Now that the game is well under way, this column will keep you posted, regularly, on the hunt for delegates to the GOP Convention. As of now the leader is Goldwater, with 69 pledged (North Carolina 25; Oklahoma 22; South Carolina 16; Tennessee 4; Kansas 2). Lodge is second, with New Hampshire’s 14. All other hopefuls have a total of zero.
The endorsement of Goldwater by the California Republican Assembly, by a margin variously estimated at nine-to-one or better, brought screams from the Liberals. As for the Rockefeller forces, “the rules were on their side,” conceded columnist Doris Fleeson, a close friend of ultra-Liberal Fred Hall, the éminence grise of the CRA Liberals. As to the charge that Goldwater forces “stole” the vote after the Rockefeller forces walked out, look at the arithmetic: there were 616 uncontested delegates to the convention; exactly 78 Rockefeller delegates walked out; one news report statès that six delegates stood up for Rockefeller and the rest were for Goldwater; and, after an official count was requested, the chair refused.
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