Nixon, Eisenhower & Devine on Congressional candidacy and Campaign strategy

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Hi.

Come on in.

Oh, by all means, by all means.

Well, that's a, it's a, it's a very big decision.

You want to do it right.

You want to do it right and take your time and think it all through.

Fortunately, there's no rush.

I mean, not everyone's the way they are.

You see the way it is.

.

I mean, I would see you going up to the district.

I wouldn't see you physically moving to the back of the office.

You know, you could do that, but if I could, you could go up to the governor's and the president and the Republicans and all the rest.

Go ahead.

So, you know, if I report, the state chairman knows that I'm directing the guy and making the attempt to

But he

on the other hand, he's not going to say a whole lot of things and see why he doesn't want to.

I figure he'll be laying down, and that will not be particularly effective.

Well, he will continue to look like a candidate.

He's going to continue to put on his shirt.

He's going to continue to impose appearances.

Yeah.

Well, so we're not going to be patient with this new plan.

Well, basically, what you will have to do.

Well, I can't do it.

Oh, you can say his state term.

Yeah.

You can say his, you can't tell his state term what you know.

I think you would say that under those circumstances, you would like to keep your, you don't want to challenge him and will not, of course, become active, but you want to get acquainted in the district in case something does open up.

I think you could say that for all of us.

The others, I'm afraid, like Ethan and Amber, there's probably one else.

I'm not sure about that.

That would concern me, the fact that you're not being an announcement.

It doesn't make a difference, provided.

I guess you would have some problems there.

Some people would say, well, look, we've got another one.

But I can take hold back.

But what would you tell them?

Right, you should say that.

That would carry the future.

But you could say, David, you could say, he's not a candidate, I'm not a candidate.

But did you raise with them the possibility of maybe working without them in the government and not have them working in the House campaign?

That's always either a committee or a congressional office or a congressional campaign.

We talked about it way over.

The congressional campaign committee has this advantage.

I personally think it probably doesn't make any difference.

You can't quite go around what you do.

Maybe there's some Washington there on the hill and there's plenty of people.

But you can have many committees.

It would be far more interesting if you could help actually in the country than it would be to just burrow yourself in a boat that are working on a commerce committee or something like that.

But also, I think it would be perhaps more

more easy for us to work out.

And I think Michael would be delighted with that.

A lot of exposure.

In fact, he would use you as a speaker, and as a writer, and as a candidate for care, which is what the whole aim of the game is.

There's a possibility.

That's the other thing.

In fact, he could do the issue book.

He could work an issue book, which they have to get out for candidates.

They do.

What you could do, basically, would be a way to combine the same dimension.

It could be on the research side.

What they do is they research all of the common .

And also, research .

It's a way to .

I would say it's probably the best way that you would get immersed in the issue much better than me, say, working for a single committee.

I would agree.

You said something about going on the issue and talking about the debates.

You wouldn't be able to do that.

Well, I wouldn't say I wouldn't do that.

You know, if I were running against me, I would do it.

In a hammer position, I would exploit the fact that I'm an administrative assistant on the Hill, and I would be an effective congressman.

So, as you heard, I hadn't heard of this.

I was wondering.

You thought he was going to do it?

Sure.

I was wondering.

What kind of policy?

You know, he pulled 45% of the primary last year.

The real estate director was very, very attractive.

I checked with my wife.

He was going to go out and get you.

Yeah.

There was a chance.

The insurance was a chance.

Yeah.

It would be great if you would drop off both of you.

And also, he knows he should be there for you.

And good thing it's for you.

There aren't any questions about that.

But the best way to be for you, in my opinion,

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

See, some stories will leak out, speculating that I was a subtle man, but I really did.

And it's not a right human thing, but it's a subtle thing.

What do you think, Sam?

What does that mean?

Well, I personally think that, first, nothing worthwhile.

You get it without some sort of... And I think when you get into the thing, it's water.

the way i would do the household now let me say i talked to you about this

And he's very business-like.

He would make up, you're going to have a contract, a lease of that thing.

If your mom had a rental of, say, $500 a month, whatever that sort of thing brings.

That's what you'd pay, and it's worth it.

But you don't do, do you know what Rose paid for her $2,600 a month?

She lives in Watergate.

But of course, that's expensive, but it's very short.

Your secretary's office, they pay $3,400, $500 a month.

My own view is that the house is...

should run at all, because there's going to be something else.

Particularly if, when you do run, then I would say, I'd grab yourself a department or a small one.

Well, to run out of it.

In other words, what I do, David, if I were you, I would get an apartment in Gettysburg.

And you basically use it as your place for you to come up there.

There'll be times you'll want to overnight in there, you know, you'll be out there.

But the point is, the point is, I don't...

I mean, the barn, after all, after all, David is...

You see, when I was away, when I was in Congress, I couldn't afford two residents in California.

And I used my mother's address.

We're here.

Right on the boulevard here.

My mother's and father's address was the commercial address I used.

That was my official address.

And nobody ever raised any questions.

They don't expect Congressmen to maintain two residents.

They just want you to get the hell out of the district now.

That's the important thing.

Even when you go to your district, you just want to hear you.

Good.

Oh, good.

I certainly appreciate it.

Now, let's think about it.

I don't want you to feel that there's a drag for you to stay in the house and do this.

The only problem is, well, you've got to live someplace in Washington.

I'll tell you what's problematic.

The state chairman has been extremely cooperative.

As cooperative as he can be, considering that he hasn't maintained his relations with Scott.

He's resistant.

He doesn't want to talk about other things until I've resolved.

I see.

That's right.

Then maybe if I go on... Then you can say that as soon as Goodwin decides that you will make your move.

That's what I do.

And then I would do what I please then.

What I would do if you're working here in Washington, I would then get your apartment up there and say, it takes your time to move out of the house because the point is if you win the election, which you will, you'll want the house.

Because you can't, as it turns out, you cannot make your move to get a third house.

It's a good thing we'll not have a house.

See, that's why David, and I think the same thing for everybody,

William is going to say, right now, I'm not going to go.

And David, in a sense, should go up and start running.

But he can't go up there and start running right now.

Would you agree that?

I don't think it's like that.

I think it's better that way.

He doesn't want to go on camp.

That's another thing.

Don't go up too long.

I'd make a few appearances there, but I wouldn't get down in the dirt with those guys.

I'm very careful to grab them.

You should let them be out there running around and so forth.

And you just make your quiet appearances.

I'm not sure that I do too much.

I don't do too much right now.

You might consider, though, putting it back in your mind is how it's going to be.

I haven't considered it.

Because they have a research group.

Research group?

Yeah.

He's done a tremendous amount of research.

He's researched a lot.

I also committed to Barbara Connelly.

very grateful to be here.

Good guy.

Right.

You see, he would be, would you have any objection of saying talk to Byron about this?

No.

Just say it.

Look,

here's a good property, good speeches all over the country, and so forth and so on.

And he will.

And he should.

And that's not a, it's a mistake to take David Eisenhower and Julie and say, look, you just want to go up there and meet just another guy on average.

They've got to send him up.

You know, they're requesting for him to go over there.

Perfect.

You'd like him to hear this.

Why?

I had Julie out there.

We want her back.

Good.

She's good.

But you see, if you could,

research research research research research research

I like the idea of researching private.

His staff director is Mark Phillips.

I think it's Kevin Phillips, right?

Oh, yeah.

He was a great admirer of Kevin Phillips.

Read everything, every column.

He's good.

Do a little quiet checking to see if we don't.

Basically, it should be research, but having in mind the fact that here is a guy that does want to go out and make talks even through college campuses and all that sort of thing.

Right?

And also, that will get you data in trim.

A little bit, it's just

Well, thanks a lot, Sam.

We'll see you at the next leadership meeting.

We'll see you tomorrow night.

Thursday night.

You don't expect me to get them down there in two hours, do you?

I'll bet you haven't when you get back.

Thank you.

Nixon, Eisenhower & Devine on Congressional candidacy and Campaign strategy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 10, 1973

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