PHILADELPHIA — Anybody but Carter.
That was the mantra of establishment Democrats in the spring of 1976 as the presidential primaries moved into Pennsylvania.
Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia, peanut farmer, and Baptist Sunday-school teacher, had morphed from complete unknown into the leading contender for his party’s nomination.
But Carter still had to prove his strength in the big northern states. The Pennsylvania primary, on April 27, loomed as the last chance for his foes — who included many liberals and pro-union Democrats — to stop him.
That pending battle marked the last time that Pennsylvania primary voters played a pivotal role in picking the nominee of either major party for president.
Political historians point out that the state’s 1980 primary was a big chapter in the divisive challenge by Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to President Jimmy Carter, but they say the challenge had little chance of succeeding.
Since 1980, Pennsylvania and its primary have always been too late for the dance. Its voice in selecting presidential nominees? Zilch.
That’s why this year’s battle over Pennsylvania between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton makes Lenora Berson a bit nostalgic.
In 1976, Berson was president of the local chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, which nationally was backing Arizona Rep. Morris “Mo” Udall, the favorite of many liberals.
Berson and her husband, State Rep. Norman Berson, hosted a dinner party for Udall at their Center City home. Among the guests was former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Joseph S. Clark, a liberal icon.
Clark had not yet endorsed Udall. Berson remembers that Udall screwed up the courage to ask why.
“Because I want to win,” Clark told him bluntly.
He felt Carter offered the best chance for Democrats to take back the White House.
In the `76 primary, as now, the eyes of the national media were on the state. But Joseph R. Daughen, then a political reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin, remembers that it was a far different national media.

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