 

The Grinnell

Scarlet and Black

Friday
January 28, 1972

Volume 80 Number 18

McGovern lends Precintt Caucus Vote

Takes Six lst
Ward. Delegates

by Jim Skai-zynski

The 1972 presidential campaign
began to warm up in Grinnell this
week with the holding or various
precinct caucuses. Separate caur
cuses were held for the First and
Second Wards and a meeting was also
held for the Third and Fourth Wards

The iirst ward meeting was held at
the home of Mr. Clotielter, located
at 1421 Sixth Avenue The Iirst ward
includes the college, as well as most
oft—campus housing, and as a result
the meeting was largely attended by
students and faculty. The meeting
was brought to order (it about 8:15
by Mr. Dick Sanders, the Democrar
tic committeeman 0f the first ward.
He ilrst suggested that he be pro-
moted from temporary to permanent
chairman oi the caucus. This motion
was passed immediately and with no’
opposition. Mr, Sanders then moved
that the meeting be moved to Darby
since Mr. Clottelter's home was
overﬂowing with participants.

The caucus was reconvened at about
8:40 in Darby. The iirst official bus-
iness was to elect delegates and ale
ternates to the county convention.
The first ward was awarded eight
delegates, and they were apportioned
according to the number of persons
supporting each candidate, Sanders
announced the names of each of the

See WARD Pogeé

Nixon Ploy Rouses Suspicion

Immediate reaction to President
Nixon’s Tuesday night speech, which
sketched the course oi the thirty»
month-old secret Indochina peace
negotiations and announced the cur-
rent US, bargaining position, was
mixed at Grinnell.

Some professors and students con-
tacted by the 58:5 were obviously
impressed by the enorls that have
been made in the secret talks, and the
three-month»old Us, proposal
which was presented at the formal
negotiations in Paris yesterday.
others, however, were skeptical
of the President’s intentions, and
of the possibility for a quick end to
the war because ot the new propo~
sals. Many noted that the timing 0!
the announcement may have been
aimed tor impactm the coming eleCr
tion.

History and American studies pro-
fessor Alan Jones told the 551.3 that
the surprise announcement “was an
impressive speech. .lhe proposals
sounded very good in terms 01...
what we have been trying and we have
made good proposals You’d have to
look at the proposal he is making in
detail.” Mr. Jones noted that the
conditions for withdrdwal 0t Amer~
lcan forces are more than the re
lease of prisoners and the difficulty
in negotiations may lie in the cease
tire.

“Politically, President Nixon has
done a very good lob oi ,, at least
temporarily W stopping criticism,"
according to C, Edwin Gilmour otthe
Political Science department. Gilr
mour said, however, that he ”had the
impression that it's still the old
game W we’re willing to do some»
thing if you do something; and it
that's the case, there may be some
reason why there hasn’t been a rose
ponse." Even the peace negotiations
could "boomerang" on the President
politically it they do not work out,
Gilmour speculated.

Robert Grey, political Science,
called the President's speech
“clearly another coup to allay doe
mestic criticism, ,,l agree with a
comment made that the making pub
lic oi the peace olferlng ill the peace

Word |
Muskie Group

dates.

Muskie supporters in the Ward 1 caucus last
Monday night pause and deliberate tor a moment
over their preterences for gubernatorial candle

Second, Third,

Fourth Wards

Elect Many Uncommitted

Democratic party caucus meetings
held in Grinnell and through town
last Monday evening represented
the nation’s iirst test oi support
tor presidential hopeiuls and lowa
gubernatorial candidates Of the 29
delegates elected to attend the coun—
ty conventions February 24 in
Montezuma, is represented support
for Senator McGovern, six were
elected to represent Senator Mus—
kie, seven delegates were uncom—
mitted and one delegate was sent
to vote {or Representative Shirley
Chisholm,

The largest of the tour Grinnell
caucuses was that oi the iirst ward,
which includes the college and thus
all campus residents. A total or

173 people voted for delegates at_

that meeting, which was originally
scheduled to take place at the Clot-
ieiter residence but soon moved to
Darby Gymnasium for obvious need

SlatterMeets Muskie Fans

The climax to the round at pre-
caocus events on campus, chrono-
logically and numerically, was a
meeting {or Muskie supporters in the
South Lounge on Monday atternoon,
The meeting was mainly the work
of Al Rosent‘ield, and it featured
Greg Craig, a Muskie volunteer

otterings reduces their chance at
being accepted and means acknow-
ledgement on Nixon’s part that he’s

gone as tar as he can with them in

terms or negotiations to bring about
any conclusion to the war, and now
decided to give up on that and use
them (or domestic political gain."

Grey said, however, that he was im-
pressed with some of the proposals
made public Tuesday, especially the
apparent shitt in policy on what's
going to happen to the South Vietna-
mese government.

The North Vietnamese, Grey said,
are probably not impressed withthe
proposals because “they probably
have relatively little faith in the
political arrangements" to be set up
for the elections in the South; hows
ever, the behavior of the North
Vietnamese in not speaking to the
proposal is “Strange and unusual“.

David Jordan, History, called the
proposals offered at thesecret nee
gotiations “far more" than hewould
have anticipated as the ”official
position” of the government. The
real question now, Jordan thinks,
will be in the response of the North
Vietnamese and Viet Cong, and the
reason why they have held out so tar
in responding. But “on the domestic
situation...this will pull the rug Out
from under some ofthe more liberal
Democrats".

Senior Bill Thomas favored the
withdrawal and said that the “propo-
sal basically sounds like it has some
good ideas, but that it could have
some hitches in it ,,.I just tend to he
a little suspicious DfNixon .Maybe
the most 1 portant things are the
elections

Senior Mike Siegel pointed out that
“the reason this was stated tn public
probably was because the North
Vietnamese haven’t replied to our

otter.” He called Thieu's agreement

“the most surprising thing.” Poli-
tically, “the timing is very impor-
tant, because the Budget came out
today. In the Budget you had the
largest deticit in trade, you had the
national budget going up. This is

See NtXON Page 7

from Harvard who has been working
around the state.

The attendance at the meeting was
above sixty, or almost half again as
many as previous meetings had
drawn, despite the incl that Mc-
Govern people hilrl dominated events
all weekend and would dominate them
again in the caucus. The meeting was
organized hastily and was held only
a few hours before the caucus itself.
llowever, intensive advertising and
publicity resulted in a large turnout,

. _ the
Inn“

A Grinnell look
at Politics ’72

in the new magazine supplement;

Siegel’s ’72 scenerio
student-laculty SALE poll

the Grinnell experts’ opinions
(three prols, one townsperson,
questioned by the 5&3

exclusive junk-mail indexes
Grinneli activity in the ’68 campaign

Snow laden pines provitlc a pleasant vicw hem

the window of the S it E olllce

Craig told the crowd that, although
he “would never say anything against
George McGovern,“ Muskie was the
only Democrat who could beat Nixon.

“And we have to get that man out of
the White House," he said,

The size of the crowd proved mis-
leading, because Muskle's delegar
tion at Darby, even alter absorbing
3/4 oi the Humphrey group, was
barely large enough to win a dele-
gate. Evidently some of those sixty
Muskie people got lost in the snow.

The passive

of space.
Ward ll

The second ward's caucus was held
in a classroom of the Bailey Park
elementary school, and that meeting
was also dominated by the college
community. Reference librarian
Fred LaCroix chaired the meeting
with Mr. Ed Gilmour, Political Sci-
ence, acting as secretary. Most of
the 19 persons attending were col-
lege instructors and spouses.

The presidential preference vote
was Split between McGovern and
Muskie, each with seven votes, and
five were uncommitted. one person
voted for Senator Jackson initially,
but switched to McGovern upon being
informed that he would go unrepre-
sented .because of the 15% rule. of
the eight delegates allotted the sec-
ond ward, three each representMus-
kie and McGovern and two more are
uncommitted.
«iGannon and Tapscott likewise tied
in the balloting for gubernatorial
preference with live votes apiece,
but nine persons remain uncom-
mitted in that contest.

Admissions Counselor Maurice
Hunt, Registrar Charles Seller and
Mr. Gilmour were among the college
representatives in the delegate
group from this ward.

Ward Ill

Only nine people attended the third
ward caucus, two train the college
community. In a quick meeting which
was over in an hour, four partici-
pants indicated support for Mc-
Govern (including both the college
people), tour remained uncommitted
and one supported Muskie. The Muse
kie person did not constitute the
necessary 15% and thus did not re
ceive a delegate. The ward was
allotted only tour delegates, thus two
represented McGovern and the other
two are uncommitted.

Ward IV

The music room at the Davis
School was the site for the fourth
ward’s caucus, which attracted 35
people. Six were students or the col—
lege and about hall the rest were
collegercunnected people, including
Ernie Renaud and his family (they
split three ways). Eighteen partici-
pants were women.

Of the nine delegates allotted the
ward, four are supporters oi Mcr
Govern, two are tor Muskie and

See CA UCUSES Page 6

landscape made work a bit easier last week,

 

