The editors of the Harvard Political Review have national aspirations for their quarterly, 50-page, student-run journal, and last week they landed the first of those aspirations: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.).

Kennedy met with four staffers of the magazine Tuesday, listened to their ambitious plans for eventually raising over $70,000 and reaching 20,000 subscribers, and apparently agreed to help them.

According to editor Mark J. Saylor '76, Kennedy promised a "large" cash donation, help with fundraising letters and contracts, and moral support as a member of the review's oversight committee.

The senator himself has turned over the details of his patronage of the publication to his chief administrative aide, Edward T. Martin, who said yesterday he expects to "get back to" the student editors next week.

But no one, neither Martin, James B. King (Kennedy's special assistant in Boston), nor Jonathan Moore (director of the review's parent, the Institute of Politics), except the senator himself, seems to know how much money Kennedy will part with.

Kennedy is only the first respondant from a 60-name donor list assembled this fall by the the editors--a list Saylor says includes "the McNamaras, the Richardsons, Jackie Onassis, you know, people like that."

A self-sufficiency target figure of $13,500 is the goal this spring, they say; then, a national marketing push to become "the nation's first successful undergraduate political magazine."