University of Virginia Library

Georgia Gov. Carter To Speak
About Southern Democrats

By JOHN EPPS

Jimmy Carter, the
Democratic governor of
Georgia, who has been labeled
a communist by Lt. Gov.
Lester Maddox for his liberal
views on public education, will
speak tonight to the Jefferson
Society in 153 Campbell Hall
at 7.

Mr. Carter will speak on
"The Democratic Party and
the South," a subject he is
intimately involved with,
especially since Democratic
Party Chairman Bob Strauss
selected him Monday to head
up the Democratic elections
for 1974.

Mr. Carter labels himself a
"national" Democrat and is
concerned with seeing the
Democratic Party recover from
the defeats it has suffered in
the past two Presidential
elections, both run by
Republican Richard M. Nixon.

In a telephone interview
yesterday, Mr. Carter's press
secretary, Jody Powell, said the
governor feels the Democratic
Party "is well on the way back
at this point."

Majority Party

He said the Democrats began
to suffer problems as early as
1964, when in Georgia,
Republicans won several seats
in Congress that had been
previously held by Democrats.
At this point the Democrats
have "recouped every seat
except one."

"There had been," Mr.
Powell said, "what seems to us

here an assumption on the part
of the Democrats that 'we are
the majority and we will win.'
That has proved to be a
fallacy."

Lost Congressional Seats

He said, however, the
Democrats were not in the
terrible shape they are often
said to be in. They are still the
majority party in Georgia, as
well as the South, he said.

He did say that the party
had to take some strides before
being declared free of
problems. One is the way in
which the national party has
looked upon southern
Democrats. Very often, he
said, the national party has
told the Southern faction of
their organization that they
were not a complete facet of
the party, since the South
voted differently than the rest
of the party.

"Any national party that
tries to exclude people for
some imperfection in their
political views is destined to
become a minority party," Mr.
Powell said.

Mr. Carter, often referred to
as a "liberal" democrat, has
made some sweeping changes
in Georgia since his election to
that state's top post in 1970.

He has instituted a "zero
base budget," which calls for
the state government to start
their budget from scratch each
year. Mr. Powell said this is to
"guarantee input" from those
involved in the lower echelons
of the government and to place
new state funded programs on
the same priority level as those
already in existence.