SOHP Series: the North Carolina Republican Party TAPE

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SOHP Series: The North Carolina Republican Party

TAPE LOG - R. E. CARTER WRENN

Interviewee: R. E. CARTER WRENN

Interviewer: Joseph Mosnier

Interview Date: Friday, Sept. 27, 1996

Location: Offices of the National Conservative Club, Youngsville, NC

Tape No.: 9.27.96-CW.l (cassette 1 of 2) 9.27.96-CW.2 (cassette 2 of 2; Side B is blank) (approximate total length 115 minutes)

**NB: This is the first of two sessions; see also the second session of Oct. 4, 1996, which continues the discussion and focuses for the most part on matters subsequent to the late 1970s.

Topic: Through his work as longtime Executive Director of the Congressional Club, Wrenn has been an important figure in NC (and national) conservative Repubhcan politics for some twenty years, having joined the then-fledgling Club in 1974 following his college work. Wrenn was born June 30,1952, in Danville, VA. He graduated from public high school in Durham, NC (1970); and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1970-74; Wrenn did not receive a degree), where he studied history. In 1974, he accepted a job offer from Club founder Tom Ellis, and has remained with the Club ever since. The Club has served as the main fundraising and campaign management vehicle of Jesse Helms until 1994, when the Club and Helms parted ways (and at which point the Club was rechristened the 'National Conservative Club'). As the Club's executive director, Wrenn has played a key role in implementing Ellis' conservative ideological agenda through its execution of various political campaigns including, most notably, Helms' U.S. Senate races in 1978,1984, and 1990. With its direct mail expertise and vast mailing list of conservative donors, since the mid- 1970s the Club has raised on the order of $100 million (perhaps forty percent of which was consumed internally in the effort to raise funds). Substantively, the interview was organized around several major themes: Wrenn's personal biographical history; his earliest political involvements in college and personal political views; the Club in its earliest years, ca. 1974-75 (the Club was founded in 1973); the Club's ties to Ronald Reagan and key role in Reagan's triumph in the 1976 NC Repubhcan presidential primary; and the Club's work on Reagan's behalf in the 1980 presidential campaign. These and other related issues are discussed in considerable detail. The conversation runs through the Club's work with Reagan in 1980, but leaves for a second session several key aspects of the Club's work in the late 1970s, and most later matters, for a second interview session. As with all interviews I have done for this series, I attempt to explore, through the lens of the interviewee's particular range of

Interview number A-0422 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. Restriction: Permission of interviewee required to read, listen to, or quote from interview. "N.C. Republican Party" - Tape Index, Carter Wrenn Interview, Sept. 27, 1996 2

experiences, the overarching theme of political dealignment/realignment in NC party pohtics in recent decades.

Subject Headings: North Carohna Repubhcan Party; Congressional Club; North Carolina Pohtics & Government; Tom Ellis; Ronald Reagan; Jesse Helms; John East.

Comments: Only text in quotation marks is verbatim; all other text is paraphrased, including the interviewer's questions.

TAPE INDEX

Counter Index Topic

[Cassette 1 of 2, Side A - Tape No. 9.27.96-CW.l]

001 [Opening announcement]

007 Basic biographical information. Youth near Danville, VA, on farm; parents; fondness for reading; later move to Durham during high school. 032 Earliest political involvements in college, and particularly the influence of two friends who were active in Republican youth politics. First impressions of Jesse Helms were not favorable.

058 How his personal political philosophy evolved and grew more conservative in college; volunteer work for the 1972 Helms for Senate campaign.

078 Faculty mentors and academic experience in college.

088 Recollections of the 1972 elections. 094 How he came to join the Congressional Club in Dec. 1974, the Club's early structure, and the effort at the time to retire Helms' 1972 campaign debt; how the debt had been accumulated. Early key figures in and around the Club and the 1972 Helms campaign: pollster Arthur Finkelstein, Club founder Tom Elhs, others.

155 The story of how Wrenn came in 1975 to be appointed Executive Director of the Club at a meeting in Helms' D.C. office.

189 Tom Ellis' vision and ambition was to build a "political campaign vehicle" to advance the "conservative cause" by electing conservatives. "I think that was his goal from his first day"; paying off Helms' 1972 campaign debt was merely a first practical problems to be addressed.

201 Sketch of Tom Ellis and his political philosophy; Ellis as a "political "genius"; Ellis' early ties to Jesse Helms. Ellis' selflessness in advancing the conservative cause by doing all this work for no personal financial gain.

267 Ellis' relationship in the late 1960s with Jim Gardner.

279 In its early days, the Club had many conservative Democrats as well as registered Republicans in its limited donor pool of some 400 supporters.

300 Ellis pioneered rather than borrowed the model of the Club, since there were no comparable political organizations in those days.

308 Meeting Tom Ellis for the first time in 1975 shortly after the meeting in DC. Wrenn's early work March to June 1975: how Ellis assigned Wrenn the task of working on a planned visit that summer to NC by Ronald Reagan, and how Wrenn compiled dozens of country club membership and other lists to create a mailing list from which contributions could be solicited.

370 Expansion of the direct mail operation with the help of Richard Viguerie in Washington, DC. Ellis' philosophy was that Helms should sign any and all fundraising letters because it only cemented supporters' sense of his commitment to conservative causes.

395 The dramatic success of two early direct mail efforts in the spring of 1975. How a direct mailing was accomplished in those days with fairly rudimentary word processing equipment and by contracting with a mainframe computer operator in Raleigh.

452 Recollections of the 1975 dinner in Raleigh with Ronald Reagan: Ellis' direction that they add more tables to a crowded hall to accommodate more attendees; broadcasting the event live on WRAL-TV; Reagan's "great speech."

491 Reagan's appeal.

520 The Club's evolution after 1975 turned centrally on the 1976 Reagan presidential primary victory in NC in 1976, a campaign run by Tom Ellis and the Club. Intraparty tensions between the more conservative Club/Helms wing (which had roots in conservative Democratic traditions) and the more moderate Jim Holshouser wing (centered traditionally in the western, mountainous part of NC and dating from the Civil War era) as they evolved following the 1972 elections.

623 How Holshouser's ambition to challenge Helms for the Senate seat in 1978 heightened tensions between the two camps.

636 [End of Side A.]

[Cassette 1 of 2, Side B - Tape No. 9.27.96-CW.l]

001 [Opening announcement]

003 Further discussion of the intra-GOP tensions.

012 Ellis' influence on the ultimate decision by the 1976 Reagan campaign to run Reagan as an ideological candidate; how Ellis and pollster Arthur Finkelstein directed Reagan's 1976 race in NC (producing a superb, targeted supporters list; creating TV ads and a half-hour Reagan address); tensions between Elhs in NC and the national Reagan campaign staff. The "brilliant success" of the 30-minute TV address by Reagan, and further details of how Ellis managed Reagan's visit to NC prior to the address.

122 Reagan beats Ford in the NC primary 52-46 in a "big upset"; how Elhs then quickly transferred the campaign model to the Texas primary, since it had worked so well in NC.

133 How the Club pushed ahead aggressively and gained control of the NC Repubhcan Party by working at the county level to elect Reagan delegates. "It was some pretty acrimonious Repubhcan infighting." Wresting control of the state convention from officials from the Holshouser/Ford wing of the party. The back-room deal that sealed the Club's triumph to control the convention's selection of the delegates to the national GOP convention in Kansas City.

164 Preventing Ford delegates - including the sitting governor, Jim Holshouser - from gaining seats at the national convention, since the Club had the votes 60-40 for the Reagan slate of delegates.

201 Specific details about how the Club set up a staff and organization in the various counties, leading to the Club's success in gaining control of the state GOP in 1976.

223 Why the national Reagan campaign in 1976 had no choice but to bow to Tom Ellis in NC.

236 Sketch of pollster Arthur Finkelstein, one of three political geniuses Wrenn has met in his life. Details of Finkelstein's professional history and style of work. How Finkelstein and Ellis complemented each other.

283 Details of how Finkelstein and the Club execute political polls.

314 The 1976 GOP national convention in Kansas City, and the Ford-Reagan contest; how Ellis, against the wishes of the national Reagan campaign, called an independent meeting of about thirty Reagan state chairman in Atlanta to orchestrate the development of an ideologically charged platform that could be introduced in Kansas City as an alternative to the Ford-backed platform.

385 Sketch of John East, who drafted the Club-backed platform in 1976 and would later be its candidate for U.S. Senate in 1980.

422 Events of the period 1976 to 1978: the Club's direct mail efforts with Richard Viguerie to raise money for the 1978 Helms race; how Wrenn learned a great deal about direct mail from Viguerie; "basically I took a two-year course in how to elect people" because, flush with cash, the Club was able to try nearly anything it wanted to advance the 1978 Helms campaign.

483 How events in the 1978 Helms race suddenly made crystal clear the overwhelming power of electronic media to push political campaigns: when Helms was lost six weeks in the summer to back surgery, the Club bought lots of TV since the campaign was otherwise on hold for lack of a candidate, and Helms jumped dramatically in the polls.

543 Details of the process by which the Club's TV spots were developed.

596 The Club's relationship with Richard Viguerie, the direct mail pioneer. Details of the costs and returns from direct mail.

630 [End of Side B.]

Counter Index Topic

[Cassette 2 of 2, Side A ~ Tape No. 9.27.96-CW.2]

001 [Opening announcement]

006 Direct mail issues, cont'd. Contract terms with Viguerie, and how they evolved over time to align the interests of the Club and Viguerie more closely. 048 Use of radio in comparison to TV in the 1978 Helms Senate race; how Finkelstein crafted a strategy for use of radio ads; probably 80% of the Club's media purchases in 1978 were TV, though more radio was used in later years.

061 The Club's staffing in 1977 and 1978; difficulties related to the formal legal relationship between the Helms campaign and the Club in light of Federal Election Commission regulations; how the Club controlled the Helms for Senate campaign staff directly, a staff that grew from 15 to about 100 persons at its peak.

101 The creation of Jefferson Marketing, Inc., a political media consulting business founded by two former Club employees in 1978; the issue of the Club's relationship to JMI.

112 Reflections on Watergate and its impact on the 1974 elections, which were "just a complete wipe-out" "Ninety-four and 1974 are a lot alike as elections in what happened with votes, but it's just driven by different things."

126 How Elhs ca. mid-1970s "was right in the middle of a transition where a major political tradition in the state and country was realigning itself from one party to

another; ...there was no place for conservatives to go but into the Republican Party."

140 Relationship between the Club and Reagan after 1976: Reagan signed a fundraising letter for Helms in his 1978 race; the Club kept close to Reagan through Charlie Black, who was then running the Repubhcan National Committee.

155 On account of the Club's 1976 efforts, it was never in doubt that Reagan would run as an ideological conservative in 1980; the debate that year was whether Reagan would adopt supply-side economics or run on a more traditional Repubhcan economic message.

167 Reagan's advisor Martin Anderson and the supply-side debate.

179 The Club's relationship to, and effective control over, the NC GOP from 1977 through 1985. NC GOP directors Jack Lee (1977-81) and Dave Flaherty (1981- 85). The Club's goal was never to build a powerful GOP state-wide headquarters, but rather to exploit the Party, which was allowed by law to spend certain moneys and perform certain political tasks the Club could not, to advance the Club's agenda of electing strong conservatives to pubhc office, particularly at the national rather than state and local level.

215 How the Club was developed and structured for the express purpose of creating a powerful, flexible, modern political campaign organization ca. 1978. Legal troubles related to the complex relationships between the various components of this Club-centered structure. Details of the Club's structure, which was designed to accomphsh the seven essential functions required by a political organization or campaign.

312 [End of Side A of Cassette 2 of 2; Side B is blank. End of interview.]

**NB: This is the first of two sessions; see also the second session of Oct. 4, 1996, which continues the discussion and focuses for the most part on matters subsequent to the late 1970s.