Rejoining the Fray

"I knew we would have to work some double magic to have John Anderson pull ahead of both Reagan and Carter," says Patrick F. Lucey of his 1980 stint as the National Unity Party's Vice Presidential candidate, "but working for him was the only honest thing I could do."

Lucey, the former governor of Wisconsin and ambassador to Mexico until 1979, has spent many years fighting uphill battles for his beliefs. A lifelong Democrat--he got into a schoolyard fight at age 10 for his support of Al Smith--Lucey worked to build up Wisconsin's Democratic party in the '50s, a time when the state was solidly Republican. He was an advisor to the presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy '40 and Robert Kennedy '48, served as Eugene McCarthy's floor manager at the Chicago convention of 1968, and held the post of deputy campaign manager for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 in the last presidential race.

Today, after a few years' leave from politics to concentrate on his real estate business, Lucey is back in the fray. A fellow at the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, he is also supporting former Senator-Walter F. Mondale's presidential bid and trying to develop "alternative" American policy positions for Central America.

"We're really at open war" in the area, he says. "There's nothing covert about it when the CIA takes public credit for blowing up airport facilities in Nicaragua."

Lucey, who is currently auditing two Harvard courses on Latin America history and politics, says he is hoping to set up a "four-pronged" forum at the K-School for debate between representatives of El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Reagan Administration, and the Democratic Party.

In 1977 Lucey stepped down as the governor of Wisconsin to serve as President Carter's ambassador to Mexico. Though he was initially criticized for not spending enough time meeting with American businessmen there ("I didn't throw too many cocktail parties for corporate representatives." Lucey explains), he was successful in negotiating an important natural gas agreement with the Mexican government in 1979.

Having fulfilled what he saw as his "specific task." Lucey stepped down as ambassador, and soon signed up as a key strategist in Kennedy's presidential campaign. "My resignation came coincidentally at the time Ted was ready to launch his bid," he says. "Given that alternative, it wasn't difficult to see what I wanted to do next."

But Lucey says it was difficult for Kennedy "to get a fair hearing from the press during the hostage crisis. Jimmy was staying in the Rose Garden and looking very Presidential," he adds. After Kennedy's concession on the eve of the Democratic Convention. Lucey walked out of the forum, to avoid feeling committed to support the Democratic nominee.

"Carter's had been a failed presidency," he says, "and I felt that four years more of him would not be good for the country."

When he got back to his home in Wisconsin, Lucey says, there were messages all over to call John Anderson. Soon afterwards he accepted a slot on the National Unity Party's ticket. The ten weeks on the campaign trail for Anderson were "an invigorating experience," he says. "I never campaigned harder in my life, though I knew there was no uncertainty about the outcome."

But despite his "bolt" from the Democratic Party in 1980. Lucey says that this time he's sticking with the party "all the way." "There's not the same crying need for a third alternative this year," he says. And although he maintains that third parties are "an escape valve that ought to be readily available." Lucey says he's tried to persuade Anderson not to make a second effort in '84.

"It's difficult enough to beat an incumbent President." Lucey explains. "This time an Anderson effort may cause mischief that could cost the Democrats the Presidency."

And that, he says, is a risk he's not willing to take. "It's important for the country and for humanity that this Administration be replaced," Lucey adds.