Defiant Hart Ends Bid for Presidency : Blames Press and Campaign System but Not His Association With Actress

DENVER —  A defiant Gary Hart formally ended his 1988 presidential bid--and probably his political career--on Friday, blaming the press and a flawed political process, but not his association with actress-model Donna Rice, for his ruin.

With his wife, Lee, beside him, the former Colorado senator delivered an angry 10-minute valedictory before reporters and shaken campaign staff members in a Denver hotel ballroom, then departed without a backward glance. He left the Democratic Party’s presidential primary field topsy-turvy, and the Miami Herald’s surveillance of him last weekend still a subject of furious debate.

“Now clearly under present circumstances, this campaign cannot go on,” Hart declared. “I refuse to submit my family and my friends and innocent people and myself to further rumors and gossip. It’s simply an intolerable situation.”

System a ‘Mockery’

He also delivered a bitter judgment that the campaign system is becoming a “mockery,” in danger of self-destruction.

“Politics in this country--take it from me--is on the verge of becoming another form of athletic competition or sporting match. We all better do something to make this system work, or we’re all going to be soon rephrasing Jefferson to say: ‘I tremble for my country when I think we may in fact get the kind of leaders we deserve.’ ”

The withdrawal of the front-runner for the Democratic nomination came five days after Miami Herald reporters, who had staked out Hart’s Capitol Hill town house, reported that the candidate had spent much of last weekend with the 29-year-old Rice while his wife was in Colorado.

Hart, who tried to discredit the report and then to take on all questions about his behavior, finally bowed out with scathing criticism of the press for focusing on personality instead of issues and making exploration of the candidates’ personal lives such a major part of the political process.

“We’re all going to have to seriously question the system for selecting our national leaders, that reduces the press of this nation to hunters and presidential candidates to being hunted, that has reporters in bushes, false and inaccurate stories printed, photographers peeking in our windows, swarms of helicopters hovering over our roof, and my very strong wife close to tears because she can’t even get in her own house at night without being harassed,” he said.

After campaign staff members challenged the Miami Herald report that Hart spent much of last weekend with Rice, the former senator acknowledged he had made a mistake in judgment, but insisted there had been no immoral conduct. But his protestations had no effect.

His plan to pull out of the race became known Thursday after he suspended a campaign swing in New Hampshire and flew home to Colorado, following a tense Wednesday evening press conference in which he was asked point blank if he had ever committed adultery.

Campaign aides acknowledged that while Hart struggled with the uproar over the report of last weekend’s activities, plus disclosure of an earlier sailing trip with Rice, the Washington Post had disclosed that it had evidence of a longstanding relationship with an unnamed Washington woman.

Warned Staff Members

Although Hart announced that he was suspending his campaign for a days or a few weeks to be with his family, he began telling staff members Thursday morning of his plan to quit.

When he appeared Friday, he said he had first planned to make only a “short, carefully worded political statement saying that I was withdrawing from the race and then quietly disappear from the stage.”

“And then, after frankly tossing and turning all night, as I have for the last three or four nights, I woke up about 4 or 5 this morning with a start. And I said to myself, ‘Hell no.’

“And I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to do that . . . because I’m a proud man, and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished.”

For a moment, Hart’s supporters took that to mean he had changed his mind and would not withdraw. He had to ask for quiet before he could go on, explaining that he only intended to talk more at length about his feelings.

‘Kind of a Rare Bird’

He said he had always found it difficult to talk about himself, and as a consequence, “I guess I’ve become some kind of a rare bird, some extraordinary creature that has to be dissected by those who analyze politics to find out what makes him tick.”

“Well, I resist that. And so then I become cool and aloof, or elusive, or enigmatic or whatnot. And then the more people want to talk about me, the more I resist it, and so on. And so it gets to be like the cat chasing its tail.”

Hart spoke in a steady, unwavering voice, glancing occasionally at the speech campaign aides said he had rewritten only a few hours earlier.

His supporters seemed already drained by the events of the last week and, except for the one burst of applause, were relatively subdued. They applauded at the end, but there was none of the calls “Ga-reee, Ga-reee” that had marked his campaign appearances.

Some were bitter. “I don’t feel let down by Gary Hart. What I and a lot of others feel let down by is the people running the campaign. Where was the campaign manager? Where was the scheduler?” said Joe Trippi, Hart’s deputy political director, referring to the aides he felt should have kept Hart on the campaign trail last weekend and away from trouble.

Discounts Press Role

Asked if the press had caused Hart to withdraw, campaign manager William Dixon said: “Sen. Hart doesn’t withdraw because of the newspapers.”

The “character” issue began trailing Hart during his Democratic primary campaign in 1984, following the reports that he had changed his name and lied about his age.

Campaign aides said several weeks ago that Hart was surprised that the “character” issue still had not gone away.

At first, he attempted to make jokes about it, and then last month he fueled longstanding rumors of “womanizing” when he told reporters that he thought other campaigns were spreading such stories to embarrass him.

In one interview, he invited the press to follow him if his behavior was still in question.

Kennedy Accident Recalled

The probing into Hart’s encounters with Rice and other reports of “womanizing” resulted in a political calamity reminiscent of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s 1969 accident at Chappaquiddick, Mass., in which a young woman drowned after a car Kennedy was driving ran off a bridge.

Despite Friday’s bitter end, Hart urged his volunteer campaign workers to remain involved in politics.

“Events of this week should not deter any of you who are idealistic young people from moving on or moving up,” he said. “I would say to the young people of this country, the torch of idealism burns bright, in your hearts. It should lead you into public service and national service. It should lead you to want to make this country better. And whoever you are, and whatever you do in that cause, at least in spirit, I will be with you.”

The collapse of Hart’s campaign brought carefully tempered responses from fellow Democrats.

Jesse Jackson, now the only active Democratic Party candidate with an established national constituency, called Hart on Thursday night, Hart Press Secretary Kevin Sweeney said. Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. termed the candidate’s withdrawal “best for the party.”

Struggle to Analyze

The week’s events left political observers still struggling to analyze what happened to Hart less than a month after he formally launched his campaign with polls showing him comfortably leading the Democratic field.

In 1972, Hart managed Sen. George S. McGovern’s successful run for the Democratic Party’s nomination. In 1984, he emerged with a dramatic New Hampshire win to challenge former Vice President Walter F. Mondale all the way to the San Francisco convention, although Mondale had begun the campaign as the preemptive favorite.

The two races had established Hart as one of the Democrats’ most astute campaign tacticians, making his entrapment in the “womanizing” uproar difficult for many to fathom.

As he bowed out, Hart made only an indirect reference to the disastrous weekend that ended five years of campaigning for the White House in just five days.

“I’ve made some mistakes,” he acknowledged. “I’ve said so. I said I would, because I’m human, and I did. Maybe big mistakes, but not bad mistakes.”

Rudy Abramson reported from Washington and David Lamb from Denver.