McCarthy Campaigns Gains Support at the University

The two-party system is "just not a working choice," Jeffrey Holman '78, a self-proclaimed radical and organizer of Harvard Students for Eugene McCarthy, said yesterday.

A disillusioned Carter supporter, Holman said he now feels that McCarthy's presidential platform offers "the most viable alternative to the Republican party of recession and the Democratic party of war."

Holman cited McCarthy's work-sharing proposal as a means of achieving the "participatory democracy" which he said he advocates.

A nation-wide Gallup poll published October 22 showed McCarthy with 2 per cent against Carter's 47 per cent and Ford's 41 per cent. Ten per cent of those polled were undecided.

If McCarthy pulls 5 per cent of the nation-wide presidential vote he may qualify for federal matching funds in 1980 and may set a precedent for individual independent candidates receiving such money.

Holman and the approximately six active members of the organization that began fund raising for McCarthy a week ago conceded that they are supporting a candidate who will probably not win, but said yesterday they hope to raise enough money through the selling of buttons to finance between five and eight political advertisements for McCarthy on Massachusetts radio stations.

Holman said that with a sufficient amount of publicity from the media, McCarthy could play as important a role in the 1976 presidential election as Alabama Gov. George Wallace did in 1968.

But, the northern Congressional field coordinator for the committee to elect Carter, coincidentally named Gene McCarthy, said yesterday he believes Eugene McCarthy's impact on the election will be "insignificant."

He added that he will be "extremely surprised" if McCarthy receives more than 1 per cent of the nation-wide vote, and more than between 3 to 5 per cent state-wide.