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Press Conference of Doug Shanks and Gilman Carmichael
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7345162
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Press Conference of Doug Shanks and Gilman Carmichael
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
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1976-07-30
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1976
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Digitized from Box 29 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 30, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Jackson, Mississippi)
THE WHITE HOUSE
PRESS, CONFERENCE
OF
DOUG SHANKS
AND
GILMAN CARMICHAEL
CO-CHAIRMEN OF THE PRESIDENT FORD COMMITTEE
FOR THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
THE RAMADA INN
4:10 P.M. CDT
MR. NESSEN: As we indicated, we have Doug
Shanks and Gil Carmichael down to try to answer some of
your questions. I don't have anything further to say, so
we will bring them up. I think most of you know Doug and
most of you know Gil.
MR. SHANKS: Basically, I think most of you know
the format that took place this afternoon as far as the
President's meeting with the delegation. You probably
have some specific questions, but I will go over the format
briefly.
The President talked for about 20 minutes,
talking about the positive things in this Administration,
the things he was planning on campaigning for in November--
before the election--and then he opened it up for questions,
which lasted an hour and a half. At that time, he handled
questions of every sort from the delegation. After that,
we had a brief picture-taking session with him, and then
the President left the room.
Mr. Carmichael will be glad to answer any
questions you might have.
Q
How much support does the President have
in the Mississippi delegation?
MR. SHANKS: He has over a majority.
Q
How much over?
MR. SHANKS: I am not able to give you an
accurate count, simply because we have not had time to
make one, but the President has over a majority of the
Mississippi delegation.
MORE
- 2 -
Q
Do you think there is any chance that will
evaporate before Kansas City?
MR. SHANKS: Personally, no, sir, I don't.
Q The Reagan people say it is not true that
the President took a few more delegate votes from this
delegation.
MR. SHANKS: The statement you are making is that
the Reagan delegates say that is not true?
Q Right.
MR. SHANKS: You want me to comment on that?
Q Yes.
MR. SHANKS: You can be assured that if the
Reagan forces could deliver this delegation, they would
have done it as early as three, four, five, six weeks ago,
and if they could do it, they would do it right now, and
they can't do it.
Q What will be the effect of Reagan's visit
with Schweiker next Wednesday?
MR. SHANKS: I really don't know. It would be
hard for me to say. I think it is going to be -- personally
my feeling is it is going to be the death knellfor hard
Reagan supporters.
Q
Why?
MR. SHANKS: Because there are questions they
cannot answer.
Q What kind of questions?
MR. SHANKS: For example, the number one thing is
that Governor Reagan has said repeatedly that he would
pick somebody that was philosophically in tune with him.
Senator Schweiker's voting record is something else again
on right to work laws, Taft-Hartley, repealing 14-B. It
goes on and on and on and I don't think they are going to
be able to answer those questions because we will get to
this question:
What do you believe in? What do you ustand for?
If you have just been doing these other things to get
elected what will you do to get elected? Where are
your principles? I think that is the question that
ultimately has to be answered. There is a possibility that
he can sell that. I think it is a very, very small
possibility.
MORE
- 3 -
Q
You said that the Reagan people, if they
had a majority, could deliver the delegation two or three
or four weeks ago, whatever. If you now have a majority,
why don't you now deliver it to Ford?
MR. SHANKS: Because we have been -- and I mean
this very respectfully -- the Ford campaign has simply
been very honest and above board in their dealing with the
Mississippi delegation. We have not tried pressure
tactics. We have not swamped people with telegrams or
threats to get on the boat, and we are letting the course
be run by the convention system we have here.
Q
Have the Reagan people used threats to get
on board?
MR. SHANKS: There have been just massive
pressure tactics to move these delegates.
Q
Could you give some examples?
MR. SHANKS: I don't think there was a Mississippi
delegate, including myself -- which by the way for me was
unique -- that did not get a telegram from Ronald Reagan
yesterday two pages long.
Q What did it say?
MR. NESSEN: I didn't read it. That is the first
time I have gotten anything from their camp -- I saved it
to put in my scrap book -- but basically it said, "Hold on.
We will be up to explain this. This is part of the grand
design." That is the essence of it.
Q
What other tactics did they use? What
other kinds of things did they do?
MR. SHANKS: Things that relate to State politics.
Q Such as?
MR. SHANKS: Such as support in campaigns in
the future, financing for campaigns in the future, things
like that.
Q Did it work?
MR. SHANKS: Not on our folks.
Q
If you haven't polled this delegation, how
can you confirm you have over a majority?
MORE
- 4 -
MR. CARMICHAEL: This last week last
Saturday a week ago -- we prepared a letter to all members
of the delegation and the letter said, as a Ford supporter
that we thought it was time for the Mississippi delegation
to realize that if they were going to help put President
Ford over the top, this is when they should probably
move and should do it. We are very much worried about
the Hawaii vote that was coming in and the other signals
that I saw coming in in support of the President. So, I
mailed the letter on Saturday, the 17th, I think it was,
and in the letter I asked them to call Doug Shanks or
myself and let us know if they could support the President,
what their commitment was. Would they vote for him,
in a sense, in a straw vote.
The State headquarters, Republican Party, knew
we were doing it, so on Monday and Tuesday, Doug and I
both began to get calls that said, "Yes, I am with the
President."
We already knew going back to when we were
elected at the State Convention -- we already knew many
Ford people had gotten elected to the delegation. I
personally ran as a Ford delegate over in Lauderdale
County and got elected to the Convention on that basis.
Many of us did. So, we knew we had a decent percentage.
I get a kick out of Johnny Apple. He came
down from the New York Times and did a story down here
and said we had three votes, three delegates, in the
thing. So, we have been trying to tell the press, no,
sir, that is not true. There is a good strong support
for President Ford in the Mississippi delegation.
So, when we moved and sent out the letter and
on Monday and Tuesday, we began to receive calls, Doug
and I said, "Okay, let's go down the list and call them
and ask them if they can support the President."
By Tuesday night, my tally showed I had
26 committed for the President. And I did not even talk
to but about, I would say, 45 or so, of the delegation.
I did not even get to talk to all of the delegation. Doug
was talking to some and I talked to some. Tuesday night,
I had 26 for him, eight leaning, eight that felt very
sympathetic toward the President. That gave us a majority.
That indicated a majority and the President had not even
come down yet.
On Wednesday morning, Doug and I having told
the Ford Committee what we had -- they asked us, "Can
you get some telegrams to support that." So, we went
back on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and we began to
make phone calls back to those people and said, "Can
you send telegrams?" So, we had commitments for specific
numbers, now, of support for the President. This is what
those people said. "We look forward to your visit to
Mississippi. You can count me as one of your supporters."
MORE
- 5 -
It was that simple a telegram and we asked
them to do it. No pressure. I ran in to some that had
questions and I said, "Let me see if I can get the White
House, or somebody, to call you and give you some of the
answers, and then would you mind sending a telegram?"
"No, I wouldn' It was that type of thing.
So, our figures were very real in that week, last week,
and we were dealing with a very popular position for
the President down here. He began to get the telegrams
up there to reinforce what we had been saying. That is
when everything happened. That is when the opposition
began to work hard. And by Thursday, Doug and
myself were catching the devil from the opposition,
which is what they are supposed to do. By Friday,
it had turned in to a battle royal.
About that time, we also saw Governor Reagan
announce the Schweiker thing. It was a little after that.
It was Monday. We had the meeting on Sunday and we voted
for rededication of our position at that point. A lot
of you were here for that. So, that is a long answer to
your question, but there is some newsmen that verified
those numbers.
One newsman called me and read his list of the
people pro-Ford and he had one more than I had, so it
was that well-de igned. So, President Ford's support
in this delegation is very strong, very tough.
Now, since Schweiker has been announced, I have
had several of them come to me--and I am not, at this
point playing my cards--and working in this political
battle --- I think that he has in the neighborhood of 40
people out of the delegation for him. But we, again,
are political down here. There is no push for a vote,
to date. That is the way we play our politics.
Now, there is a tremendous pressure in Mississippi
right now by an awful lot of the public wanting us to go
ahead and vote and put the President over the top. That
is going on. There is tremendous pressure to wait and
a tremendous one to go.
Q
Will this delegation go to Kansas City
formally committed to President Ford?
MR. CARMICHAEL: This delegation is made up
of a lot of new Republicans and they are very independent.
It is very possible they can call for another meeting
themselves, and another vote.
MR. SHANKS: If there had been a move for a
vote today by the other forces -- we were prepared, we
knew what our count was -- and that is where we could
safely say that --
Q
You said you didn't have a count yet.
MORE
- 6 -
MR. SHANKS: No. What I said, Tim, she
asked me for a count and I said we have not had the
opportunity.
Now, as late as last night, we had a count,
to be prepared if the forces pushed for a vote and we
were well satisfied that we were well protected.
Q How many?
MR. SHANKS: Over 31.
Q Doug, would you agree with what Gil said
about 40 delegates?
Q
MR. SHANKS: Roughly that. I personally
would say 37. There are several people we have not --
I just don't know. I don't know what the effect was of the
meeting this afternoon, but it is right around 40. I
would say it is probably a fair figure, but it is certainly
more than 31, I assure you.
Q
Is that committed? Are you counting
committed and leaning just a little bit, or what?
MR. SHANKS: In committed votes, we have over 31.
Q
Could we have a list of names?
MR. SHANKS: I don't have it on me.
Q I would be delighted to call out the
members of the delegation.
Q How can this nice agreement remain so
important? If you have it, why don't you give the
President the nomination? Why is that little agreement
so important?
MR. SHANKS: There are some people who are
very much for President Ford that feel like they are
committed to go to Kansas City before they vote and
there is enough number of Ford delegates who feel that
way. That situation may change between now and Kansas
City and I would not be surprised if it did, but there
are enough delegates that feel that way, that they don't
want to take a vote until Kansas City because they have
voted twice to wait to get to Kansas City before they cast
their vote.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
(AT 4:25 P.M. CDT)