Republicans: Rocky’s Rise

For a while last week it looked as if the G.O.P.’s Big Rs might all appear to gether at a conference on Medicaid in San Francisco. But the prospect was too political to please. When Nelson Rockefeller learned that George Romney had been the only other Governor to accept Ronald Reagan’s invitation, he hastily canceled out. “I’m not a candidate,” Rocky insisted. “I didn’t want any misunderstanding.” Reagan opened the conference, then flew on to other business before Romney arrived, fresh from his tour of ghettos in the Mid west. Finally, the noncandidates and their wives arranged to get together for a “nonpolitical” lunch at the Reagans’ home in Pacific Palisades.

Rockefeller, the man who wasn’t there, still will not go away. As Romney slipped down the polls, Rocky shinnied up. The Gallup poll indicated that the New York Governor would beat President Johnson, 48% to 46%, in an immediate election. In a Lou Harris sur vey, Rocky took over as L.B.J.’s strongest potential challenger (just trailing, 43% to 44%), while Romney fell to fourth. In a poll of California’s Republican state legislators, 31% said that they personally hoped Rockefeller would get the nomination in 1968.

“It’s Socialism.” Also in California, Don Muchmore’s State Poll calculated that Rocky leads L.B.J. 50% to 38%, Romney leads the President 45% to 42%, and Senator Charles Percy, now likely to be Illinois’ favorite son, ties L.B.J. at 42%. However, Mervin Field’s California Poll reported that the voters there preferred only one Republican to Lyndon Johnson, and that is Nelson Rockefeller. Field’s figures had Rocky beating L.B.J. 52% to 36%.

Back on the East Coast, Reagan’s daughter Maureen stumped New Jersey last week, stirring echoes from Goldwater days.*She says she is providing information on “how to win elections.” Her line of attack: “What we have in America is not new; it’s socialism.” This seems to be Maureen’s version of “the Speech,” which her father delivered for Goldwater. It didn’t win that election, but it did Reagan a lot of good.

*Reminiscing about 1964 on educational TV, Goldwater confided: “We had every cable of every television company and every radio company marked up in the loft of the Cow Palace. If anybody got a little too obnoxious to us, they could always have cable trouble.” Next day on ABC Barry explained that it was all a joke. “There never was any thought of cutting lines,” he said.