300 Volunteers for Harris Descend on Massachusetts

Charlie Finch felt "all the candidates were alike, all super-slick," until he heard Fred Harris speak last year. The 1973 Yale graduate was impressed enough to quit his job as an Atlanta disc jockey and become a campus organizer in Harris's presidential campaign.

Finch calls the Harris campaign a "nickel and dime operation." All organizers are unpaid, and they stay in the homes of Harris supporters while on the road.

Mark Herbert of San Francisco is Harris's Massachusetts campus coordinator. Handing out leaflets at yesterday's Harris rally in Sanders Theater, he said it was "essential" that Harris do well in the Tuesday Mass Primary.

The Only One

"Harris is the only candidate I'd support," Herbert said. He added that 300 students are travelling here from Washington, D.C. and Maryland to work for Harris this weekend.

Herbert said he doesn't know what he will do if the Harris campaign fizzles. "Maybe go back to California and work for Tom Hayden," he said. But Herbert smiled and added. "Harris won't fizzle."

Steve Smith took a year off from the University of California at Davis to work as Harris's national student coordinator.

Hard Core Support

Smith said he feels Harris has "hardcore support" that he can count on in every primary. He added that if Harris doesn't do well here, "it is on to New York."

Finch said he was somewhat disappointed by Harris's showing in New Hampshire, where the candidate captured only 11 per cent of the vote this week. "We hope for a third-place in Massachusetts," he said.

But if the Harris effort dies, Finch mused, "I don't know, maybe I'll go to law school somewhere." Then he shrugged. "What the hell, you know. I can always go back to driving a liquor truck."