Field Coordinator
When I was just turned twenty in 1976, I worked for the Jimmy Carter for President campaign. I was a lowly “field coordinator”, one of those bottom level organizers who had direct contact with student groups, union locals, county party organizations. We organized door-to-door walks, literature drops, and the ever-present “sign” campaign.
I travelled from near Dayton to the Ohio River, delivering materials, planning activities, and sleeping in the back of my Volkswagen station wagon on some nights. I learned a lot, including to never, ever, take the VW to a United Auto Workers union hall. The old UAW local President put his big arm lovingly around my shoulders, and quietly told me to get another car or not to come back. From then on, I borrowed Dad’s Olds’ Cutlass for the trip.
Dick Tuck
My boss was a guy from Nebraska named Mike Jackson. He looked like a lineman from the Cornhuskers, not the “other Jackson”, and he was a forty-some year old veteran sent in to win Southwestern Ohio for Carter/Mondale. He had learned from the best, starting his political life working for Hubert Humphrey. And he told us stories, late at night over cheap Hudepohl beer while we printed signs on his homemade screen printer, stories of a campaign legend named Dick Tuck.
Dick Tuck was the Democratic “master” of the dirty trick. He originally was a “Kennedy” man, and became famous for doing things to Humphrey in the hotly contested 1960 primaries. They were dirty tricks with flair. Humphrey did a “whistle-stop” train tour of West Virginia. While he was standing at the caboose, speaking to an assembled crowd, Tuck signaled the engineer to “pull out”. All Humphrey could do was wave goodbye. Tuck called and cancelled Humphrey rallies, gave Humphrey drivers bad directions, and was all-around annoying to the Humphrey team.
Eight years later Tuck was working for Humphrey and needed a large crowd in a downtown area. His trick then: buy junk cars and stall them in the major intersections. After gridlock occurred, send in the candidate. With people motionless in their cars, they got out to see what was going on – and a crowd was born.
Nixon
Tuck was so good, that the 1972 Nixon campaign hired him to do: nothing. They just wanted Tuck to leave them alone. But the Nixon campaign had plenty of “dirty tricksters” of their own. It wasn’t just the Watergate break-in, it was a fake letters published in newspapers, fake workers pretending to be Communists for a Democrats, and perhaps even drugging opposing candidates.
Nixon didn’t want to run against Ed Muskie, and sent the full force of his “dirty tricksters” against him in the primaries. Muskie lost. Nixon wanted to run against a more liberal Senator George McGovern from South Dakota. McGovern won.
Our Moment
We wanted to “be like Dick”. In October of 1976, President Gerald Ford was coming to town. The other Field Coordinators and I had a great “dirty trick” idea. As Ford was speaking on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati, we would unfurl a large Carter/Mondale sign from atop a nearby abandoned building. The action would be sure to attract both the crowds and the medias attention.
So we went to the top of the decrepit building, carefully avoiding holes in the roof, and prepared our sign. We were young, so young. Of course we told the Secret Service what we were doing on a rooftop overlooking the President, we didn’t want to get shot. And the Service said we were fine, but intentionally didn’t bother to tell the Cincinnati Police.
About thirty minutes before Ford arrived we looked out over the scene, to see white-shirted policemen pointing to our roof, like a picture of Dealey Plaza in Dallas after the Kennedy assassination. We ran for the stairs, but were met halfway down by a phalanx of officers, who made it very clear we were in the wrong. The Secret Service detail laughed as we were hauled out, but didn’t let the Police know until after the President was done.
Crowd Sourcing
Like everything else in today’s society, campaign “dirty tricks” are “crowd-sourced”. Now you don’t have to risk the Police, or Secret Service, you can just put an idea out online and let it catch fire.
One example is conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. Hewitt was a “Never-Trumper”, right up until the moment Trump won, and Hewitt’s son got hired at the EPA. Then Hewitt did a full reversal, and ever since has been a Trump apologist. A few weeks ago Hewitt publicly announced that he was voting in the Virginia Primary for Bernie Sanders. His argument was that he wanted “…a clear choice” for President, but ultimately this Trump sycophant was sending a message to the Trump base: rig the Virginia primary for Bernie.
Republican voters don’t have much to do this primary season. Hewitt’s “dirty trick” is catching fire. Here in Ohio, where you are required to “declare” your Party, there is a movement to get “Trumpers” to cross-over, even if requires them to lie on an affidavit stating they voted at least 50% Democratic in the last election. The Trump camp is operating on the assumption that they can choose their opponent, just like the Nixon team did in 1972.
MAGA Hats
The Trump team also crowd-sourced disruption of the already confused Iowa Democratic Caucus tally. The back-up phone number for entering results was published on Trumpian web sites, and they helped jam all lines. It’s easy with crowd sourcing; there is no one “trickster” to blame.
Trump broke American laws and suffered impeachment to tarnish Joe Biden. While Biden has his own electoral problems, it’s difficult to determine how much impact the Ukraine scandal has had on his candidacy. I hear from many younger voters, “…Biden is just a dirty politician like the rest”. He wasn’t, until Trump made his son Hunter a household word.
Now Trump and his minions have made it clear they want to run against Sanders. Fellow Democrats, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t support Bernie, if he’s your guy.
But don’t be surprised if you look around and see fellow voters in MAGA hats.
