In 1976, I was a campaign operative, a \u201cField Coordinator\u201d for the Carter\/Mondale Presidential campaign. My job duties varied. I was \u201cin charge\u201d of campaign activities for six rural counties in Ohio including Miami University, the Get Out the Vote and \u201cillegal\u201d sign operations in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), and statistics for the entire region. It was the perfect job for a twenty year-old willing to \u201csell out\u201d for a political campaign; 100 hours of work a week, often snatching a couple of hours in a sleeping bag on the floor in the office, or in the back of my 1967 Volkswagen \u201cSquareback\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(I learned a hard lesson about the Volkswagen: never, ever, drive it to the United Auto Workers Hall in Hamilton, Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0The Union President wrapped his huge arm around my shoulder and made it clear:\u00a0\u00a0he wouldn\u2019t tolerate a \u201cforeign\u201d car in his parking lot.\u00a0\u00a0I borrowed Dad\u2019s 1969 Old\u2019s Cutlass for trips after that \u2013 the UAW guys loved it, and it got me to Hamilton a lot faster anyway).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was exciting, I was a part of a \u201cbig\u201d cause, electing the President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0I had my three-piece suit and my Bicentennial Tie (it was 1976), and my \u201cstaff\u201d Carter\/Mondale button.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And for that, I got $75 a week, a check from the Campaign in Atlanta (OK, that\u2019s not quite as bad as it sounds \u2013 in 2023 dollars that\u2019s $400 a week).\u00a0\u00a0Oh, and I had a desk in our \u201cheadquarters\u201d in the sleezy Ft. Washington Hotel between Sixth and Seventh Street downtown.\u00a0\u00a0I was\u00a0\u00a0in the \u201cbullpen\u201d with the other young coordinators.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only Paula and Mike, the County and Regional Coordinators got their own offices.\u00a0\u00a0My desk was just outside the \u201cphone bank\u201d, where twenty phone lines were used to reach out to voters.\u00a0\u00a0In the last few weeks of the campaign, there was ten hours-a-day of the constant murmur of high school kids and older women, calling registered Democrats for the Carter campaign to ask what they thought of the former Governor of Georgia.\u00a0\u00a0Today we\u2019d call it \u201cpush polling\u201d, but back then it was just another check, a contact to a registered voter.\u00a0\u00a0Mike said the \u201cmagic number\u201d was five; five contacts to \u201cinsure\u201d a Carter vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around the first week of October, Mike said to stay close to Cincinnati. While I should keep my rural counties going, the \u201cbig cheese\u201d for the campaign was Cincinnati, in Hamilton County. If we could win here, or at least keep it very close, then the urban areas up north; Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Toledo; would bring Carter across the finish line for a win in Ohio. (That strategy ultimately worked \u2013 Carter won Ohio by a little over 11,000 votes out of 4 million<\/em>). And Mike introduced me to a new duty, being part of the \u201cteam\u201d for Carter \u201csurrogates\u201d who came into town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got to meet \u201cJimmy\u201d (he insisted we call him that, not Governor).\u00a0\u00a0It was a brief fly-in, a \u201cmeet and greet\u201d, with a few thousand supporters at a local airport.\u00a0\u00a0His plane swooped in, Jimmy talked to the crowd, then he came into the terminal and gave us local staff a quick pep-talk and handshake, then flew back out again.\u00a0\u00a0Beside shaking the hand of the future President, the most notable event of that day, was Senator Howard Metzenbaum.\u00a0\u00a0He was left at the airport by his own staff.\u00a0\u00a0He \u201cbummed\u201d a ride back downtown with me, in the Volkswagen Squareback.\u00a0\u00a0Me,\u00a0driving with a US Senator in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got to spend a little more time with the rest of the Carter family. Rosalynn (pronounced Rose-a-linn) came into town in the middle of October. While she had a full Secret Service detail in protection, Mike delegated a \u201cstaffer\u201d to be with her as she went to campaign events. It was important to brief her on who she would meet, what they did, and what the local \u201cissues\u201d might be. She was amazing; intellectually, politically, and as a person. Rosalynn had the ability to make anyone she talked to feel that they were the center of her attention. She was gracious, and kind and caring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosalynn showed me a new reality: that politics, particularly national politics, is a team effort. Sure Jimmy was the candidate; but his wife, children; even daughters-in-law all bore the burden of communicating his ideas. Rosalynn was an impressive campaigner, so were the daughter\u2019s in-law. I took one on a college campus \u201ctour\u201d to meet the campaigns I helped establish there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not quite so much the sons. And, for those with a really long memory, one of the best Carter \u201csurrogates\u201d was Jimmy\u2019s mother, Lillian. She was already accomplished \u2013 a career nurse and a Peace Corps volunteer at sixty-eight years of age, and now approaching eighty, she campaigned across the Nation for her son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the two-hundred year anniversary of the United States. At that time, we were recovering from Vietnam and the Watergate political debacle. And it wasn\u2019t just those, it was the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King, and even the attempt on George Wallace\u2019s life. In 1976, it took both a solid family from Georgia, and, a solid family from Michigan, President Gerald Ford and Betty and their kids, to help bring the Nation back to normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here we are now, just two years from the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the USA.\u00a0\u00a0And we are again in the midst of new crises; both in the world and in American politics. In the campaign of \u201976, both candidates and their families helped.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ford\u2019s gracious acceptance of defeat, and Jimmy\u2019s magnanimous victory, healed political wounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jimmy is ninety-nine years old now. Rosalynn passed away this past weekend. The former President lost the love of his life. He and Rosalynn were married for seventy-five years. The graciousness they brought to the White House helped heal a Nation. The purpose they showed in their post-Presidential life set an example for the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are still searching for today\u2019s \u201cexample\u201d, the families that can bring our country back to normalcy. It seems we have a long way to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Family<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Fifty Years On<\/h3>\n\n\n\n