United States, 1988; Ferraro, Geraldine; Hart, Gary;
Jackson, Jesse; Liberalism in U.S. politics; Mondale,
Walter; Reagan, Ronald; Reagan Democrats; Rea-
gan Revolution.
Elections in the United States,
1988
The Event American politicians run for office
Date November 8, 1988
Riding on the tide of outgoing president Ronald Reagan’s
legacy, and conducting a cutthroat campaign, Vice Presi-
dent George H. W. Bush led the Republican Party to an un-
expectedly large margin of victor y over Democratic candi-
date Michael Dukakis. However, Democratic candidates for
Congress fared much better, and their party actually in-
creased its numerical margin of control in both houses.
In the spring of 1987, the Democrats believed that
there was reason for optimism for the following year.
President Ronald Reagan, though still immensely
popular with the American public, was presiding
over a somewhat tarnished administration. The Iran--
Contra affair had sent shockwaves through Washing-
ton; economic prosperity appeared to be threat-
ened; and, as a two-term president, Reagan was
barred from running again. None of the specula-
tive successors—chief among them, Vice President
George H. W. Bush, Senator Bob Dole, former Dela-
ware governor Pete du Pont, or Congressman Jack
Kemp—had the affability, ease when dealing with
the public, and sheer charismatic presence of the
“Great Communicator.”
The front-runner for the Democratic Party nomi-
nation, Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, had many of
these “Reaganesque” qualities, and he consciously
sought to tap into the “Camelot” aura of the Ken-
nedys. He had presented himself to the voters in
1984 as a fresh wind of change, as opposed to the
New Deal liberalism of former vice president Walter
Mondale and other opponents. Though Hart had
fallen shy of capturing the Democratic nomination,
a number of political pundits had believed that he
could have given Reagan a run for his money had he
been, rather than Walter Mondale, able to secure
the party’s nomination in 1984. In the spring of
1987, probably pitted against Bush (certainly a lesser
opponent than Reagan), Hart was even projected as
the most likely individual to become the forty-first
president. As expected, Hart declared his candidacy
in April. His prospects for the presidency would
change dramatically the following month.
Rumors of Hart’s marital infidelity had long been
circulating, and on May 3, 1987, theMiami Herald
broke a story about a current affair he was allegedly
having. A few days later, the newspaper published
photographs of Hart on board the yachtMonkey
Businesswith an attractive twenty-nine-year-old
named Donna Rice seated on his lap. His support
rapidly plunging, Hart withdrew from the running
on May 8. The Donna Rice scandal ended whatever
chances he had. Even though he put himself back in
contention in December, he polled dismally in the
New Hampshire primary. Unable to overcome the
onus he had placed on himself, Hart permanently
quit the field on March 8, 1988.Battle of the “Seven Dwarfs” Hart’s abrupt down-
fall left a crowded field of (except for one) little-
known and nondescript rivals who would be sardoni-
cally labeled the “seven dwarfs” by the news media:
Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, former
Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt, Senator Paul Si-
mon from Illinois, Congressman Dick Gephardt
from Missouri, Senator Joe Biden from Delaware,
Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, and the Reverend
Jesse Jackson. Many people found it difficult to see
what rationale the media employed for placing the
dynamic African American civil rights leader Jack-
son in this “seven dwarfs” grouping. Popular New
York governor Mario Cuomo, whose name was con-
stantly bandied around as a dark horse candidate,
steadfastly refused to enter the race. Biden suffered
a self-inflicted wound in the early going when it was
alleged that he had plagiarized part of a speech by
British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. In his de-
fense, Biden’s supporters stated that he had merely
done nothing more than inadvertently neglect to
credit Kinnock on this particular occasion. However,
Dukakis campaign strategist John Sasso and cohort
Paul Tully spliced together a devastatingly embar-
rassing video of the incident and then saw that this
was leaked to the press. Thus, the damage done to
Biden’s campaign proved irreparable, and the Dela-
ware senator stepped down. When the source of
the video was ultimately revealed (the Gephardt
camp had originally drawn the most suspicion),
Dukakis was forced to drop Sasso and Tully from
his campaign staff. (Sasso would quietly return to330 Elections in the United States, 1988 The Eighties in America