If a candidate`s electability is in the eye of the beholder, then Paul Tsongas` main task is to be seen as more than a regional candidate.
That`s clear from a sampling of Democrats in the delegate-rich states of Illinois, Georgia, Texas and California.
Illinois Democratic Party Chairman Gary LaPaille acknowledged that like many in the party he was skeptical about Tsongas until last week`s New Hampshire primary.
LaPaille remembered the former Massachusetts senator telling a small group in Chicago last summer, when President Bush was riding high in the polls, that the sour economy would affect the 1992 presidential campaign.
”I thought he was coming from outer space too,” LaPaille said, ”but it would appear that point is right on the target, and he has made a lot of people change their minds.”
State Sen. Penny Severns of Decatur, who supports Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, said that in her eastern Illinois urban-rural district, ”I`ve not talked to anyone who believes (Tsongas) goes beyond that regional (New Hampshire) test. . . . (But) if he can demonstrate that he has an attraction beyond New England`s boundaries, he`ll have to be taken seriously.”
In Georgia, state Democratic Party chief Edgar Sims said, ”Any Democratic candidate who addresses the concerns that Georgia citizens and voters clearly have, with some solutions that strike them as reasonable . . . is electable in Georgia. But you have got to spend the time and the effort to convey that message, and so far Clinton has spent the most time and effort. But Tsongas will be here. He has already visited twice.”
”Tsongas speaks from the heart, and he is a good man,” said Ed Martin, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. ”In New Hampshire he could spend a lot of time conveying that personally. But in Texas, he needs massive organization, massive fundraising and massive commitments to the media markets.”