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    "title": "Press Conference of Doug Shanks and Gilman Carmichael",
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    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 29 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nJULY 30, 1976\nOFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY\n(Jackson, Mississippi)\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nPRESS, CONFERENCE\nOF\nDOUG SHANKS\nAND\nGILMAN CARMICHAEL\nCO-CHAIRMEN OF THE PRESIDENT FORD COMMITTEE\nFOR THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI\nTHE RAMADA INN\n4:10 P.M. CDT\nMR. NESSEN: As we indicated, we have Doug\nShanks and Gil Carmichael down to try to answer some of\nyour questions. I don't have anything further to say, so\nwe will bring them up. I think most of you know Doug and\nmost of you know Gil.\nMR. SHANKS: Basically, I think most of you know\nthe format that took place this afternoon as far as the\nPresident's meeting with the delegation. You probably\nhave some specific questions, but I will go over the format\nbriefly.\nThe President talked for about 20 minutes,\ntalking about the positive things in this Administration,\nthe things he was planning on campaigning for in November--\nbefore the election--and then he opened it up for questions,\nwhich lasted an hour and a half. At that time, he handled\nquestions of every sort from the delegation. After that,\nwe had a brief picture-taking session with him, and then\nthe President left the room.\nMr. Carmichael will be glad to answer any\nquestions you might have.\nQ\nHow much support does the President have\nin the Mississippi delegation?\nMR. SHANKS: He has over a majority.\nQ\nHow much over?\nMR. SHANKS: I am not able to give you an\naccurate count, simply because we have not had time to\nmake one, but the President has over a majority of the\nMississippi delegation.\nMORE\n- 2 -\nQ\nDo you think there is any chance that will\nevaporate before Kansas City?\nMR. SHANKS: Personally, no, sir, I don't.\nQ The Reagan people say it is not true that\nthe President took a few more delegate votes from this\ndelegation.\nMR. SHANKS: The statement you are making is that\nthe Reagan delegates say that is not true?\nQ Right.\nMR. SHANKS: You want me to comment on that?\nQ Yes.\nMR. SHANKS: You can be assured that if the\nReagan forces could deliver this delegation, they would\nhave done it as early as three, four, five, six weeks ago,\nand if they could do it, they would do it right now, and\nthey can't do it.\nQ What will be the effect of Reagan's visit\nwith Schweiker next Wednesday?\nMR. SHANKS: I really don't know. It would be\nhard for me to say. I think it is going to be -- personally\nmy feeling is it is going to be the death knellfor hard\nReagan supporters.\nQ\nWhy?\nMR. SHANKS: Because there are questions they\ncannot answer.\nQ What kind of questions?\nMR. SHANKS: For example, the number one thing is\nthat Governor Reagan has said repeatedly that he would\npick somebody that was philosophically in tune with him.\nSenator Schweiker's voting record is something else again\non right to work laws, Taft-Hartley, repealing 14-B. It\ngoes on and on and on and I don't think they are going to\nbe able to answer those questions because we will get to\nthis question:\nWhat do you believe in? What do you ustand for?\nIf you have just been doing these other things to get\nelected what will you do to get elected? Where are\nyour principles? I think that is the question that\nultimately has to be answered. There is a possibility that\nhe can sell that. I think it is a very, very small\npossibility.\nMORE\n- 3 -\nQ\nYou said that the Reagan people, if they\nhad a majority, could deliver the delegation two or three\nor four weeks ago, whatever. If you now have a majority,\nwhy don't you now deliver it to Ford?\nMR. SHANKS: Because we have been -- and I mean\nthis very respectfully -- the Ford campaign has simply\nbeen very honest and above board in their dealing with the\nMississippi delegation. We have not tried pressure\ntactics. We have not swamped people with telegrams or\nthreats to get on the boat, and we are letting the course\nbe run by the convention system we have here.\nQ\nHave the Reagan people used threats to get\non board?\nMR. SHANKS: There have been just massive\npressure tactics to move these delegates.\nQ\nCould you give some examples?\nMR. SHANKS: I don't think there was a Mississippi\ndelegate, including myself -- which by the way for me was\nunique -- that did not get a telegram from Ronald Reagan\nyesterday two pages long.\nQ What did it say?\nMR. NESSEN: I didn't read it. That is the first\ntime I have gotten anything from their camp -- I saved it\nto put in my scrap book -- but basically it said, \"Hold on.\nWe will be up to explain this. This is part of the grand\ndesign.\" That is the essence of it.\nQ\nWhat other tactics did they use? What\nother kinds of things did they do?\nMR. SHANKS: Things that relate to State politics.\nQ Such as?\nMR. SHANKS: Such as support in campaigns in\nthe future, financing for campaigns in the future, things\nlike that.\nQ Did it work?\nMR. SHANKS: Not on our folks.\nQ\nIf you haven't polled this delegation, how\ncan you confirm you have over a majority?\nMORE\n- 4 -\nMR. CARMICHAEL: This last week last\nSaturday a week ago -- we prepared a letter to all members\nof the delegation and the letter said, as a Ford supporter\nthat we thought it was time for the Mississippi delegation\nto realize that if they were going to help put President\nFord over the top, this is when they should probably\nmove and should do it. We are very much worried about\nthe Hawaii vote that was coming in and the other signals\nthat I saw coming in in support of the President. So, I\nmailed the letter on Saturday, the 17th, I think it was,\nand in the letter I asked them to call Doug Shanks or\nmyself and let us know if they could support the President,\nwhat their commitment was. Would they vote for him,\nin a sense, in a straw vote.\nThe State headquarters, Republican Party, knew\nwe were doing it, so on Monday and Tuesday, Doug and I\nboth began to get calls that said, \"Yes, I am with the\nPresident.\"\nWe already knew going back to when we were\nelected at the State Convention -- we already knew many\nFord people had gotten elected to the delegation. I\npersonally ran as a Ford delegate over in Lauderdale\nCounty and got elected to the Convention on that basis.\nMany of us did. So, we knew we had a decent percentage.\nI get a kick out of Johnny Apple. He came\ndown from the New York Times and did a story down here\nand said we had three votes, three delegates, in the\nthing. So, we have been trying to tell the press, no,\nsir, that is not true. There is a good strong support\nfor President Ford in the Mississippi delegation.\nSo, when we moved and sent out the letter and\non Monday and Tuesday, we began to receive calls, Doug\nand I said, \"Okay, let's go down the list and call them\nand ask them if they can support the President.\"\nBy Tuesday night, my tally showed I had\n26 committed for the President. And I did not even talk\nto but about, I would say, 45 or so, of the delegation.\nI did not even get to talk to all of the delegation. Doug\nwas talking to some and I talked to some. Tuesday night,\nI had 26 for him, eight leaning, eight that felt very\nsympathetic toward the President. That gave us a majority.\nThat indicated a majority and the President had not even\ncome down yet.\nOn Wednesday morning, Doug and I having told\nthe Ford Committee what we had -- they asked us, \"Can\nyou get some telegrams to support that.\" So, we went\nback on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and we began to\nmake phone calls back to those people and said, \"Can\nyou send telegrams?\" So, we had commitments for specific\nnumbers, now, of support for the President. This is what\nthose people said. \"We look forward to your visit to\nMississippi. You can count me as one of your supporters.\"\nMORE\n- 5 -\nIt was that simple a telegram and we asked\nthem to do it. No pressure. I ran in to some that had\nquestions and I said, \"Let me see if I can get the White\nHouse, or somebody, to call you and give you some of the\nanswers, and then would you mind sending a telegram?\"\n\"No, I wouldn' It was that type of thing.\nSo, our figures were very real in that week, last week,\nand we were dealing with a very popular position for\nthe President down here. He began to get the telegrams\nup there to reinforce what we had been saying. That is\nwhen everything happened. That is when the opposition\nbegan to work hard. And by Thursday, Doug and\nmyself were catching the devil from the opposition,\nwhich is what they are supposed to do. By Friday,\nit had turned in to a battle royal.\nAbout that time, we also saw Governor Reagan\nannounce the Schweiker thing. It was a little after that.\nIt was Monday. We had the meeting on Sunday and we voted\nfor rededication of our position at that point. A lot\nof you were here for that. So, that is a long answer to\nyour question, but there is some newsmen that verified\nthose numbers.\nOne newsman called me and read his list of the\npeople pro-Ford and he had one more than I had, so it\nwas that well-de igned. So, President Ford's support\nin this delegation is very strong, very tough.\nNow, since Schweiker has been announced, I have\nhad several of them come to me--and I am not, at this\npoint playing my cards--and working in this political\nbattle --- I think that he has in the neighborhood of 40\npeople out of the delegation for him. But we, again,\nare political down here. There is no push for a vote,\nto date. That is the way we play our politics.\nNow, there is a tremendous pressure in Mississippi\nright now by an awful lot of the public wanting us to go\nahead and vote and put the President over the top. That\nis going on. There is tremendous pressure to wait and\na tremendous one to go.\nQ\nWill this delegation go to Kansas City\nformally committed to President Ford?\nMR. CARMICHAEL: This delegation is made up\nof a lot of new Republicans and they are very independent.\nIt is very possible they can call for another meeting\nthemselves, and another vote.\nMR. SHANKS: If there had been a move for a\nvote today by the other forces -- we were prepared, we\nknew what our count was -- and that is where we could\nsafely say that --\nQ\nYou said you didn't have a count yet.\nMORE\n- 6 -\nMR. SHANKS: No. What I said, Tim, she\nasked me for a count and I said we have not had the\nopportunity.\nNow, as late as last night, we had a count,\nto be prepared if the forces pushed for a vote and we\nwere well satisfied that we were well protected.\nQ How many?\nMR. SHANKS: Over 31.\nQ Doug, would you agree with what Gil said\nabout 40 delegates?\nQ\nMR. SHANKS: Roughly that. I personally\nwould say 37. There are several people we have not --\nI just don't know. I don't know what the effect was of the\nmeeting this afternoon, but it is right around 40. I\nwould say it is probably a fair figure, but it is certainly\nmore than 31, I assure you.\nQ\nIs that committed? Are you counting\ncommitted and leaning just a little bit, or what?\nMR. SHANKS: In committed votes, we have over 31.\nQ\nCould we have a list of names?\nMR. SHANKS: I don't have it on me.\nQ I would be delighted to call out the\nmembers of the delegation.\nQ How can this nice agreement remain so\nimportant? If you have it, why don't you give the\nPresident the nomination? Why is that little agreement\nso important?\nMR. SHANKS: There are some people who are\nvery much for President Ford that feel like they are\ncommitted to go to Kansas City before they vote and\nthere is enough number of Ford delegates who feel that\nway. That situation may change between now and Kansas\nCity and I would not be surprised if it did, but there\nare enough delegates that feel that way, that they don't\nwant to take a vote until Kansas City because they have\nvoted twice to wait to get to Kansas City before they cast\ntheir vote.\nTHE PRESS: Thank you.\nEND\n(AT 4:25 P.M. CDT)"
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