J0 FREEMAN'S CAMPAIGN DIARY
CRANSTON FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN - 1984
Part 1

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1/3/84— My New Year's resolution is to begin taking notes on the Cranston campaign. I have been working there for three months but my resolve has not surpassed my proclivity for procrastination. Therefore, as much as possible, these notes will try to recapture the past, albeit in less detail than the present. The first two and a half months were a bit rocky as I did not have a semi-permanent desk and the daily begging for a place to operate from was getting on my nerves. Two days before Thanksgiving I told Mark Cohen, the Political Director, that I would not return until he had found a desk for me. In fact I did return about once a week just to stay in touch. He didn't call until mid-December, after many staff had been sent out to the field which freed up a lot of desks. The problem, of course, was not desk space per se. It was the lack of a phone, since my job essentially involves making phone calls. I was told it cost $200 to put in another phone, and money wasn't available for that--yet. Since I had been working without compensation while others got at a minimum $400 per month plus housing, I figured I had earned my phone long ago.
Since returning I have a desk and four states. I had Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from the beginning. Now I have Georgia, which I had asked for long ago. It should have been given me then, as no one has really worked it and the consequences are showing in hurt feelings, lack of perception that there is a campaign in Georgia, and lost supporters. We have a local organizer, though I don't know how long he has had that designation. Steve Beisher runs his own advertising company from his home and has time and office equipment which are available to the campaign. He comes from California, which is the origin of his support for Cranston. There are Californians all over the country and, along with certain constituencies--such as gays and freeze activists--form the basis of Cranston's support.
I phoned Beisher right after getting the Georgia file only to discover that he was on vacation until today. I left messages with his answering service which told me he would be calling in for his calls. But he didn't, so I had to begin without him. After finally talking to him today I discovered it didn't matter, as he had felt reluctant to do anything without authorization from campaign headquarters and there was little contact. This is quite a contrast with the people in Minnesota who organized themselves into the Minnesota Cranston Coalition in September and wrote us! More on Minnesota later.
Beisher and I had a good long talk. He wants direction. I'm prepared to give it. So this may work out very well. The first task is to slate our delegate candidates. Georgia can send a total of 82 delegates and 27 alternates to the Democratic Convention in San Francisco next July. Forty-eight delegates and fifteen alternates are to be selected separately in the ten Congressional Districts. The final delegation has to be sexually and racially balanced. Thus we need to find 63 people who will file the requisite form by the January 12 deadline declaring their desire to be a Cranston delegate.
After the filing date the State Party will send the names to the campaign--though whether it's me or Beisher no one knows (and it ultimately doesn't matter). The campaign can eliminate anyone from the list as long as it leaves three times the number of people to be elected in each district. On January 28 each CD will hold a caucus. Any registered voter in the district can show up and participate in a candidate or uncommitted subcaucus. Those present vote on those who filed for delegate. The results determine the ranking of the individuals who filed for each candidate.

Sally freely admitted she wasn't an agriculture expert, merely the one of the four who was in town. But she could respond to all of Roy's and Kathy's questions even on topics that I didn't understand (such as marketing orders). Kathy had a notepad, but didn't take any notes. That leads me to believe that Sally won't have any influence on the final product. Her primary suggestion was that Roy invite co-chair Dick Hansen and his colleague, agriculture professor Bert Hemmings, to Iowa to meet with him or AC and discuss wheat belt agriculture. She said I could supply their phone number, but Kathy took no notes on this and no one asked me to call with the number. Sally's substantive points were that AC should directly address the issue of insufficient price and specifically use the terms corn, wheat and hogs. When Kennedy had been in Iowa four years ago he had discussed leadership, and that went over like a lead balloon.
Roy pointed out that agriculture was California's biggest industry. Although she didn't say so that is exactly what Sally's concerned about. California's agriculture is very different from that of the midwest. The crops are different and the economic organization is different. California has lots of corporate agriculture and grows tree fruits and vegetables, The midwest family farmers view corporate control as something to be avoided. Corn, wheat, hogs and preserving the family farm are their concerns.
Roy was mostly interested in what political intelligence Sally could supply him, and she was full of it. According to her, both Hansen and the Minnesota farmers were looking favorably toward McGovern because he was preaching what they wanted to hear--90 percent parity. She reminded Roy that McGovern had stayed in the Senate representing conservative South Dakota for so long because he kept the farmers happy. Indeed, Minnesota farmers were more likely to go to him for their needs than their own Senators. She also said that among party officials, AC was their second choice. If Mondale were to falter, they would switch. (Since Minnesota is Mondale's home state, I doubt he'll falter that much). She added that if AC does well in Iowa she could personally deliver the head of the Minnesota House Appropriations Committee, a woman who had met and been impressed with AC at some Harvard seminar years ago.
Once back in the campaign office, I turned my attention to Georgia. In a long sought after phone call Betty Rainwater of the State Party told me that they wouldn't require delegate candidates to be registered in their CDs, merely the State. Eureka! Now we can fill our slate. Their attorney, Wayne Reese, had told me he would make such make such a recommendation after I pointed out that the relevant section in their Delegate Selection Plan merely said "An individual can qualify" by filing a declaration of candidacy with the Party. But I didn't think the issue would come up until tomorrow's State Committee meeting, and I didn't think it would be accepted. I asked if the State Committee had to pass on this and she said no, nothing really happened at those meetings. The interpretations of the rules were worked out among the leadership and that Party Chair Bert Lance had signed off on this interpretation. They are also reinterpreting the rules on voting at the caucuses, so that the problems I anticipated earlier won't materialize. Partial or bullet voting will be permitted and ties will be broken by subsequent votes. Rainwater also told me that all candidates had to be present at the District caucuses Jan 28 to be voted on, contrary to what I had been told earlier. She related it to a section prohibiting proxy voting. I pointed out that proxy voting had nothing to do with being a candidate in absentia. She said the matter would be discussed.

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