Knowing that he could not win a majority of delegates in the primary, he hoped to secure enough to emerge as a compromise candidate in a deadlocked convention.

If that doesn't work, the Buchanophobes in the party are saying, then a deadlocked convention is their best hope.

This assured that if a deadlocked convention occurred, initial supporters of Van Buren would pick Polk as a compromise candidate for the Democrats.

Picture this: A deadlocked convention, a jammed meeting hall, hundreds of delegates and supporters clamoring for Tsongas, Clinton or Kerrey.

He said repeatedly since that a draft by a deadlocked convention would be counterproductive, but did not (nor was he under any obligation to) just as flatly rule out accepting a draft.

That rule often produced deadlocked conventions when it took many ballots for anyone to get two-thirds of the delegates behind him.

LEAD: This was supposed to be the year of the broker, who would wheel and deal against the threat of a deadlocked convention to produce a Presidential nominee.

A deadlocked convention?

Several participants at the conference said that in the unlikely event of a deadlocked convention, the Democrats could even be forced to spend extra days to decide the nomination.

There was a short-lived "draft Muskie" movement in the summer of 1980 that was seen as a favorable alternative to a deadlocked convention.