The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 51

AHi BEACON JOURNAL I'4y Sunday, july 17, 19S8 Editorials 2 Columns 3 Business 6 K7 SECTlON i fiov attle for the South begins Democrats' push there called risky By Robert S. Boyd Kntght-Rtdder Newspapers Hyatt fl IT Peachtree Regency Center Apparel I Merchandise Mart LJ Mart DOWNTOWN ATLANTA CNN Center A look inside Atlanta's Omni Site of the Democratic National Convention The Omni Atlanta-Fulton County Arena is a square building, 360 feet to a side. It can seat about 1 6,500 people. Next door is the Georgia World Congress Center, an exhibition hall that will be turned into a news media center for the Democratic convention. A three-tier camera platform will face the podium.

The television networks' boxlike studios will overlook the floor. and Omni Hotel SxL v. OMNI ARENA Georgia World Congress r1 News media Podium Center Atlanta The choice of Lloyd Bentsen as Michael Dukakis' running mate is the biggest sign that the Democratic Party wants to break the Republican stranglehold on the South in presidential elections. But it is by no means the only sign. There was already going to be a rich regional accent to the Democratic convention in Atlanta, the symbolic capital of both the Old and the New South, where the Massachusetts governor and the Texas senator will be nominated this week.

Most of the principal actors in this carefully planned piece of political theater are from the South, including the convention chairman (House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas), the keynote speaker (Ann Richards of Texas), the man who will nominate Dukakis (Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas), the secretary who will call the roll of the states (Dorothy Bush of Alabama), not to mention the hosts (Mayor Andrew Young and Gov. Joe Frank Harris of Georgia) and the past-president-in-residence, Jimmy Carter. Now comes Bentsen to top off the list. What all this means is that the Democrats have accepted a Republican dare to make the South, particularly Texas, a major battleground in the 1988 campaign.

Political experts aren't sure whether it's a brilliant move or a dumb 5, mistake. "It's an extremely high-risk technique," said Claibourne Darden, an Atlanta pollster. "It's like facing a mob and picking out the ugliest, toughest guy and saying, 'Come on, I'm going to The official GOP party line is that Dukakis made a major blunder by choosing a Southern strategy over a Northeast-Midwest-Far West strategy. They say the Democratic ticket, even with Bentsen, still won't be able to carry Texas or the South, and they claim the choice improves Vice President George Bush's chances in the rest of the country. "This gives Bush a real opportunity in the Midwest," said Peter Teeley, former communications director for the Bush campaign.

"John Glenn would have guaranteed Ohio (for the Democrats), but Bentsen doesn't guarantee Texas." In effect, Republicans are saying that Dukakis foolishly traded a sure 23 electoral votes in Ohio for a very iffy 29 in Bush's home state. But just last weekend, GOP strategists were trying to have it the other way, arguing that to win without capturing any state in the South the Democrats would have to pull off the political equivalent of drawing an inside straight. At a "unity rally" in Atlanta, they said Dukakis would have to carry just SOURCES: Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Democratic National Committee; Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback Architects RON CODDINGTONKnight-Ridder Graphics Network CONVENTION HIGHLIGHTS MONDAY 6:24 p.m. Convention begins. 9:24 p.m.

Keynote address by Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards. 10:34 p.m. Address by former President Jimmy Carter. TUESDAY 4:25 p.m. Call to order.

5:20 p.m. Consideration of the party platform led by Michigan Gov. James Blanchard. 9:07 p.m. Remarks by Sen.

Edward M. Kennedy. 9:25 p.m. Remarks by Blanchard about the platform. 10:13 p.m.

Adoption of the platform. 10: 18 p.m. Introduction of Jesse Jackson video. 10:25 p.m. Speech by Jackson.

WEDNESDAY 7:39 p.m. Call to order. 8:03 p.m. Tribute to Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona by Rep.

Mary Rose Oakar of Cleveland. 9:03 p.m. Nomination of Michael Dukakis by Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, followed by the nomination of Jackson. 9:48 p.m.

Roll call of the states. THURSDAY 7:17 p.m. Call to order. 7:55 p.m. Nomination of Lloyd Bentsen for vice president.

8:19 p.m. Roll call. 9: 12 p.m. Introduction of Bentsen by Sen. John Glenn of Ohio.

9: 17 p.m. Acceptance speech by Bentsen. 9:53 p.m. Introduction of Dukakis by actress Olympia Dukakis, his cousin. 10:02 p.m.

Acceptance speech by Dukakis. 1 1:07 p.m. Adjournment. See DEMOCRATS', page E5 the South ern drawls loans seek a voice ami Atlanta, a city that likes to think of itself as the capital of the New South, and Dukakis's selection of Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate.

The convention agenda is full of speeches and presentations by representatives of the South and West. Mrs. Eberts' sole weapon is the vote for the president that she'll give Rep. Douglas Apple-gate, D-Steubenville, on the first ballot. Applegate, who ran as a favorite-son candidate, also will vote for himself.

(A second Ohio favorite son, U.S. Rep. James Traficant, D-Po-land, also brings two presidential delegates to the convention. Traficant, however, probably will not have his name placed in nomination, leaving himself and delegate Anna E. Biggins free to vote for Michael Dukakis or Jesse Jackson on the first ballot, Traficant spokesman Paul Marcone said.) Beyond that, Ohio's biggest convention role will be Sen.

John "You go to other parts of the country, and everything is going great," she said. "We have plenty of problems. I'm going to talk just for this area. I don't care where the population is, there are people here we have to help. "I don't want them to be forgotten," the Steubenville delegate said.

She said her concerns go far beyond the closed steel mills and idled coal mines of the Steuben Glenn's introduction of Bentsen on Thursday for Bentsen's acceptance speech. The only other major player from Ohio will be Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, D-Cleveland, but her assignment Wednesday will be a tribute to a Westerner, Rep. Morris Udall, and will probably occur before 9 p.m., when prime-time television coverage is See OHIOANS, page E4 ville area, extending to cities such as Akron, Canton and Youngstown and to neighboring states where major manufacturing industries have died. Voicing those concerns could be a big job at a convention dominated by the symbols of Michael Dukakis' determination to slug it out with George Bush in the South and West, the regions where a majority of the nation's electoral votes now are found.

The most obvious symbols are I William Hershey aeon Journal Washington Bureau Atlanta June Eberts of Steubenville ills herself a "little old lady" -it she's one with a mission. Mrs. Eberts, 73, the daughter id widow of steel workers, will rive in Atlanta today to make ire the Democratic Party esn't forget about the problems ced by Ohio and other Rust Belt ates in its rush to embrace vot-s in the South and West. CONVENTION FACTS AND TRIVIA last three years to 2.2 percent in the first five months of 1988, Atlanta continued through last year to lead all other metropolitan areas in new jobs. The people Some 430,000 people, almost 12 percent fewer than 14 years earlier, live in the city of Atlanta.

Nearly 70 percent of the city's residents are black, as are 90 percent of the families living in Atlanta's 50,000 public housing units. Convention site colors Atlanta's Omni Coliseum is bedecked in a television designer's vision pink, gray and pale blue. Buses The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is providing 106 of the 185 or so shuttle buses being used to ferry delegates and workers from Atlanta's hotels to the convention site. Transit workers have been working without a contract since Oct. 19.

Troopers About 500 troopers arrived in Atlanta Wednesday, leaving about 300 on the state's non-metro area roadways, one trooper said. He said that by the time the convention begins next week, about 2,000 security officers will be on duty, including troopers, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents, Atlanta police officers and others, with the National Guard on standby. Delegates The entire hall is very small so small that half the 4,212 delegates won't actually sit on the floor. They'll be in the bleachers. Cost Despite some charges of disorganization, Atlanta officials say they're on their way to paying for the Democratic affair with help from a $9 million check from the national party and a special tax through 1990 on motel and hotel rooms in the area.

The total tab for the Democratic National Convention next week is expected to be $24 million. Press Most of the 13,500 or so journalists won't even get in the hall, or will be inside only part of the time. They're being accommodated in the vast Georgia World Congress Center, dubbed "the Media Village." There's plenty of room but it's another world from the hall, and to get there is a walk outdoors and across the street. Nude Dancing Nude dancing will be one of Atlanta's attractions that visiting Democrats may choose to experience next week, without fear of official interference. Chances that Atlanta's nude dancing clubs might have to shut down prior to Site Atlanta is the centerpiece of an 18-county metropolitan area with a population of 2.6 million.

Per capita income Atlanta's per capita income in 1986 was $16,408, 12 percent higher than the national average. Jobs Atlanta now has offices of 431 of the companies listed in the Fortune 500 and serves as headquarters to eight of them. More than 200 foreign companies have offices there, and 30 foreign banks have branches in the city. Job Growth By 1984, the economy was generating 100,000 jobs a year, for a 9.2 percent growth rate, 4.4 percent higher than the national average. While the pace of job growth has slowed In the the Democratic National Convention fizzled Wednesday when a judge delayed until next month a second round of hearings on the constitutionality of a new state law banning the sale of alcohol in such clubs.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Isaac Jenrette scheduled an evidentiary hearing for Aug. 12 on the Gold Club's challenge to the law. A temporary restraining order issued June 30 will continue to bar enforcement of the law until Jenrette issues his ruling. Protests Atlanta officials have designated a parking lot about a block from the convention facilities as a protest site where various groups are set to demonstrate according to a schedule. For instance, the Nationalist Movement, a white supremacist group, will be followed today on the protest schedule by Legislate Equality for Gays and See TRIVIA, page E5.