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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, March 19, 1968
Rockefeller needs to declare or forget running
(Editor's note: This article is part of a series dealing with the 1963 presidential race and the election process.)
By Carla Rupp Kansan Staff Reporter
If Nelson A. Rockefeller is to have a real chance of success in obtaining the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1968, many party professionals believe he will have to step out into the open as a declared candidate—soon.
His failure to do this for the New Hampshire primary may have cost him. Rockefeller placed a distant second to Richard Nixon —11 per cent to 79 per cent, falling short of his prediction of a 15 per cent vote. Nixon, of course, won all eight of the state's Republican delegates.
Yet political experts admit it is extremely difficult to mount an effective write-in campaign. The haste with which Rockefeller's was organized in New Hampshire helped little.
As a declared candidate the New York governor would have a better chance of picking up delegates at crucial state conventions, they believe. As a faint-heart, he would probably lose delegates to Richard Nixon.
Rockefeller reached a near-decision March 1 when he said, "I am not going to create any dissension within the Republican party by contending for the nomination, but I am ready and willing to serve the American people if called."
Last week a New York Times story said Rockefeller had decided to campaign for the nomination.
The story said the governor told close friends of his intentions but would make no formal announcement until deciding upon what tactics to follow: wage a full-scale campaign in the May 28 Oregon primary, remain on the Oregon ballot but leave the campaigning to the draft-Rockefeller committee there, or withdraw from the primary altogether.
On Feb. 23, at a Washington, D.C., press conference, Gov. George Romney of Michigan, a declared presidential candidate since Nov. 18, withdrew his candidacy. Romney's withdrawal seemed to clear the way for Rockefeller.
However, Romney did not publicly endorse Rockefeller. This served to place Rockefeller in a very precarious spot.
Ronney almost challenged the Republican governors to pick a new man at the mid-winter meeting of the National Governors Conference at the Washington Hilton Hotel. It was no help to Rockefeller when the governors went home without answering that challenge.
Moderate Republicans look to Rockefeller because he is a man with problem-solving inclinations. They think, too, that he could be elected President because of his appeal to independents and Democrats. Moreover, most politicians recognize that Rockefeller's vast wealth, his highly effective staff of experts in domestic and foreign affairs and his ability to attract campaign experts make him about the only Republican moderate who might be able to put together a national campaign on short notice.
There is no doubt that Rockefeller can organize his own campaign quickly. He has run often successfully for governor of New York in 1958, 1962 and 1966, and unsuccessfully for president in 1600 and 1644. He reputedly has
a campaign organization existing on almost a standby basis.
For those Republicans who oppose Nixon, the course they would prefer would be for Rockefeller to declare his candidacy, enter the primaries and surround himself with the support of perhaps 20 Republican governors and several grass-root political organizations forming across the country.
There is, however, the practical question of getting approximately 20 G.O.P. governors to support Rockefeller publicly. That Rockefeller sentiment should be so widespread among the governors is largely an assumption, based partly on the premise that most of the Republican governors would rather see one of their own as the party's candidate in preference to Nixon, who traditionally has been associated with the party's congressional wing.
The governors basically consider Nixon a moderate who is slightly to the right of Rockefeller. The ideology issue—which was so emotional four years ago—is now muted.
Many of the Republican governors have been prompted to look beyond Nixon because of a feeling that someone else would have a better chance of being elected. Obviously, Romney—on the basis of the polls—was not such a man and Rockefeller himself has been slipping somewhat in the national polls in recent weeks.
Now, since Romney has retired from the race, Rockefeller is freed of his public commitment to support the Michigan governor. Pressure may now be put on Rockefeller to jump in all the way, and much of that pressure may well come from the governors who were reluctant to jump much of anywhere themselves.
One governor, Tom McCall of Oregon, has been doing some jumping—squarely onto Rockefeller's bandwagon, enthusiastically urging Rockefeller to enter the Oregon primary.
However, many professional observers conclude Rockefeller doesn't want to get pinched down now to an open confrontation with Nixon in those primaries where Nixon sentiment is running strong.
It may be in Rockefeller's interest to avoid the early primaries rather than contest them. With Nixon running alone they would become more or less meaningless, Rockefeller did not officially enter the New Hampshire primary and has filed disclaimers in the Wisconsin and Nebraska primaries.
That leaves Oregon and its May 28 primary. If he decides to contest any primary this would probably be the one he would choose. Oregon was his one primary victory in 1964 and already has a strong organization working there in his behalf.
Rockefeller, however, seems to prefer playing a waiting game. He has said he now will begin speaking out on national issues and would actively encourage organizers of a "Draft Rockefeller" movement.
A skillful politician—he won his third term as governor of New York after being as low as the 25 per cent mark in statewide popularity polls he also is experienced in national and international affairs.
Since winning the New York state house in 1958, Rockefeller's political interest largely has
been domestic. However, his international experience predates World War II when he ran his family's Standard Oil trust in Latin America, bringing himself into direct contact with Latin American business and government leaders. His goal then was to build local industrial economy so those areas would be strong markets for American goods.
He believed enlightened private investment could help the under-developed nations grow. Because of his Latin American experience, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Rockefeller to be the coordinator of the Office of Latin American Affairs, in which position he served America's war economy. With the chartering of the United Nations at San Francisco, Rockefeller fought for a provision that would allow member nations to form mutual defense treaties-making possible the formulation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Rockefeller was also a close adviser on foreign affairs to President Harry S. Truman and helped draft the Point Four policy on the Middle East. In a similar role as adviser to President Dwight Eisenhower, Rockefeller helped formulate the open skies nuclear inspection policy presented at the Geneva Summit Conference.
With Rockefeller's experience in international and domestic affairs added to his strong showings against Lyndon Johnson in several polls, his supporters feel that he is the one man who can defeat the incumbent President in November.
Next: George Wallace.
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