Carolina Primary Not Crucial, Harvard Political Analysts Say

Tuesday's North Carolina primary results will have little effect on the 1976 presidential campaign, Harvard political analysts said yesterday.

Joseph Grandmaison, a fellow of the Institute of Politics, said former California governor Ronald Reagan's 52 to 46 per cent victory over President Ford was "desperately needed. Had Reagan not won, he would have had to close shop," Grandmaison said.

Although Grandmaison said the win will "have to help Reagan with money," he said that Ford will be the Republican nominee.

William Schneider, assistant professor of Government and research fellow at the Center for International Affairs, said Reagan decided before the primary to suspend campaigning for a week and to appear on prime-time television, perhaps to announce his withdrawal. "If Reagan withdraws, he can argue that he really wasn't forced out" and won't be resigning in humiliation, Schneider said.

Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter's 52-to-38-per-cent win over Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace in the Democratic primary certainly "helps paint Wallace's box smaller," H. Douglas Price, professor of Government, said yesterday.

Samuel P. Huntington, professor of Government, said yesterday, "Wallace never had a chance of being nominated."

Decisively Eliminated

Schneider said the results "decisively eliminated George Wallace's credibility as a regional candidate." He attributed Carter's success so far in the campaign to having "no terribly great opposition."

Grandmaison said Carter must continue to do well in the northern industrial states such as Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois to create the coalition needed to win the Democratic nomination this summer.

Lawrence D. Brown, assistant professor of Government, said Carter won because he was "the first really well-organized, well-financed Southern alternative to Wallace."