Defeated Republicans do some soul-searching

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 8

Defeated Republicans do some soul-searching

(By LARS-ERIK NELSON, NZPA-Reuter correspondent) Washington

Since its defeat in the November United States Presidential election the Republican Party has not only been soul searching, but wondering whether it has a soul to search.

“We are perceived as a party that cares for the rich and not the poor, the businessman and not the consumer, the industrialist and not the environmentalist, those who can help themselves and not those who need help,” the VicePresidential candidate, Mr Robert Dole, told America’s dwindling group of Republican governors last week. The message was particu-j larly tough coming from Mr Dole, a conservative Republican regarded by many voters as embodying the qualities he spoke out against. The party emerged from the election with the loss of the Presidency and commanding the allegiance of only 12 governors in 50 states, 38 of 100 senators, and 142 of 435 members of the House of Representatives. Equally important for the long run, the party is bitterly split between its Right wing and Left wing, split so badly that Mr Dole told the Republican Governors’ Association:

"1 have a sense of our party as one with a very barren middle ground.” Mr Dole’s prescription was for a radical alteration of the party’s image and appeal. In the November 2 election the Republicans won most of the white vote, most of the educated vote, and most of the rich vote. Yet in predominantly white, highly educated, rich America, they lost. “We need the women, the young, the blacks, the Hispanics (Spanish-Americans), the ethnics, the Indians,” Mr Dole told the 12 white, welleducated, and relatively wealthy Republican governors.

“We need working men and women. We need those who live in rowhouses (terraced houses) and tenements.”

Mr Dole also appealed for an end to the factionalism that threatens to paralyse the party as a national institution over the next few years, a factionalism likely to emerge most strongly on January 14 and 15 when the Republican National Committee meets to elect a successor to its current chairman, Mrs Mary Louise Smith.

Party insiders say Rightwing supporters of the former governor of California, Mr Ronald Reagan, are particularly bitter about Mrs Smith and her supporters in the moderate liberal section of the party.

They accuse Mrs Smith It and the national party appa-’t ratus of favouring Mr Fordic during the pre-election prim- t aries, thus denying both theh nomination and the Presi-'s dency itself to Mr Reagan. t “The Reaganites think they could have won every ] state taken by Ford, plus t Ohio, Louisiana, and Florida, i They would have lost New i Jersey, but they think they 1 would have had enough to i beat Carter,” one informed ' Republican said. L But the Reaganites are not,} strong enough to put their > own choice into the party'* chairman’s seat. ( Who should fill that seati’ is the focus of the current " debate within the party, andr President Ford, Vice-Presi-' dent Nelson Rockefeller, and ! other party leaders have yet * to be heard from. Names that have been ; mentioned include that of J the former Governor of , Texas, Mr John Connally. { But, though he is by instinct , a Conservative, he is op- ( posed by Reaganites because s he backed President Ford. To give the chairmanship:; to someone clearly identified h with either the conservative < or liberal wing of the party I would only lead to further t feuding, party insiders be- < lieve. L “I believe the selection ofjt

the new chairman should not represent a victory for one faction and a defeat lor another, but should be a person who can bring all sides together,” Mr Dole told the governors. The fact remains that Republicans are almost certain to remain the minority party, no matter how many votes they may gain in election years. The party went into the Presidential election with only 18 per cent of the American voting public registered as Republicans. It has attracted a bigger share of the vote largely because of the personalities it has mustered as its candidates — Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The city-dwelling working man and woman, the Span-ish-American, the black, and the ethnic American whom Mr Dole wants to recruit are so closely bound to the Democratic Party that they are not likely to be lured by the affluent suburbanites and smalltown businessmen and farmers who need them only at election time. “We have hard work to do,” Mr Dole said. “Let us proceed not with an attitude of desperation or despair, but with the firm conviction that we still carry some candles to light the w'ay into America’s unchartered future.”