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169 9 A TALE OF TWO CAMPAIGNS William Winter made two more campaigns for the Mississippi governor’s office in the 1970s. In 1975, he began as the clear favorite but lost because of a failure to appreciate the increasing importance of image in appealing to voters and because he could not capitalize fully on two of his most important qualities: his reputation as an honest and experienced politician and his history as a racial moderate. Winter almost abandoned politics after this defeat, but in 1979, at the eleventh hour, he decided to make another attempt to win the governor’s chair. He defeated a female candidate in the Democratic primary and bested a fellow white racial moderate in the general election. Soon after the 1972 legislature had concluded its work, Winter’s preparations to run in the 1975 governor’s race began. He and key members of his Senate staff—Jesse White, Bill Gartin, Wilson Golden, Ricky Fortenberry , James Peden—along with other important supporters like Warren Hood, began in the summer of 1972 to hold periodic political strategy sessions at Winter’s Capitol office or at the Winter home. National political advisers occasionally stopped by to offer guidance, including Matt Reese, who had first worked on the John F. Kennedy campaign in 1960. One consultant, Roy Pfautch, of Civic Service Inc. in St. Louis, advised Winter in early 1973 that he needed to work on “long range image development,” which was “continually increasing in today’s political market place.” In the fall of 1973, the campaign selected Peter Hart of Washington, D.C., to undertake polling and political analysis for the campaign. Winter’s friend Tom Bourdeaux dubbed him the “fast gun from the East.” Some of Winter ’s advisers thought the campaign should conceal Hart’s involvement, A Tale of Two Campaigns 170 since many Mississippians remained, if no longer advocates of a “closed society,” at least somewhat suspicious of outsiders.1 Winter’s potential opposition in the upcoming race did not seem very formidable. The polls Peter Hart conducted in late 1973 and 1974 showed Winter as the apparently unbeatable frontrunner. The main contender appeared to be one of his opponents for lieutenant governor in 1971, Cliff Finch. Since his defeat, Finch had continued to stump around the state, especially in the rural districts. Most political observers, however, did not take Finch seriously. The other major candidate to emerge by the beginning of 1975 was a former mayor of Columbia and south Mississippi district attorney, Maurice Dantin, who was backed by Governor Waller. When Hart conducted a new series of polls in early 1975, they confirmed the early results. Winter remained the choice of more than 65 percent of the voters. Finch and Dantin each pulled less than 10 percent of the vote.2 Although the polling numbers suggested that Winter could easily win in 1975, Hart’s analysis of the data revealed some potential pitfalls. More than anything else, the surveys suggested that Mississippi voters, like those around the country in the wake of Watergate, wanted a candidate who “represents change.” Hart’s breakdown of the numbers showed that the campaign had a clear choice: “either to heed the voters’ cry for change, or to hope that the candidate’s present lead will be enough to sustain him.” Whatever Winter did, he had to “avoid being seen as the candidate of the status quo” and “being supported by the big business interests.” Hart advised that Winter should “personify the kind of leadership and responsiveness the voters are looking for.” Campaign associates had already noted that Winter was “stiff” and “lacks warmth.” A candidate of change would need to convey a more personable, down-to-earth image. According to the polling data, the specific qualities voters wanted in their next governor were “leadership, integrity, ability, and Christian compassion,” all attributes Winter had in abundance. Experience in government , however, had less importance for voters (and perhaps could even be a detriment). Voters wanted a leader who had “the ability to get things done” and one “who understands and works for the average person.” Hart suggested that Winter should emphasize his proven ability to deal with the legislature, without being controlled by it. In addition to Peter Hart’s detailed analysis of the mood of Mississippi voters, which ran to fortyseven pages, Winter heard from supporters who sensed the same attitudes [3.131.110.169] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 09:30 GMT...

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