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Notes Regarding Political Organization and Problems. 5 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], 11/11/1970
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This file contains:
Notes Regarding Political Organization and Problems. 5 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], 11/11/1970
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Richard M. Nixon's Returned Materials Collection
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library
Contested Materials Collection
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16
16
11/11/1970
Campaign
Other Document
Notes Regarding Political Organization and
Problems. 5 pgs.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Page 1 of 1
November 11, 1970
NOTES
RE :
Political Organization and Problems
Specific problem areas requiring immediate intensive
attention are:
Suburbs - Rumsfeld to ride herd on developing a new
strategy.
Farm - Need a whole look at political necessities in
this area.
Economy - Can't do anything on this directly but must
keep a close eye.
Regions - Don't write off these areas - particularly
New England and the South. We'll go after all regions
in almost all states - even Massacnusetts unless Teddy
Kennedy is on the ticket.
Population Groups - Blue Collar, Catholics, etc. Colson
in charge of overall program.
Specific states requiring immediate attention and overall
plans:
California
Illinois
Ohio
Wisconsin
Missouri
Texas
Florida
Pennsylvania
All of these must be organizednot around the Republican
Party but on a Committee for Nixon. This especially
applies in the South. Committees should also be set up
in :
Georgia
North Carolina
Virginia
A fresh approach must be established.
2
Immediate thought must be given to plans for
a number of backers must be prepared to move in
and this should be explored thoroughly and scientifically.
Colson should be on top of this.
We must be prepared for the Democratic strategy in
Congress which will probably be to introduce a number
of major programs that we can't approve in the area of
education, health and polution. Their plan will be to
force us to veto these popular programs and thus put us
in the worse possible light. To counteract we need our
own legislative program on a positive basis with a few
really good measures. Also we must develop an expansive
budget for !972 - not based on the HEW giveaways, but in
the areas that create jobs - not the areas that take
care of the poor.
We also have to recognize we can't blame the Democrats
anymore for what we inherited, everything from here on
is our problem.
General strategy on the Democrats should be to build up
all the Democratic candidates so that there is no unifying
factor behind any one front leader. We need to develop a
program to pin every Democratic Senator in Congress on
the compulsory integrated housing issue. This should be
done by letters to each candidate and by questions and
press conferences to get them on the record at this early
stage. One individual must be assigned to get this done.
We need to develop immediately a plan for polling activities
leading up to 1972. Specifically we should have a program
for quickie polls in key states to keep a continuous bench
mark reading. We don't need very many huge polls in depth.
We also need an analysis of what happened to the polls in
1970, particularly why they didn't show the significant
shift that took place in the West.
The general strategy has got to include a major run at
New York and Pennsylvania especially because of the soft-
ness in Illinois and California. Also we need a very
careful analysis of the way to approach Texas.
3
We need to make a decision on the general approach
to the convention fairly soon. On an overall basis
our convention should be second and it should be late.
We should work for a short campaign with Presidential
participation limited to three weeks maximum.
The convention should be cut down to approximately two
days - certainly not four and we should look for a new
approach to the whole thing. The city should not be the
same as that of the Democrats. First choice is probably
Chicago, if Illinois is winnable. Second choice would be
to take one of the states that we need - New York, Cin-
cinnatti, Philadelphia, would be the prime contenders.
The whole approach to the convention should be based on
how to make it a good television program.
We have to set up a man to man operation on each of the
Democratic candidates with full follow through. Ed Morgan
should be in charge of this. There should be full research
with a desk man on each candidate.
We need a systematic study of all the publishers who will
be important in terms of endorsements and are worth
going after. We need to lock up the good ones that are
with us such as Annenberg but also pursue those who are
doubtful. This would include Knight, Cowles, all the
Chicago papers, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnatti, New-
house, Miller, Copley, Hearst, Chandlers.
We can't let any of these get away and we've got to
determine at each paper who will be making the editorial
endorsement decision and then work on him.
In the area of television we've been working on the
wrong targets. We haven't gained much ground with
Sarnoff, Paley and Goldenson. We should be working on
the real power people that are on the air such as
Reasoner and Smith, Kaplows, etc. Colson should be
riding herd on the TV, not just the networks, but to
be sure we're covering all the major independence.
4
We should start work immediately on a documentary
for television. The one done by the RNC missed the
point cause it didn't build the enormous importance
of the key things such as the November 3rd speech.
The new one must be done much better.
We've got to stay on top of the mock conventions at
universities, also develop a program for reaching
professors and intellectuals and a program for reaching
and maintaining contact with our columnists. Also we
need to develop a real youth thrust to make sure that
we dont leave youth to the opposition.
Dent should move now on the South but not as a
Republican just a Nixon organization. Also he should
develop his regional plan.
We have to have plans immediately for New York, Pennsy1-
vania, Illinois, Ohio, California, and Texas. At the
second level, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, New Jersey,
Connecticut and Florida. At the third level, the Southern
states, the Mountain states, and the farm states. Each
state must be handled differently and a plan developed
for each one fitting its particular situation.
In addition to having one man in charge of each state -
and we should start setting that up now so that we do
have a key person assigned to each one of these individual
states and reporting directly to the President when he
wants a report - we should also plan for polling state
by state - these will be much more helpful than national
polls.
We should investigate bringing in Bob Price to put him
in charge of New YOrk. Also the question of what
Mitchell thinks about Bob Lee and Cliff White. Also
Mitchell should talk to O'Daugherty regarding the true
story of who really put the New York victory together.
The Ripon Society has succeeded in getting a lot of
play with their stuff. Can't we set up an opposing
force to get equal mileage? Maybe something under Jim
Buckley's banner.
5
Something has to be done on the selection and
bringing in of a finance chairman quickly.
A lot of thought has got to be given to campaign
scheduling - the question of whether a dog and pony
show really does any good - or whether we should
simply concentrate on television with only enough
public exposure to make the point.