, RIPON RIPON NATIONAL GOVERNING BOARD MEETING: MAY 12 MAY 1, 1977 VOl. XIII, No.9 50 cents Commentary: Young Repuhlicons THE TEAM PUTS ON A NEW UNIFORM Most Republicans would prefer to for­ legal. And there was a precedent for get Watergate. They do not invite Rich­ everything I did. The Democrats did ard Nixon to give them endorsements nor things like this for years and years do they hire persons involved in CREEP's and nobody screamed about it. This is dirty tricks to aid their efforts. Most a double standard. Republicans would go to extreme lengths to disassociate themselves with the 19- In testimony before the Senateis 72 Nixon campaign. Watergate Committee in June, 1973, CREEP's Bart Porter testified: Not so the ruling elite of the Young I paid a hundred dollars, I believe Republican National Federation, known in approximately a hundr~d dollars to recent years as "The Team." They have Mr. Roger Stone on one occasion to chosen as their candidate for YRNF pres­ go to New Hampshire to leave a leaf­ ident, Roger J. Stone, Jr., director of let, I believe at Senator McGovern's administration for the National Conser­ headquarters, and I paid another vative Political Action Committee. At $200 to Mr. Stone, the same Mr. Stone, NCPAC, Stone joined a number of other to go a second time to New Hampshire conservatives prominently engaged in to make a cash contribution to Mc­ the Team in the past and more recently Closkey's campaign. These were all in the Reagan effort. J.David Nickels, at the direction of Mr. Magruder. former executive director of the YRNF, •.• l made total payment of about is a member of the board of directors, $6000 over a 3-month period again to as is Frank Donatelli; executive direc­ Mr. Stone that was passed on to a tor of the Young Americans for Freedom. Mike, I cannot remember his last name Stone was a board member when he was again now, I believe it was McMinaway employed as director of legislative from Louisville, Ky., who worked in services for the Public Service Research Council in 1974-75. Briefly, in 1973-74, Stone was a staff aide to Sen. Robert Dole(R-Kan­ sas). He was until columnist Jack An­ derson revealed that he was the same guy who donated $20,000 of CREEP's money to U.S.Rep. Paul McCloskey's New Hampshire primary campaign in 1972. An­ derson said the money. was-given in the" name of leftist organizations like the Young Marxist League. At. the time, -, Stone said: .. What. I did was not illegal. I was 19 at the time. Remember that. It was a serious error in judgment. I re­ gret it very much and I can assure you that I will weigh very carefully ever­ ything I do in politics in the future. But this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. I did nothing il- two or three of the primary campaigns cludes for co-chairman, Ann Quirk, a mod­ as kind of an eyes and ears and kept era,e conservative 'Ford backer from Texas the campaign, kept Mr. Stone informed and ,current assistant secretary~ for vice of morale and this kind of movement chaift1t1an at large, iMartha McCrery, a YR and that so~t of thing. 1- nati~nal committee~oman from Illinois and Cook County Ford backer; for secretary, Michael W. McMinoway, known to C~EP cheryl Gordon, a re~ional vice chairman as Sedan Chair II, was hired by one' from Utah and Ford ~acker~ for assistant " Jason Ranier" to work as a volunteer' secretary, Linda Reed, a South Carolina in .the Muskie, Humphrey, and McGovern Reagan backer; for Treasurer, Louis Bar­ campaigns in 1972 and provide informa­ nett, a Ca~ifornia Reagan activitist~ and tion on these Democrats to Ranier. ! for ,uditor, Ed Stanley, a Washington . Ranier was identified in the Watergate Reag,n backer. Committee hearings as Roger Stone, i though McMinoway never knew him by that B]ack is confident that the Stone slate name. McMinoway, who said he was intro­ willibe successful,saying,"I don't think duced to Stone by Martin (sic) Black­ ther~'s any question about." Black, NCPAC well, never participated in any active chainman and so Stone's boss, claims back­ sabotage of ~he Democratic campaigns. ing f,rom two-thirds the 824 delegates. Stone, then head of the Distrist of . Th~ Team ticket is opposed by one Columbia Young Republicans, also recom­ heade~ by KentuckyYR National Committee­ mended the hiring of Theodore F. Brill man R~ch Evans, a 1976 Reagan delegate. as a CREEP spy on radical activists. Dan M~ntz, one of Evans' backers and the Brill, then head of the College Repub­ Maryl~d YR chairman, disputes the long lican organization at George Washing­ lead plaimed for Stone. Mintz thinks ton University, was hired by the CREEP the K~ntucky conservative is running youth division. Ken Rietz, who headed close behind "sure thing" Stone~ that effort, "worked on the Ronald Rea­ I gan presidential campaign last year--­ Ev,ns, a 28-year-old owner of an auto as did Stone, who was Reagan's national dealetship, is older than Stone, now 25. youth director. But b~th are younger than the 35ish lead­ ers the YRNF has chosen in the past. The The Team, according to its former co­ Evans'slate, however, contains what its leader, Charles Black, has been effective­ backe~s feel is a broader cross-section ly disbanded. It broke up, he says, in of moderates and conservatives than does the aftermath of the 1975 Young Republi­ the team ticket. It includes for co­ can National Convention when its leader­ chai~an, Margie Cook, a Michigan Ford ship split between the Ford and Reagan backer and former YRNF officer; for camps. Black became a regional chairman treasurer, Clay Maitland, a New York for Reagan and Peter MacPherson, the State progressive and former state YR Team's other co-leader, had a similar chairman; for secretary, Alexa Bennett, job for Ford. The Team was a formal a moderate-conservative who is Texas YR management setup which somewhat resembled national committeewoman; and for vice a political party within the YRNF---com­ chairman at large, Mark Abernathy, for­ plete with a regional leadership struc­ mer YR national committeeman from Cali­ ture. Mac~herson and Black, for example, fornia. Still open are the designees controlled microphone access at the 1975 for a~ditor and assistant secretary. convention in Indianapolis from their campaign pdst at the rear of the conven­ Evtns backers hope to block a merger tion hall. of th~ interests of NCPAC and the Young Republicans while promoting a stronger The newlorganization is less formal YR vehicle for party training and growth. and less structured, according to Black. The s~owd6wn will come . .f.nM:emphis June It was initially organized in Albuquerque 7-12. after last !year's elections. "Instead of a Team, we have a Stone campaign," says Meclmwhile, Black was the leading Black. But the Team's co-leaders will candi4ate for director of the Republi­ still be calling the shots at the 1977 can National Committee's political di­ convention1in Memphi~, asserts Black, visio~. It would be th~ first real since that is, after all, the efficient "Reag~" appointment on the committee way to run campaigns. since Bill Brock took over as chairman. I Black' is widely respected by both con­ The Sto~e slate has brought regionar serva,tives and moderates as a cool pro­ and geograrhical distribution. It in- fessional who elicits personal respect •• r I -- ---- I - I , ~ T T COlDDlenlary: EI ecloral College 'IN DEFENSE OF AN IMPERi'ECT COLLEGE , by M1cnae1 C. Ma bach. The Electoral Co1~ege met December 13, since American presidential elections 1976 to ratify the e~ection of Jimmy Car­ 'are traditionally tight cdntests. ter. As is customa~, Carter's election I has prompted fresh calls for the elimina­ I Imagine a case whe:rle only the tion of the Electoral College. Before it popular vote is counted. 'lIn 1912, is summarily abolished, however, the Eugene Debs, the Socia1istl candidate, Electoral College rates another assess- received 6 percent of the-bopu1ar vote ment of its effectiveness. , and no Electoral College vbtes. It I is ,conceivable that he might have There are two major arguments against under other circumstances baused Wood­ the current system. The first is that row Wilson and Theodore Robsevelt to the Electoral College "has permitted, the tie with 47 percent of thel popular election of three Pre~idents who trailed vote. Perhaps only 58,0001 votes sep­ their opponents in the nation's popular arated the two men and thel loser le­ vote (John Quincy Adams in 1824, Ruther­ gally demanded and receive~ a national ford B. Hayes in 1876, and Benjamin Har­ recount. Even excepting the possibi1i­ rison in 1888). Such results are con­ tyof corruption and lost ballots, the sidered unacceptable in our democratic_ redount process in all 48 states would republic. have taken days and even then perhaps never satisfactorily been tesolved. Second, the f~es of the Electoral Col­ The Electoral College sys·t¢m has rare­ lege argue that 'it unfairly cancels out ly,given rise to request alrecount in the votes in each stat~ that are not cast eVjn one state because suc~ an action for that state's presi~entia1 winner. It wo ld seldom have made any I difference in might argued that if the second place th final results. (The decisions by candidate receives 45 percent of the pop­ tw Repub1icans---Richard Nixon in Illi­ ular vote in Illinois, then that candi­ nois in 1960 and Gerald Ford in Hawaii date should receive 45 percent of our and Ohio in 1976---are of dourse signi- 26 electoral votes.