University of Virginia Library

Campaign Workers Confident Of Victory

McCarthy Supporters Gather Votes For Connecticut Primary

By Rod MacDonald
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The mood is optimism, and everyone is
eager. Students pour in from surrounding
towns and colleges, and radio telecasts list
the numbers hourly of those canvassing
the homes of Democratic voters. Everywhere
is excitement concerning the upcoming
state convention and their votes for
Presidential nominees, and, for once, in
Connecticut the public is taking notice.

All this is the work of the tenants of a
building two blocks down Church St. from
Main in a redeveloped area of Hartford,
Conn. One-half of the building is up for
rent, the other is the state headquarters of
Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy.

Not only does the building look like it
belongs to an upstart, but in state politics
it does. Since Democratic National Chairman
John Bailey became state chairman,
he has never lost a state election for a
post higher than a Congressman and has
firmly stated that when the party convention
meets in the summer it will decide to cast
44 convention votes for Lyndon Johnson.
By petitioning several towns, the McCarthy
forces have necessitated a primary and
have now set up a headquarters to get out
the vote.

Work For The Senator

So it is not surprising when a well-dressed
student asks you on entering if you've come
to work for the Senator: many canvassers
are needed to get out the vote. The well-dressed
man shows you a copy of the
Senator's book "The Limits of Power" on
sale for $6, hands you a pin and bumper
sticker, and expects some work from you.

The place is placed with people a hundred
feet back in a narrow room lined with two
rows of desks, and everyone looks busy.
Everyone is smiling, for as worker Don
MacGillis put it, "It's not a meaningful
protest now after New Hampshire. We're
going to win."

And so the office is cluttered and filled
with hope and energy. The dynamism is almost
stifling: everyone wants to talk to
you, to sell you on the Senator, to get you
in the field canvassing.

The well-dressed girls and suit-clad men
shake your hand with vigor, talk to you
with vehemence, and try to include you in
their group with enthusiasm. It's a move to
include the people, and every person is
hoped to include himself. The walls, moreover,
reach out for you with clippings
from newspapers, posters, and headlines.

Hope And Confidence

One article cut from the New York
Times shows McCarthyites claiming ten per
cent of the state vote already; many others
predict victory. Not only is there hope, but
lots of confidence.

In Hartford there are 38,000 Democrats
who can vote in the primary April 9, but
"The machine can go down in the wards
and drag out 3,000 votes to win it. We have
to generate interest—the fewer people who
vote, the greater odds we face.

"We go down in the wards, the immigrated
areas, the slums. The people don't
know anything about who's running and
couldn't care less. They have no idea, and,
if they vote it'll be by the machine who
gets them to the polls. In West Hartford
(a wealthy suburb) we'll do lots better—
the people there are aware."

Explosive Situation

The state situation is a potentially explosive
one. In the past the town chairmen
have sent delegates to the state convention,
who would then select for whom it
would vote under unit rule. This year,
however, the McCarthyites are trying to
break unit rule and capture at least half of
the delegation's votes.

"The state is not at all united, and neither
is the party," said Mr. McGillis. "Abraham
Ribicoff (former governor and U.S. Senator)
has showed that he is not with Bailey by
declaring himself neutral, and we could get
quite a few of those votes for Mr. McCarthy.
If we can win a few primaries in
some towns, notably the big ones (Hartford
and New Haven) we may start the momentum
towards winning the convention delegates
to us."

Reprinted from Ramparts

Even with the enthusiasm one subject,
nonetheless, is still distasteful—Robert F.
Kennedy.

The official canvasser's sheet lists only the
responses made by Senator Kennedy, but
the McCarthy workers are considerably
more vocal: "He's an opportunist. He
wanted to keep his name clean until the
initial victory was won, and now he wants
to take over the bandwagon. He's watched
the fire from the hills, and now he won't
get the heat unless Senator McCarthy gives
it to him."

The real work, however, is not done in
the office but at the people's homes. All
weekend the influx of students coming to
work in the drive had received primary
news coverage, as three hundred students
from Trinity, Hartford College, and Boston
flocked in to canvass. From Hartford they
were sent to all the local headquarters to
campaign in other towns for the April 9
primary and then report back to the state
office on Church Street.

Each was handed a packet of cards with
addresses and names and brochures to deliver
to the people. Then there is a study
sheet of what to do when confronting a
voter. It says to be indirect and never put
the voter on the spot, identify yourself as
a McCarthy worker, mention the name of
the person heading the town slate for McCarthy,
and hand him the literature piece
by piece, saying a few words about each.

Advice To Workers

The sheet then lists a few short pitches to
give the people and some other advice
("Please don't force your opinions on him
or pressure him"). Key issues include the
war, emphasizing that the Senator does not
favor a unilateral withdrawal but a negotiated
settlement, and inflation ("another
consequence of the war"). The issue not to
discuss is that of local figures John Bailey
and Abraham Ribicoff. Then each canvasser
is to fill out a file card, ranking the
person on a preference scale of 1 to 6. A
mark of 1 means strong support, 2 is weak
and should be used unless a 1 is definite:
3 is undecided, 4 possibly favorable to the
President, 5 unfavorable, and 6 a fan of
Robert Kennedy. Never marking the card
in the person's presence and never getting
angry are two final instructions.

Literature distributed includes many bits
and pieces: a newspaper titled "Campaign
'68," a bumper sticker, and a sheet noting
that the AFL-CIO scorecard shows Senator
McCarthy voted right 40 times of 40,
and Lyndon Johnson 30-11 of 41, in the
period when they served together in the
Senate. It then lists each vote where Johnson
voted against labor, emphasizing that
Mr. McCarthy voted for labor.

Another interesting piece is the newspaper
"Campaign '68," containing facts
about Mr. McCarthy's life, boyhood, and
voting record. One article describes his
teenage ability at hockey and his hometown
of Watkins, Minnesota: "Population
760 friendly people and few grouches."

Masterpiece

The paper's masterpiece, and the meat
of the pitch, is an article called "What's
gone wrong since JFK." It was written
by the Senator himself, and holds no
punches: "All the world looked to the
United States with new hope, for here was
youth and confidence and an openness to
the future. That was in 1963. Now the
mood of the country is one of distrust and
fear. The forward progress of the Kennedy
years has been stalled, and in its
place we have a kind of national paralysis."

Timely picture quotes such as, "The party
which, in its drive for unity, discipline and
success, decides to exclude new ideas is in
trouble"—John F. Kennedy in "Profiles in
Courage", further bolster the article's
strength.

The canvassing met with varying success.
One girl who had worked in the south
Hartford slums said "This is Connecticut's
first primary in a long time, and most
people don't respond much to any candidate.
Only one-fifth of the people seemed
really interested. Very few like President
Johnson—inflation has hit them the hardest,
and their sons are the ones in Vietnam.
No doors were slammed in our faces,
though, and the people were generally
friendly."

Only one incident had been recorded at
the center. A boy from the Philippines, who
had joined to "keep the Americans out of
Asia and keep the Asian race pure" was
greeted at a door by two policemen handcuffing
the occupant. The boy spoke to the
man and handed him the literature, and
the man said he would certainly vote for
the Senator if he could make it to the
polls.

Uphill Fight

The next day the papers were still commenting
on the uphill fight to disentrench
the Bailey machine. One quoted Reverend
Joseph Duffey, who heads the entire campaign,
as saying that "something has to be
done or we will go broke soon." another
mentioned several local politicians who were
coming out to support Mr. McCarthy. Even
a week later when President Johnson announced
that he would not seek or accept
renomination the problem remained the
same: get the convention votes for Senator
McCarthy. The news was good and bad,
but all signs pointed to at least some success.
In a state controlled by the men in
the back rooms rather than those at the
polls, the people were at last getting their
say. All that remained was to draw out that
voice.