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LaRouche Primary Breakthroughs
Build Campaign to Take Back
Democratic Party


On March 5, 1996, Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche won 11.1% of the vote in Colorado in a one-on-one race against President Bill Clinton. This builds on the 9.6% LaRouche received in the Feb. 24 Delaware primary, and the 34.5% he received in North Dakota. The total maintains his eligibility for federal matching funds. More on the campaign follows.


The major round of Presidential primaries held March 5, is being heralded in the national media as a breakthrough for Republican Bob Dole, over his opponents. But, more hopeful and significant for this 1996 election season, is the fact that Democratic Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche won 11.1% of the vote in Colorado in a one-on-one race against President Bill Clinton. This builds on the 9.6% LaRouche received in the Feb. 24 Delaware primary, and the 34.5% he received in North Dakota. The total maintains his eligibility for federal matching funds.

The unofficial totals from Colorado, are as follows: Clinton, 47,584 (88.9%); LaRouche, 5,941 (11.1%). In at least nine counties, LaRouche got 15-30%.

This round of primaries followed the second nationwide TV broadcast of LaRouche's campaign, which aired on March 2 and addressed the issue of National Economic Security. The half-hour address is widely reported to have struck a responsive chord among viewers. LaRouche's attacks on the "Hitler thinking" of Newt Gingrich and his crowd, as well as his insistence that citizens had to "lovingly insult" their neighbors for adopting popular stupidities, had a strong impact.

The LaRouche campaign has scheduled a third half-hour national TV broadcast, for April 18 on the CBS network, between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., Eastern Time. In a speech in Texas last week, LaRouche said that this third address would deal with the role of the British Empire today.

Building a Movement

LaRouche's vote totals, coming on top of the 9.6% and 34.5% votes he received in the Delaware and North Dakota primaries, reflect his growing potential to influence the 1996 election debate. While he has made clear that he is not challenging President Clinton in the traditional sense, LaRouche has noted his intention to get as many delegates as possible to the Democratic National Convention, in order to shape the policy debate toward economic realities, and their solutions. So far, LaRouche has not won any delegates. This would require over 15% of the vote--and, while LaRouche polled over that level in North Dakota, that primary election was non-binding on delegate selection.

Clearly, a large section of the party is looking for an alternative policy to that which the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is selling to President Clinton. That DNC policy was epitomized by the unbelievable line in the State of the Union address, that the economy is in the best shape it's been in for 30 years, and by the advice to President Clinton not to campaign actively. LaRouche, on the other hand, made campaign appearances in all the New England states in which he was on the ballot. His policies are very well known in Massachusetts and Maryland--where tens of thousands of pamphlets on his exoneration, and on policy issues like Gingrich's Contract on America, have been distributed.

In the other primaries held March 5, the unofficial totals, as of March 6, were as follows:

Maryland: Clinton, 241,781 (84%); LaRouche, 12,710 (4%); Uncommitted, 32,740 (11%).

Massachusetts: Clinton, 108,976 (88%); LaRouche, 4,317 (3%); Uncommitted, 10,350 (8%).

Maine: Clinton, 23,021 (89%); LaRouche, 697 (3%); Uncommitted, 2,112 (8%).

Rhode Island: Clinton, 6,967 (89%); LaRouche, 381 (5%); Uncommitted, 488 (6%).

LaRouche will be on the ballot in at least 15 more states, including four of the states with Super-Tuesday primaries, to be held March 12. These are Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Among the later primaries where LaRouche will appear on the ballot, is Illinois, scene of the Democratic self-destruct act in the spring of 1986, after two LaRouche Democrats won statewide primaries. Illinois Party activists report that Democratic National Committee chairman Don Fowler has recently been in Illinois, and that the Party is preparing a major geek act, once again, over the issue of LaRouche.

News Blackout

The pattern of media blackout on LaRouche's nationwide broadcasts, and even on his official vote totals, continues to hold. Only after a fight, did the national AP wire service correct its story that President Clinton was unopposed in Delaware, for example.

As more people see LaRouche on tour and on TV, however, this media blackout will only underscore the reality that the Establishment media are desperate to suppress the economic policy debate required to bring this nation, and the world, out of the deepening crisis.

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