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Statement by the President and Press Conference of Charles Pickering, GOP Chairman from the State of Mississippi, Paula Unruh, GOP Chairman from the State of Oklahoma and Harry Dent, the President Ford Committee Advisor for Southern Politics
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Statement by the President and Press Conference of Charles Pickering, GOP Chairman from the State of Mississippi, Paula Unruh, GOP Chairman from the State of Oklahoma and Harry Dent, the President Ford Committee Advisor for Southern Politics
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Digitized from Box 30 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 16, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
THE WHITE HOUSE
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
AND
PRESS CONFERENCE
OF
CHARLES PICKERING
GOP CHAIRMAN FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
PAULA UNRUH
GOP CHAIRMAN FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA
AND
HARRY DENT
THE PRESIDENT FORD COMMITTEE
ADVISOR FOR SOUTHERN POLITICS
THE BRIEFING ROOM
4:29 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: I have some very outstanding
leaders of the Republican Barty from a very important
area of the country. As you will recall when I was in
Vail I said we were going to have a national campaign.
Some of you doubted it. I want to repeat it, and I will
give you some evidence of what we are going to do to
show the good faith of that comment.
On Saturday, September 25, we are going to fly
from here to Louisiana and we will board a Mississippi
riverboat, the NATCHEZ, and we will go on a riverboat
trip from that point in Louisiana down to New Orleans,
spend the night in New Orleans and on Sunday, the 26th,
we will drive from New Orleans through Mississippi,
through Alabama, and we will get to Florida Sunday
night, the 26th. We will stay overnight in Florida
that night and on the following Monday morning I will
speak to the National Association of Police Chiefs in
Miama Beach.
I think this is the best evidence that what I
said, I meant; that we would have a national campaign.
We were going to seek full support from the States in the
South and here, alongside of me, are the Republican
State Chairmen from those Southern States.
We have with us Paula Unruh, the State Chairman
of the State of Oklahoma. But, before I leave -- and
Paula and the others will answer questions -- let me just
say we will see you on the boat.
MORE
- 2 -
Q
Did they give you an optimistic reading
about the South?
THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. I will let them
answer, Helen.
Q
Mr. President, before you go, could you
react to Governor Carter's comments today?
THE PRESIDENT: I will see you later, Phil.
MR. NESSEN: We do have the announcement reduced
to paper, the details of the trip as far as they are
known now. We will hand them out as soon as the briefing
is over.
Go ahead, Paula.
MRS. UNRUH: I just wanted to have a chance to
tell the President that the reason the Southern State
Chairmen are up here today -- and we have all talked about
it -- that is, to let him know and to let the people
in the United States know that the solid South is not
so solidly for Jimmy Carter. We feel that the day of
regional support is over in American politics.
The fact that Jimmy Carter may be the boy next
door to a lot of people in the South does not necessarily
anymore have a lot to do with it. Southerners are looking
at what is best for their country, and they are thinking
about their families and they are thinking about the life
they are going to have in this country.
We think they are going to be looking at what
President Ford stands for and they are going to vote
accordingly in November. We are here to predict that
President Ford is going to carry a great deal of the
South on November 2, and personally we all are going to
be in there trying to bring that about.
Q
How many States do you think the President
will get in the election of the South?
MRS. UNRUH: Out of the 13 in the particular
region?
Q Yes.
MRS. UNRUH: I would like to predict at least
half.
MORE
- 3 -
Q
Are you prepared to name the ones you think
he will lose?
MRS. UNRUH: No, I am not prepared to name
them. We have seven weeks to go in the campaign. I
think a lot can happen between now and then. The ones
I would say today might be different tomorrow. I will
speak for my own, Oklahoma. I think President Ford can
carry Oklahoma.
Q
Mrs. Unruh, did the President pledge to
return to the South sometime during the election campaign
beyond this trip that he announced today?
MRS. UNRUH: He certainly said it was a
possibility.
Q Do you have some evidence in the form of
polls perhaps to support your Oklahoma contention?
MRS. UNRUH: Yes, I do have. We started some
telephoning this past week on a voter identification
program. It got underway in Tulsa, and the results of
those calls were rather startling to us because we have
been considering it a very nip and tuck thing and, of
course, it could end up being that way because the calls
were made in an area of the State which is strongly
Republican.
But, they were not our better precincts. We
were getting as much as two to one and better results.
We were a little leery that that was too good to be true
so we checked through some of the other candidates'
campaigns that were going on and they were getting a
two to one support also for the President in Tulsa,
in Oklahoma, which has just thrilled us.
Q
Could you name for us three or four
precincts?
MRS. UNRUH: Do you mean by number?
Q Yes.
MRS. UNRUH: No, I am sorry, I can't. I
was not involved directly in the calling. I got this as
a report from the people who did it.
Q So that we might believe it, could you obtain
it for us and get it to us?
MRS. UNRUH: Yes, of course.
Q
Would you transmit it to the United States
Press, Washington Office?
MRS. UNRUH: Yes, I would be glad to.
MORE
- 4 -
Q
Where do you think Jimmy Carter is the
most vulnerable among the Southern voters? In what
area, on what issue?
MRS. UNRUH: You know, I think probably
the thing that they are going to catch on to him about
is the fact that he says, on the one hand, he wants to
put in all these programs which he calls to help people.
And they are just more Government spending programs to tax
the American voter. He, on the other hand, turns around
and says how he is going to balance the budget. I gave
an example at noon today where a woman, if she decides
she wants to jump off the deep end and go out and buy
$1,000 worth of clothes and she has $200 or $300 in the
bank and goes to her husband and says she will balance
that bank statement at the end of the month, he is smart
enough to know she can't do that.
I think the American people are intelligent
enough to know Jimmy Carter can't promise them he is going
to go out and spend all this money on all these programs
and yet have a balanced budget. He is being caught up
in his own words.
Q
Mrs. Unruh, I understand this morning you
said something about Texas in regard to the President's
chances of improving in Texas at the present time.
MRS. UNRUH: I believe the question was
how was he going to do in Texas. The polls in Texas,
I understand and there, again, I guess it depends on
the polls you are talking about -- make Texas look like
a tough State for the Republican Party or for the Ford-Dole
ticket, but we do know former Governor John Connally is
heading up the Ford campaign there. We have a great deal
of faith in John Connally.
Q
Do you expect to be getting a lot of
Republicans to be working for the President or do you
think there will be problems with the Reagan supporters
just falling by the wayside?
MRS. UNRUH: That. is the beautiful part,
there are no problems. I predicted a long time ago that
when this contest was over, we were not going to have a
problem and I will tell you why. We did not have a
contest between two candidates where the supporters on one
side supported that individual because they were against
the other one.
It was not that way on either side, and now that
the National Convention is over, it only took a few days
and everybody has really hung in. I think Charles
Pickering, from Mississippi, is the State chairman
there. He was a Reagan supporter. Charles, it might be
fun if you answered that.
MORE
- 5 -
MR. PICKERING: We have had no serious problems
in Mississippi. All of the Reagan leadership that fought
so hard for Governor Reagan in our delegation are openly
supporting President Ford: Billy Mounger, Victor Mavar,
Swan Yerger, all of these have openly endorsed President
Ford. We are just tickled to death with the progress.
We started down -- some polls said as much as 40 percent.
The most recent polls showed we have come up within
three or four percent of Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter
is vulnerable on his platform on the issues of whether
or not he is consistent in the stance that he takes this
week and next week. We think the people of Mississippi
will vote for President Ford in November.
Q
Could you be a little bit more specific
about what States you think the President's chances look
best in? We understand the polls, for instance in
Mississippi were not as bad as some people might have thought.
MR. PICKERING: I think the President is in
excellent shape in Louisiana. I think he is in excellent
shape in Mississippi. I think he is in excellent shape
in Virginia. I think he is running very close in some
others. I think he will get a majority of electoral
votes from the Southern States.
Q How about Mr. Dent's evaluation of the
situation in the South? Would you like to play the numbers
game with us?
MR. DENT: I would add a few more States onto
what Charlie has said. The point is that the cotton
South is blooming. That is the point. All this talk about
writing off the cotton South, and the cotton South is
as fertile today as any other part of the country in
electoral votes for the President. You can mention Texas,
you can mention Louisiana, you can mention Alabama, surely
Florida, South Carolina, in my State, the Darden Poll
showed the President was running a little bit ahead in
South Carolina.
Then, you come up to Virginia and then Tennessee
and North Carolina are coming on. We don't rule out
the Georgia situation with Lester in there running.
So, the point is -- you ask why is this
happening? Why is Jimmy Carter going down like the
Darden Poll says and the President is coming up?
The reason is because the people in the South relize
that instead of being a conservative, that the man is
really a liberal, a born again liberal. When you look
at the Carter record of his flip-flops back and fourth --
he is down in the South visiting George Wallace saying
one thing. He is up in Michigan praising Senator
McGovern, saying another thing.
MORE
- 6 -
But we know down South that we no longer can
trust this man who ran as a conservative in the primaries
and gave in to the Democratic liberal establishment at the
Convention with the platform naming his running mate, and
in the statements and the stands he has taken since the
Convention.
He can't come back down South and try to pick
it up because the people in the South no longer trust Jimmy
Carter and they do today come to trust the President of
the United States because they know who he is, where he
is, what he has done and where he is going to lead the
country.
MORE
- 7 -
Q
Mr. Dent, since the President wouldn't
stick around and answer any questions here, I wonder
if I could put to you the question for some reaction on
what Carter said today and that was that he now under-
stands why it took Mr. Ford so long to get out of the
White House, because he does not have a record to run on.
MR. DENT: He has the record and that was the key
reason why, frankly, I supported him prior to the
Convention and at the Convention, because when any guy
comes along and he has a record of peace, prosperity and
public trust, I don't see how you can beat it in the
general election.
So, it is not only the fact that Carter is going
down because he is losing public trust, but it is the fact
that the President is coming up because he does have the
record on the issues that count. Lou Harris says that
when you look at the polls. The issues are on the
President's side, but the biggest issue of all, I believe,
is going to come out in the TV debates and all the campaign
appearances from here on forward is going to be the
question of which man can you trust and believe in.
Q Mr. Dent, I want to ask you, sir, do you
remember the fact the President promised not to pardon
Richard Nixon? He promised to cut taxes and in other
matters did reverse himself on positions of major policy?
Do you regard those as having been flip-flops or something
else and, if so, what?
MR. DENT: The President has made some changes
but Jimmy Carter ran. The President, when you look at
him in this campaign, he has been consistent in the
campaign, all the way through, what he has told the people
he is going to do in the next term as President.
Jimmy Carter started out as this conservative
and, as I say, he went to the Convention and changed and
the tide in the country -- all the polls show this is a
conservative ripple running across the country -- and
that is where Jimmy Carter is caught. He is caught off
base and he is trying to make the attempt to get back on
base, but in the South it is too late because down
South, you know, you either win the public trust or you
don't, and you can't come back and pick it up.
Q
Why do you think Jimmy Carter changed at
the Convention? If the country is conservative, why
didn't he stay conservative?
MORE
- 8 -
MR. DENT: I think he was trying to unite
that loose, fragmented Democratic coalition and in doing
that he has gone against the grain of the prevailing
mood in the United States.
Q
Mr. Dent, how 'decisive will the debates
be in the South in deciding between Ford and Carter?
MR. DENT: They will be very decisive because
the people there will be able to see clearly the conser-
vative platform of Jerry Ford and his party as ag inst
the liberal platform and stance of Jimmy Carter and his
party. When they see that, that does it. Down South,
you know, we have always been a little leery of people
coming in from outside and trying to tell us what to do
and run our affairs. But, we worry even more about the
Lyndon Johnsons who come from down home and then change
and come back and tell us a differ nt tune.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
(AT 4:43 P.M. EDT)