Frank Bellotti and Old Style Politicking

A fat man shrouded and silhouetted in a conical cloud of blue smoke stands above his audience in the crowded hall, excitedly gesticulating and clutching a microphone. He is about to introduce The Candidate of The Party. The shouting voice concludes, "...the next govnah of our state, Francis X. Bellotti!"

A graceful figure with closely cropped head and a wellcut grey suit advances to the speaker who grasps his hand in reference fashion and cues the obedient crowd for noisy cheers. Meanwhile, a piano and a drum increase the noise level a couple of decibels and add the final touch to a scene straight from The Last Hurrah.

Meetings like this one show that reaching the people through local organizations is still as vital to political candidates as it was thirty years ago, and that no one knows this fact better than the scrappy Democratic Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate.

"I ain't seen one up this early since good old James Michael," (better known as Mayor Curley) one voter had observed approvingly at 7:20 a.m. at the Eggleston MTA station where Bellotti began his 18-hour day.

"Frank," as nearly everyone ends up calling him, had been literally raring to get about the business of hand shaking and arm twisting that is a candidate's daily fare.

Communications media fail to do Bellotti justice. His voice, for example, sounding youthful and quietly sincere in person, assumes an unfortunate nasal and metallic quality over a microphone. Nor do still pictures convey the vitality of his light-footed boxer's carriage, as he energetically shifts his weight from foot to foot, walks along briskly, claps his hands, or brushes a reporter's paunch playfully with his fist.

The 41-year-old, 5'10" Lieutenant Governor is an astute and consummate campaigner. Superficially, his style is no different from most politicians'. The permanent smile, the "Hello, I'm ----. Remember me at the polls," and the traditional politician's handshake--right hand shaking right hand, left hand holding the elbow. The official explanation for that left hand at the elbow is that it assures the voter that the hand is not in his pocket.

But it also serves to control the grip of an overzealous supporter, as well as being a particularly personal gesture from the candidate. Female voters in particular did not seem to mind being grasped by Bellotti's powerful arms.

The candidate also has the golden knack of making a five or six second conversation seem like a five or six minute heartwarming chat. His watchful eye and instant charm combine to woo that special type of person who might actually be swayed by the flattery of special attention. He will pass up a stream of people gushing from a crowded bus and go twenty or thirty feet away to shake hands and have a few words with some lonely figure watching him shyly from afar.

Bellotti generally handles comments and questions facilely but occasionally even he runs into trouble. After talking to one voter he turned to an aide and quizzed, "Who is Allan Funt?" When informed of Mr. Funt's connection with the Candid Camera television program, he explained, "Oh, somebody told me I looked like him."

One typical day called for an early morning handshaking stint at a couple of MTA stations, some campaigning in the Roxbury area, a tour of a clothing factory, winding up the morning at the John Hancock building and with its 5200 employees. The afternoon was devoted to personal administrative matters and the evening was taken up by several rallies and a fund raising champagne dinner.

Bellotti played his part with identical relish and appeared to make a correspondingly favorable impression wherever he went, although a few people snickered when he was referred to as "Governor."

When the actual vote soliciting began again at a 5 p.m. rally of the Amalgamated Garment Workers Union, Bellotti uncorked his "standard" speech for the first time that evening and revealed the line he is taking to get out the Democratic vote in the closing days of this close battle.

His ideas were simple and devastating: 1) flame-throwing denunciation of Goldwater and his record toward the common man which reduces the Republican candidate to a small pile of white ash; 2) hanging the Goldwater albatross around Volpe's neck and nailing it to his jugular; 3) recalling the memory of President Kennedy and Volpe's criticism of him; 4)criticizing Volpe's sales tax as being against the common man; 5) appealing to the voter's Joyalty to the Party of the Poor Man. "We will not betray you." The Democrats in Massachusetts outnumber the state's 600,000 Republicans by 400,000. If they heed his call for party loyalty the future looks less than sanguine for the Republicans.

In many ways both the candidate and the campaign are reminiscent of an older political era, the time of the Curleys, the Hurleys, and the Fitzgeralds. He is appealing strongly to party ties and to class distinctions. He appears to have wallpapered over the Peabody split and the Machine will have to play a large part in his victory if he wins. He does exhibit a sin are concern for the poor man, and is dependent on a broad base for his support. He is doing a lot more talking on the objectionable features of his opponent's proposals than providing evidence of the soundness of his own. He was raised by immigrant parents and worked his way through school and up the ladder in the old tradition.

And yet there is much of a new type, drier, and Organization Man politician about him. He somehow projects more of a lean and hungry look and radiates less warmth than did the old guard politicians. He has less flair for the theatrical. He seems to take himself more seriously than they ever would. They were content to build little kingdoms for themselves and rule benevolently. But whatever Bellotti attains, one suspects he will still want to better himself.

Perhaps the difference is best summed up in a dialogue overheard between two 30-year veteran Boston political reporters: "You know, I've never really seen anything like that guy. He lives on nickle candy bars."

"Well, ambition is sometimes very nourishing."