Struggle For Power Looms

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30592, 7 November 1964, Page 17

Struggle For Power Looms

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 6. The future of the Republican Party is uncertain, and a power struggle looms in the coming four years. Senator Goldwater, who won the nomination with the support of the party’s right wing, insists he is remaining the party leader.

“Being unemployed as of January 3, I will have a lot of time to devote to the party,” he said in a television appearance in which he denied that the defeat had crushed the conservative cause.

He blamed moderate Republicans who did not work with him for the loss. Mr William Miller, the Senator's Vice-Presidential running mate, said in Lockport, New York, he expected “no power struggle” within the party, although he said it was likely there would be a call for the resignation of the national chairman, Mr Dean Burch. The latter, picked by Senator Goldwater to run the campaign, called yesterday for party unity and an end to internal bickering. Liberal Republican leaders were already calling for action to restore the party’s power. Republican State Governors were called into session before the end of the month to map out their future in National Party circles. One of the Liberal republicans who won in spite of the Johnson landslide in New York city, Mr John Lindsay, announced that moderate Congressmen would meet in Washington later in the week. Governor George Romney, of Michigan, who scored an impressive re-election victory after standing against Senator Goldwater, told a news conference that the party must regain its unity. But the Governor, who has been regarded as a strong

possibility for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1968, listed Mr Goldwater among the ‘leaders” he hopes to meet in rebuilding the party. Governor Nelson Rockefeller, of New York, who opposed Senator Goldwater for the nomination this summer, faced his own problems as Democrats took control of the State legislature and drove out many of his strongest supporters. He left tonight for Spain on a holiday before tackling the problems. Governor Rockefeller said the Republican Party must be brought “back to the mainstream of American thought.” The Governor also stepped to the front of a move to rebuild the Republican Party in New York state, where Democrats gained control of the legislature. He said he had talked with Governors G. Romney, of Michigan, and William C. Scranton, of Pennsylvania, all three of whom opposed the Republican Presidential nomination of Goldwater.