Campaign Roundup (1)

John Anderson, still bartering over his inclusion in the presidential debates and short on campaign cash, has shuffled and cut the high echelon of his staff. Political adman David Garth wound up at the top.

Three longtime campaign aides -- all veterans of Mr. Anderson's days as a Republican candidate -- resigned in the processs.

Garth was hired as media consultant to the campaign last April. In last week's shake-up he was put in charge of day-to-day operations. Another advertising specialist, Tom Mathews of Craver, Mathews & Smith, Anderson's direct-mail fund-raisers, is taking over as press secretary for the campaign.

Congressman Anderson joined President Carter in accepting the National Press Club's invitation to debates what would pair each of the three top contenders on a one-on-one basis. But he stipulated that the order of the debates be drawn by lot. The first debate is the most sought-after, since TV audience size has declined there after in other presidential campaigns that featured debates.m

New York Gov. Hugh Carey slid down from his long ride on the political fence to throw his weight behind the Carter campaign.

Heaping praise on Carter's new economic proposals, Carey promised to try to deflect the support of New York's Liberal Party from John Anderson. A Liberal Party endorsement of Anderson could cost Carter victory in New York State, usually a mainstay of support for Democrats.

Carey held off from making an endorsement throughout the presidential contest , but was an early voice behind the Democratic drive for an open convention, a drive fought by Carter supporters. Earlier in the campaign season he was considered a prime possibility to share independent John Anderson's ticket.

Carey called Carter a "savvy and brilliant man," and dubbed the President's program a "hard-nosed and common sense approach" to invigorating the economy.

Ronald Reagan was quick to move off the defensive last week and invoke a new campaign epithet: "the carter depression."

In keeping with both candidates' strategy of making the other man the issue, Reagan followed a press conference in which he and runnning mate George Bush tried to clear up apparent misstatements on China policy with a talk to Teamsters of "a severe depression," although he retreated from a formal economic definition of the term.

Reagan then reacted to Carter's new economic package as a "short-term political quick fix." He said the President "sounded as if someone else has been in charge for three-and-a-half years."

Reagan advisers have reportedly warned the candidate to focus his campaign on domestic economic issues and avoid controversial foreign policy areas where Reagan has less to gain politically.

The independent fund-raising committees for Reagan have emerged intact from lawsuits by the Federal Elections Commission and Common Cause, but aren't raising nearly as much money as they had planned.

Original estimates by the groups that totaled as high as $80 million -- to be raised and spent to elect Reagan, but without connection to his campaign -- have been cut to nearly half that figure.

Reagan would win enough electoral votes to carry the election if it where held now, according to a Gallup poll taken Aug. 25-27 for Newsweek and made public Aug. 30.

Although Carter and Reagan are roughly even in public favor, this survey showed 33 states with 320 electoral votes leaning toward Reagan; 270 are needed to win the presidency.

But Reagan still believes he's the underdog, according to an interview published Sunday in the Washington Post. "I'm the one with a hill to climb," he said, noting the advantages carter holds as an incumbent and a member of the nation's largest political party.m