PRINCETON, N.J. -- Gary Hart, cheered by enthusiastic crowds, predicted Monday he will sweep the New Jersey and California primaries and add them to the 'roll call for victory in 1984.'
Rolling North on the New Jersey turnpike, Hart raced from rally to rally in closing efforts to win the critical New Jersey primary and a majority of the state's 107 delegates.
Amid the hectic schedule, Hart broke away several times during the day to do telephone interviews with California radio stations.
Victories in the two biggest of the five states which hold primaries Tuesday are considered crucial to Hart's strategy for denying the Democratic presidential nomination to former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Hart drew lively crowds in New Jersey, both in a shopping center mall in Cherry Hill and later at an outdoor event at a corporate complex in Princeton.
In the Cherry Hill Mall, festooned with banners, Hart gave a highly optimistic assessment of his prospects in the primary windups.
'Tommorow we're going to win in New Jersey and we're going to win in California to finish the campaign the way we started in New Hampshire,' he said.
Hart, his voice sometimes showing slight strains of the campaign, said, 'The roll call of states in the Hart campaign has succeeded. It looks like a roll call for victory in 1984.'
'We have now won every state in New England, the largest and most diverse state in the South, Florida, the key industrial and agricultural states of the Midwest, Ohio and Indiana, and every Western state but one and we're going to carry that, Texas, in November,' Hart said.
But an aide in the Jersey campaign, press secretary Emma Burn, was a little more cautious. Canvassing with phone banks, she said, shows a Hart win is 'do-able, it's that close.'
Earlier in the day, Hart attended the high school graduation of his 18-year-old son, John, at Constitution Hall in Washington, before starting the final two days of campaigning for the last primaries.
He plans to return to California Tuesday and await the results of the primaries, which could either virtually eliminate him from the race or put him in a brutal dog fight for delegates in the weeks before the national convention July 16 in San Francisco.
Hart is believed slightly behind, but -- according to top aides - gaining in New Jersey, and -- in a Field poll in the Los Angeles Times - dropping behind in California where Walter Mondale held a 41 percent to 34 percent edge in polling done before the Sunday night debate.
New Mexico, South Dakota and West Virginia also hold primaries Tuesday, with a total 498 delegates at stake.
Hart, far behind in the number of delegates already chosen, predicted the gap will narrow sharply by Wednesday morning.
According to the United Press International delegate count, Mondale had 1,727 delegates Monday, Hart 973 and Jackson 327. There were 271 uncommitted delegates, with a total of 1,967 needed for a candidate to clinch the nomination.
'I feel very confident that on Wednesday the delegate count will be much closer than it is today,' Hart said in Washington.
He predicted that victories Tuesday will add momentum and convince convention delegates that he should be the Democratic presidential candidate in the fall election.
'We will have won more primaries than Mr. Mondale; we will have won more primary and caucus states than Mr. Mondale; and we may wind up with a plurality of the popular vote,' Hart said.
'I think that's what the uncommitted will look at. I think it will show that I have a much better chance of beating Mr. Reagan than Mr. Mondale has and that will be determining with the delegates,' he said.
Asked what he would do if Mondale beats him in California and New Jersey, Hart replied, 'This campaign is going to the convention no matter what happens tomorrow.'
