For the Record

It’s looking good for Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in Texas. . . . Latest Patrick Caddell poll shows Carter leading favorite-son candidate Sen. Lloyd Bentsen handily in Texas, 38 per cent to 20, with George Wallace trailing badly. . . . The latest White House private polls show Reagan only 4 points ahead of Ford among Republican voters in Texas, but there are indications that thousands of disgruntled Wallace Democrats will jump party lines to vote for Reagan. . . . Reagan could be major beneficiary of growing hostility toward Jimmy Carter in the Wallace camp. Wallace campaign director Charles Snider calls Carter “a new breed of George McGovern” and says that Wallace will “under no circumstances” throw his delegates to Carter at the New York Convention. . . . Carter suffered one important setback as result of his “ethnic purity” statement. The scheduled endorsement by United Auto Worker President Leonard Woodcock, which was to have been made well ahead of the Michigan primary (May 18), is stalled. . . . But Carter has gained ground with the business community. He is, says Business Week, the favorite candidate of Wall Street. An analysis of the economic programs of the three leading Democratic contenders (Carter, Jackson, Udall) by Washington Post economic columnist Hobart Rowan may indicate why. Rowan says Carter’s programs differ from the others in three ways: 1) Carter would push for growth primarily through the private sector; 2) he would be more cautious of federal spending; 3) he would preserve rather than attack the independence of the Federal Reserve System. . . . George McGovern, who addressed a Udall rally and has signed fundraising letters for practically every Democratic contender except Carter and Wallace, has now joined the ABC crowd (Anyone but Carter) with a tepid-ish endorsement of Humphrey.

Morris Dees, Carter’s finance chairman, has come out and said it. He thinks Humphrey is behind the congressional delay in reconstituting the Federal Election Commission through which federal monies are dispensed to the presidential candidates (see: “The Week”). “Humphrey and the rest of them know that if we had the money [the quarter of a million dollars Carter says he is due] we’d pour it into Pennsylvania.” … In California, another major liberal moneyman, Max Palevsky, may mount an independent campaign for Carter to test this spring’s Supreme Court ruling which seemed to okay such spending provided there is no collusion with the official campaign organization. . . . Lew Wasserman, of MCA, another frustrated dispenser of goodies to left-wing causes, says the campaign spending law that puts a $1,000 ceiling on individual donations to individual campaigns is hurting in ways not intended. A donor, says Wasserman, says to himself that if Max Palevsky (who gave McGovern $337,-000 in ’72) is giving only $1,000 this year then I, the donor, will give only $250. . . . For the record, before the FEC funds were cut off it had dispensed about $12.5 million in matching funds to the candidates with Wallace getting the largest slice ($2.7 million), followed by Ford ($1.9 million), Reagan ($1.6 million), Jackson ($1.5 million), on down the line.

Featured Tags

Presidential Election

It’s looking good for Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in Texas. . . . Latest Patrick Caddell poll shows Carter leading favorite-son candidate Sen. Lloyd Bentsen handily in Texas, 38 per cent to 20, with George Wallace trailing badly. . . . The latest White House private polls show Reagan only 4 points ahead of Ford among Republican voters in Texas, but there are indications that thousands of disgruntled Wallace Democrats will jump party lines to vote for Reagan. . . . Reagan could be major beneficiary of growing hostility toward Jimmy Carter in the Wallace camp. Wallace campaign director Charles Snider calls Carter “a new breed of George McGovern” and says that Wallace will “under no circumstances” throw his delegates to Carter at the New York Convention. . . . Carter suffered one important setback as result of his “ethnic purity” statement. The scheduled endorsement by United Auto Worker President Leonard Woodcock, which was to have been made well ahead of the Michigan primary (May 18), is stalled. . . . But Carter has gained ground with the business community. He is, says Business Week, the favorite candidate of Wall Street. An analysis of the economic programs of the three leading Democratic contenders (Carter, Jackson, Udall) by Washington Post economic columnist Hobart Rowan may indicate why. Rowan says Carter’s programs differ from the others in three ways: 1) Carter would push for growth primarily through the private sector; 2) he would be more cautious of federal spending; 3) he would preserve rather than attack the independence of the Federal Reserve System. . . . George McGovern, who addressed a Udall rally and has signed fundraising letters for practically every Democratic contender except Carter and Wallace, has now joined the ABC crowd (Anyone but Carter) with a tepid-ish endorsement of Humphrey.

Morris Dees, Carter’s finance chairman, has come out and said it. He thinks Humphrey is behind the congressional delay in reconstituting the Federal Election Commission through which federal monies are dispensed to the presidential candidates (see: “The Week”). “Humphrey and the rest of them know that if we had the money [the quarter of a million dollars Carter says he is due] we’d pour it into Pennsylvania.” … In California, another major liberal moneyman, Max Palevsky, may mount an independent campaign for Carter to test this spring’s Supreme Court ruling which seemed to okay such spending provided there is no collusion with the official campaign organization. . . . Lew Wasserman, of MCA, another frustrated dispenser of goodies to left-wing causes, says the campaign spending law that puts a $1,000 ceiling on individual donations to individual campaigns is hurting in ways not intended. A donor, says Wasserman, says to himself that if Max Palevsky (who gave McGovern $337,-000 in ’72) is giving only $1,000 this year then I, the donor, will give only $250. . . . For the record, before the FEC funds were cut off it had dispensed about $12.5 million in matching funds to the candidates with Wallace getting the largest slice ($2.7 million), followed by Ford ($1.9 million), Reagan ($1.6 million), Jackson ($1.5 million), on down the line.