the candidate's campaign. But what they want most of all is a winner.

Nearly all those susceptible to the 1988 itch have had at least one session with the group (Lee Iacocca declined the invitation, and Jesse Jackson, unpopular with Impac members, has been ignored). Even Mario Cuomo, who has avoided the Iowa-New Hampshire trail so far, found time for a quiet talk with Landow and a breakfast with Impac in Washington.

So far, Cuomo and Biden have made the best impressions. "They are the visceral candidates available," says Berman, "and these guys like visceral." But like other voters, Impac's members are divided. Hart, Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt and Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt have a few fans, while some of the fund raisers are reluctant to commit early. One senior party official worries about Impac's aim: "How is it going to look to have a bunch of guys trying to pick a candidate with their checkbooks?"

Both the moneymen and their supplicants seem unconcerned about that risk, at least for now. Impac plans to meet in January for three days at a Phoenix resort. "We'll have a little kibitz," Landow says. "A little time by the pool, a little golf." By April 1, he hopes to get a majority committed to a single candidate. If Landow succeeds, the chosen one will be well financed for the real primaries to come.