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89 Chapter Seven A PARTY WITH NO CREDIBILITY In the fall of 1974, according to an RNC senior staff member, the Republican Party had no credibility. Several Republican operatives and leaders were jailed or under indictment for their involvement in Watergate. The number of Republicans in Congress had reached dismal levels. The state parties were in disarray . The party’s state chairmen were negative about virtually everything, and the party’s county chairmen were inactive. Another RNC senior staff member said the danger that faced the Republicans was not being in a minority, it was becoming a minor party, a third party, a party with a base so small that it has little chance of winning elections. In addition, the party had no money.1 Mary Louise Smith confronted a situation unlike any faced by any chairman before her. Republican losses had been dramatic in 1964, when Barry Goldwater lost the presidential race, but scandal had not tainted the party at that time. After 1964, people did not reject the party. Republicans had lost the election by a large margin, but the resources for rebuilding had not evaporated. Following that disaster, RNC chairman Ray Bliss organized Goldwater supporters , built on the party’s base, and renewed the party’s spirit. In the fall of 1974, there were no bright spots, no strong areas on which to build. No models existed for the tasks ahead. Smith and her key staff members “started at ground zero,” as one of them described it. He also said that theirs was an “ungodly task to contemplate.”2 Ungodly,it may have been,but Smith had a vision for the party.It was neither glamorous nor unique but it was functional. She wanted the RNC to become a “real part of the life of the state parties.”She explained,“The all-important part of the Republican Party is not at the Republican national headquarters; it’s in the states.” She believed that people who traditionally identified themselves as Republicans still held the same beliefs and were not ready to become Democrats . They needed a reason, however, to return to the Republican Party.3 90 MADAM CHAIRMAN Smith acknowledged that even though she had spent much of her adult life, about twenty-five years, in organizational politics, she did not have the technical skills required to resuscitate the party. So she sought out people with the needed skills, some of them already members of the RNC staff, others she recruited , all of them men. The top four positions on her staff were held by men. Smith may have sought and been unable to find women who had the skills and the backgrounds she wanted, which is possible. Interviews with women lower on the hierarchy described ways that she encouraged them to find their specialties and develop their technical abilities, which will be seen later. Eddie Mahe, Jr., was Smith’s most controversial selection. Mahe had joined the RNC as head of the political division under George Bush, having earlier worked in county and state Republican organizations, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee . Smith appointed Mahe to the position of executive director, a position she created for him. His job description was “directing the staff and implementing the decisions of the chairman and the national committee,” according to a brief biographical sketch written by the RNC. The description is understated at best—and misleading at worst. As will be seen, Mahe pulled together an ambitious , risky, and arguably successful program that kept the party from falling into the abyss of becoming a minor party. An intense and impatient man, Mahe is recognized among political insiders for his creative strategies and political acuity.4 After Mahe had been executive director for a few months, there was speculation among White House staff, RNC leaders, and others that it was Mahe, and not Smith, who ran the RNC, an assessment that neither Mahe nor Smith asserted in interviews years later. From memos and other sources, however, it becomes clear that White House staff and some RNC members disapproved of his power. That sentiment was not shared by RNC staff members. In more than a dozen interviews with people who worked with him at the RNC, there was uniform respect for his political acuity and his strategies. Later described as“super-driven”by another colleague, Mahe was highly regarded for his“most fantastic political mind,” an opinion echoed by other RNC staff members. An example of his...

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