Dukakis Makes a Pit Stop--at W. Virginia Mine

CEDAR GROVE, W.Va. — Democratic front-runner Michael S. Dukakis campaigned Thursday in West Virginia, winning warm praise from mine union president Richard Trumka and a souvenir brass miner’s lamp.

“I like it,” said Dukakis, “not a lot of charisma, but steady and reliable.”

With Dukakis’ eventual nomination seemingly no longer in doubt--his staff now claims more than 1,500 committed delegates and predicts he will reach the magic number of 2,081 shortly after California’s June 7 primary--campaigning has become a series of set pieces designed to highlight differences with Vice President George Bush.

In West Virginia, which holds its primary Tuesday, Dukakis focused on jobs and economic development and repeatedly summoned the memory of John F. Kennedy, who in 1960 won a key primary victory in the state on his way toward beating Richard M. Nixon, then the incumbent Republican vice president.

‘History Will Repeat’

“History will repeat itself in 1988,” Dukakis predicted, “because in 28 years the Republican Party hasn’t changed. Already, they’re asking us to sit back and settle in and go along as we are. To take it easy and to look back and to stand still.”

Trumka lauded the Massachusetts governor for “his vision and his strength and his leadership” and attacked Bush, the expected Republican nominee, for “doing nothing” to make the nation less dependent on oil imports.

“This country has become 1% more dependent on foreign oil for energy each year that the Reagan Administration and Bush have been in office,” Trumka said.

During an early-morning speech in Charleston, W. Va. Dukakis pledged to revitalize the Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development agency established by Kennedy that the Reagan Administration has sought to dismantle.

The audience of elected officials and local Democratic activists, assembled in a university auditorium where Kennedy debated Hubert H. Humphrey before the 1960 West Virginia primary, gave Dukakis the kind of enthusiastic reception his low-key campaign seldom receives, interrupting him for applause 20 times in a half-hour speech.

The audience also laughed appreciatively when Dukakis joked about consulting a horoscope Wednesday for the first time in his life, a reference to reports that Nancy Reagan had consulted astrologers to help determine the President’s schedule.

Looked Up Horoscope

He looked up the horoscope for himself, a Scorpio, and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, a Sagittarius, Dukakis said. His suggested that it would be “pointless to remain in your present position.” Meese’s recommended a change of careers, he said.

Then it was on to the coal mine, where Dukakis traveled about a mile-and-a-half into a mine tunnel. Afterwards he praised the safety record of the mining company, Valley Camp Coal Co., a division of the Quaker State Oil Corp., and pledged stronger enforcement of federal mine safety laws.

He also argued that America could increase coal use without harming the environment, although he conceded that environmental protections he supports would increase utility bills in many parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, reported $108,957 in income for 1987 and paid nearly one-quarter of that amount in federal taxes, according to tax forms the campaign released Thursday.

The couple’s income was about half that of Democratic rival Jesse Jackson and a little more than one-third the 1987 income reported by Bush.

In all, the Dukakises paid $25,892 in federal taxes, just under 24% of their income.

Sources of Income

The principal sources of income were the governor’s $85,000 salary from the state and Kitty Dukakis’ $20,000 salary for her work as a part-time director of the Public Space Partnership Project at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a collaborative program that mobilizes public and private resources to improve the appearance of prominent public spaces.