Alan J. Baron; Democratic Activist, Political Analyst

Alan J. Baron, 50, a political analyst and Democratic Party activist. Baron published the Baron Report, a weekly newsletter on politics, for 10 years. He was also an occasional political analyst for the Wall Street Journal, was well known on the lecture circuit and appeared frequently on PBS’ “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” As a teen-ager in Iowa, Baron worked on the presidential campaigns of Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. Baron began his Washington political career in 1971 when he worked briefly on Iowa Sen. Harold Hughes’ presidential campaign. In 1972, he managed Sen. Edmund Muskie’s run for the presidency in Florida. It was after a brief term as the executive director of the Democratic National Committee in 1972 that Baron went to George McGovern’s Senate office. He was fired in 1976 for campaigning against Gov. Jimmy Carter, a candidate McGovern supported, in the presidential race. It was then that he started his newsletter, remaining close to McGovern throughout his life. On Friday in Falls Church, Va., of the complications of diabetes.