Jimmy Carter

Campaigns

In 1975, I was nineteen, a sophomore at Denison University and an aspiring politician.  I already had experience. At fourteen I helped manage a local judicial election campaign, and at seventeen in the spring of ’74, I helped run Tom Luken’s “Get Out the Vote” operation for a Congressional special election . 

 My “shining moment”was  in the fall of ’75. I managed the campaign to make the village of Granville, Denison’s home, allow liquor sales.  Historically, Granville was headquarters for Ohio’s Methodist Convention, and a “dry town”.  While Denison (at least in my time) was anything but a “dry” campus, you couldn’t buy a beer within the village limits.  We changed that (If I had a nickel for every drink now sold in Granville, known for its pubs and breweries…). By 1975 campaigning was already “in my blood”. 

Denison

Denison gave students an opportunity to “design” their own academic major.  Students could put together courses and “experiences” and graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree molded to their own particular needs.  My degree was in “American Political Studies”. It was an amalgam of political science, history, and education courses; designed to earn a teaching certificate as well as prepare me for Law School and my future political life.  

One semester would involve student teaching,  and one semester would be working in Washington DC and taking courses at American University.  But the “best” part was the fall semester of 1976 – when I would do an “independent study” by working in a Presidential campaign.

Find a Winner

Easy to say:  but which political campaign could I work on?  In the early spring of 1976 there was no way of knowing which candidate could win the Democratic nomination.  I contacted the Sargent Shriver campaign.  Shriver was a Kennedy in-law, and head of the Peace Corps for JFK.  Getting close to a “Kennedy” campaign was always a goal, and Senator Ted Kennedy wasn’t running, still suffering from the political fallout of his Chappaquiddick disaster in 1970.  

But Shriver was out of the race by early April, and I was at a loss where to turn next.  My professor and advisor, Dr. Kirby, was friends with the brother of Ohio Governor Richard Celeste.  Ted Celeste was active in Columbus politics, and the state manager for the obscure former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter.  I had an interview with Ted (I wore a tie over a flannel shirt – it was 1976). We agreed I would volunteer with the Carter primary campaign in Cincinnati after spring semester was over in early May.

Carter/Mondale

Jimmy Carter was never my first choice.  He was too moderate, too Southern, and too anti-Washington DC for my taste.  But his crack staff of Georgia political operatives, led by Hamilton Jordan (pronounced Jur-den)  had him in position to win the nomination if he could win in Ohio in June.  They had momentum, and I wanted to be a part of the fall campaign for the Presidency.  

So I walked into the Cincinnati “headquarters”, a decrepit office building  next to an “hourly” hotel in downtown Cincinnati.  I already knew a couple of staffers there from the Luken campaign, and within a day I was putting together the “Get Out the Vote” effort for the Cincinnati area.  I was nineteen years old: street campaigning is for the young, energetic, dedicated and sleepless.  That fit my lifestyle just fine.

Carter won Ohio, and the Democratic nomination.  I used my primary contacts to get on the “professional” staff for the fall campaign.  I was a “paid political operative”, at $75 a week!! While today that sounds like nothing at all, it  converts to almost $400 in 2023, enough to live on, as long as I slept at Mom and Dad’s house.

Professional Operative

I spent the summer painting houses, repairing my Volkswagen’s engine, and studying Jimmy Carter.  I read his book, Why Not the Best, and every bit of the “policy bible” I could get my hands on.  In the end, I was a “Kennedy Liberal” in a “Carter Moderate” campaign, but that didn’t bother me.  As a future lawyer there would always be “clients” to represent that I didn’t necessarily agree with. I could make the case for Carter, especially against Republican Gerald Ford, the legacy of the Nixon/Watergate debacle.

I ultimately wrote a thirty-some page paper about my fall experience with the Carter Campaign for my independent study credit.  They put me in charge of eight rural counties around Cincinnati, gathering statistics (by hand, there was no such thing as a “webpage”; and just barely calculators) to analyze.  I also had Miami University in my “territory”, and I helped organize the student staff there.  And I had “the best” job:  I was in charge of the “illegal” sign operation in Cincinnati itself.  All of those campaign signs that “blossomed” at intersections, telephone poles and bridge railings in the middle of the night:  that was my crew.  Luckily for us, the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police were on our side. In fact, some were part of the crew. 

And, in the end, I was back to my specialty:  Get Out the Vote efforts in Cincinnati in the last weeks.  The mantra was  we’ll sleep after the election.

The Candidate

I got to meet Jimmy the one time he was in town.  The “powers” in Atlanta decided to fly him in on the second day of the World Series. It was Sunday, and the Reds played the Yankees for the championship.  Everyone in town was fixated on the “Big Red Machine”. It seemed natural to send Carter to the ballgame.  But Atlanta worried that he might be booed. We said, “Put a Reds hat on and he would be golden.”

But It wasn’t to be.  Jimmy flew in for a brief rally at the Lunken commuter airport.  There was a crowd of a couple thousand there to see him, and the staff was brought in for a “meet and greet”.  When I shook hands and welcomed “Governor Carter” to Cincinnati, he quickly corrected me – “Jimmy.”  He gave us a short pep-talk, then was back on the plane headed to Cleveland.

In fact, I spent more time with Senator Howard Metzenbaum that day.  The Senator was there for the rally, but abandoned by his staff, who were anxious to go watch the game.  In the end I gave him a ride in my beat-up Volkswagen back to his downtown office.  He was a kind and respectful man, and  we had a good discussion about politics and Ohio.

I did get to spend more time with Carter’s daughter-in-law, who campaigned in the “outer” counties with me.  And I got to meet Rosalyn (Rose-a-linn, not Ross-a-linn) as she spent a couple days in town.  

Back to Granville

Carter won Ohio, and the Presidency.  The original count had him up by 5000 votes in the state. Each of us young staffers “knew” that it was our singular effort that got him there.  We walked across Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati early on Wednesday morning after the election was determined. For the moment – we owned that town.

I decided to finish my Denison education rather than try for a job in the Administration. But I spent the winter and spring of 1977 in Washington, working for Congressman Luken and studying at American University.  The next year I was back in Granville. And when I spent that winter and spring student teaching at Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, I found another vocation that could compete with politics:  teaching.

In 1980 I was contacted about joining the Carter Staff for their ill-fated campaign.  But it wasn’t disappointment in Jimmy – it  was the “lure” of teaching and coaching that kept me on the sidelines. 

Outside-Inside

I do have a better understanding than most why the Carter Administration failed in so many ways.  The “Georgia Mafia”, so brilliant at the politics of winning the Presidency, were too dedicated to being outsiders.  Washington is an insider town;  the compromise needed for the moderate President to work with a progressive Congress, even from the same party, didn’t happen.  Add to that the economic downturn, and the Iran hostages (with Reagan negotiating to hold until after the election). Jimmy was fated to lose in 1980.

But even with all that, he did manage to bring together two mortal enemies:  Israeli Menachem Begin and Palestinian Yasar Arafat. They negotiated the Camp David Accords, the first agreement between the two sides.  

President Carter

And Jimmy Carter, out of the Presidency at fifty-six, remained determined to impact the world.  His forty years of work through the Carter Center perhaps were more influential than his Presidency.  The organization monitored elections throughout the world, demanding free and fair voting.  It virtually eliminated parasitic river blindness worldwide.  And Jimmy annually volunteered for construction with Habitat of Humanity up until two years ago, when he was ninety-six.

Jimmy Carter is a model of faith, decency and service.  While his Presidency wasn’t what he hoped, his influence on the world was even greater after he left the highest office.  He’s taught Americans how to live, and now, entering hospice, he’s teaching Americans how to die.  I’m proud of my distant association with him, but more importantly, awed by his lifelong dedication.  

Godspeed, Jimmy.