Mr. Chairman

L. Hershey William

Description

Ray Bliss was a masterful behind-the-scenes force in the Republican Party for more than three decades at the local, state, and national levels. Recognized as a master of the "nuts and bolts" of practical politics, Bliss was among the first to use polling and television in campaigns. When Bliss took over as national chairman in 1965, the GOP was on life support after Barry Goldwater's landslide defeat in the 1964 presidential election. Bliss rebuilt the party through hard work, innovation, a keen eye for detail, and uncanny political instincts. His shrewd ability to unite liberal, moderate, and conservative Republicans helped put Richard M. Nixon in the White House in 1968. This thorough biography chronicles Bliss's career from campus political czar at the University of Akron, to Akron City Hall, the Ohio Statehouse, and finally the national capital in Washington, DC. It details his complicated relationship with Nixon, who used Bliss's skills to become president, but then forced his resignation as national chairman.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: University of Akron Press
• Date de parution: 04 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629220437
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Mr. Chairman

BLISS INSTITUTE SERIES
Bliss Institute Series
John C. Green, Editor
William L. Hershey and John C. Green, Mr. Chairman: The Life and Times of Ray C. Bliss
Douglas M. Brattebo, Tom Lansford, Jack Covarrubias, and Robert J. Pauly Jr., editors, Culture, Rhetoric, and Voting: The Presidential Election of 2012
Douglas M. Brattebo, Tom Lansford, and Jack Covarrubias, editors, A Transformation in American National Politics: The Presidential Election of 2012
Daniel J. Coffey, John C. Green, David B. Cohen, and Stephen C. Brooks, Buckeye Battleground: Ohio, Campaigns, and Elections in the Twenty-First Century
Lee Leonard, A Columnist’s View of Capitol Square: Ohio Politics and Government, 1969–2005
Abe Zaidan, with John C. Green, Portraits of Power: Ohio and National Politics, 1964–2004
Mr. Chairman

The Life and Times of
Ray C. Bliss
William L. Hershey & John C. Green
All Material Copyright © 2017 by The University of Akron Press
All rights reserved • First Edition 2017 • Manufactured in the United States of America.
All inquiries and permission requests should be addressed to the publisher, The University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio 44325-1703.
21 20 19 18 17           5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 978-1-629220-41-3 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-1-629220-42-0 (ePDF)
ISBN: 978-1-629220-43-7 (ePub)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Hershey, William L., author. | Green, John Clifford, 1953– author.
Title: Mr. Chairman : the life and times of Ray C. Bliss / William L. Hershey and John C. Green.
Description: First edition. | Akron, Ohio : University of Akron Press, 2017. | Series: Bliss Institute series | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017013389 (print) | LCCN 2017029398 (ebook) | ISBN 9781629220420 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781629220437 (ePub) | ISBN 9781629220413 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bliss, Ray C. | Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913–1994—Friends and associates. | Republican National Committee (U.S.)—Officials and employees—Biography. | Republican Party (U.S. : 1854–)—History—20th century. | Political party organization—United States—History—20th century. | Politicians—Ohio—Biography. | Ohio—Politics and government—1951– | United States—Politics and government—1961–1963. | United States—Politics and government—1963–1969.
Classification: LCC E840.8.B585 (ebook) | LCC E840.8.B585 H47 2017 (print) | DDC 324.2734092 [B] —dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017013389
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI / NISO z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Cover design: Tyler Krusinski. Cover photo: Associated Press Photo/Jack Thornell. © 1967 The Associated Press. Used with permission.
Mr. Chairman was designed and typeset in Centaur with Futura display by Amy Freels, with assistance from Tyler Krusinski. Mr. Chairman was printed on sixty-pound natural and bound by Bookmasters of Ashland, Ohio.
To Marcia Hershey, for all the good times we’ve had and more to come To Lynn Green, a steadfast companion on a joyful journey
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Akron, Ohio
2. Family Matters
3. The University of Akron
4. The May Queen Fiasco
5. Ray C. Bliss Meets James A. Corey
6. First Campaign Lessons
7. Climbing the Political Ladder
8. The Test Tube City
9. The 1937 Akron Mayoral Campaign
10. A Quest for Party Unity
11. Ray Bliss Becomes County Chairman
12. Strengthening the Local Party
13. Growing Recognition
14. Ray Bliss Gets a Day Job
15. The Great Defeat of ’48
16. Ray Bliss Becomes State Chairman
17. Strengthening the State Party
18. Taft and TV
19. Mr. Republican Loses White House Bid
20. Ohio Likes Ike
21. The Organizational Man in Action
22. George Bender and a Judas Goat
23. Success and Sorrow
24. A Republican Governor—At Last
25. A Rocky Start and a Showdown
26. Business Defies Bliss
27. The Right-to-Work Disaster
28. Ray Bliss Rebuilds—Again
29. Wedding Bells
30. Politics Writer
31. Presidential Politicking
32. Ray Bliss’s Masterpiece
33. A Big City Assignment
34. Ray C. Bliss and James A. Rhodes
35. Recruitment Matters
36. Trouble in San Francisco
37. The Goldwater Debacle
38. Plotting for Bliss
39. Ray Bliss Becomes National Chairman
40. Good-Bye Columbus
41. Mr. Bliss Goes to Washington
42. Fixing the Finances
43. Bliss Survives a Scandal
44. A Single Voice
45. Denouncing Extremism
46. A Hometown Win
47. New York, New York, a Republican Town
48. The Elements of Victory
49. A Tiger in the Tank
50. Bliss Says “No” to Nixon
51. Tightrope Walking
52. A Medium and a Message
53. The Politics of Turmoil
54. Ray Bliss’s Convention
55. Ray Bliss Keeps His Job
56. Nixon Wins a Squeaker
57. Rumors Spread: “Bliss Is Out!”
58. A Meeting at the Pierre Hotel
59. Chairman for an Inaugural
60. Bliss “Retires” as National Chairman
61. Farewell to Washington
62. Setting the Record Straight
63. Politics as an Avocation
64. Bliss, Nixon, and Watergate
65. Ray C. Bliss and Gerald R. Ford
66. Citizen Bliss
67. University Trustee
68. Mentor and Teacher
69. A Pathfinder Reaches the End of the Trail
70. Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics
71. Political Legacy
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
This book could not have been written without the help of many people. They include the staff of the Bliss Institute, particularly Janet Bolois and Jenni Fitzgerald, and generations of students, as well as the staff of the University of Akron Press, especially Jon Miller and Amy Freels. The following people were interviewed for the book and many agreed to be quoted in the text. We wish to thank these and many others for sharing their knowledge and memories of the life and times of Ray C. Bliss. Stephen Ambrose Rose Carlson Richard Hurley John Andrews Cyndra Cole Mrs. Howard Hyde Alexander Arshinkoff Leroy Contie Robert Hynes Jr. Gerald Austin Kellie Copeland Raphael Jeter Frank Avren Madge Doerler Jefferson Keener William Ayres William Eells Herbert Klein James Baker Louise Palmer Earley George W. Knepper Kenneth Barker Robert Feldkamp Charles Kurfess John Ballard Ody Fish John LaGuardia Haley Barbour Sy L. Fisher John C. McDonald Robert Bennett Gerald Ford Kent McGough John Bibby Thaddeus A. Garrett Jr. Keith McNamara Ellen Bliss John Glenn Mrs. J. Willard Marriott Amy Bragg Ralph Goetller John Mahaney William Brock Josephine Good Clyde Mann Clarence J. “Bud” Brown Jr. Walter J. Hickel Della Mann Helen Brown Clayton Horn Howard Metzenbaum Roy Browne Robert Huckshorn Peter O’Grady Hal Bruno Elisabeth Hurley Robert Paduchik Michael Pavick Gary Rosen W. R. Timken Sr. Arthur Peterson Don Ross W. R. Timken Jr. Ray Price James Ruvolo Roger Tracy Janet Purnell William Saxbe James Tilling Roy Ray John Sears William Vance Morris Reid John Seiberling David Eugene Waddell Ralph Regula Mary L. Smith Paul Weick Frances Rex Daly “Tim” Smith W. Richard Wright James Rhodes Harry Stein Abe Zaidan Norma Rios Robert Taft Jr.   Bernard Rosen Mrs. Henry H. Timken Jr.  
Prologue
In January 1981, Republicans streamed into Washington, DC, for Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as president. There was much to celebrate for the Grand Old Party. Reagan had defeated the Democratic incumbent, President Jimmy Carter, in a landslide. Republicans had taken control of the US Senate and gained fifty-two seats in the US House of Representatives. The Watergate scandal that had forced Richard M. Nixon from the White House in 1974 seemed a distant memory.
Reagan’s inauguration also coincided with another celebration: the fiftieth anniversary of the political career of Ray C. Bliss. Then seventy-three, Bliss had spent his entire adult life working for the Republican Party, serving as chairman at the local, state, and national levels. At one of the Reagan inaugural balls, Bliss and his wife Ellen held court while senators, representatives, and party officials came by to say thank you to “Mr. Chairman.”
Bliss was a rare national party chairman who put his mark on political history. He was the first of the “Three Bs” of the modern Republican Party, a moniker suggested by columnist David Broder for three national chairmen—Ray Bliss, Bill Brock, and Haley Barbour—who put the party back together after major defeats. 1
None of these setbacks was more challenging than Republican Barry Goldwater’s landslide loss to Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Bliss took over the next year as national chairman of a demoralized and divided party. Pundits questioned whether the GOP was dead, a little more than a hundred years after its birth.
To rebuild the Republican Party, Bliss focused on the “nuts and bolts” of practical politics, strengthening and uniting the organization. A key feature was training party leaders in the ancient art and new science of electioneering. He expanded a system of direct-mail fund-raising from small contributors and used these funds to provide state and local parties with tools to get out the vote. Most importantly, Bliss created the Republican Coordinating Committee, a policy-making vehicle to accommodate the conservatives still steaming from Goldwater’s defeat and the moderates who had done little to help prevent the loss. The committee developed a consensus on issues for upcoming campaigns. These innovations paid off at the ballot box. Just four years after the Goldwater debacle, the GOP won the White House in 1968 with Richard Nixon.
Bliss made a career out of organizing such comebacks. After the 1948 and 1958 elections, he helped Ohio Republicans recover from major defeats. His longtime friend and University of Akron official, W. Richard Wright, had a front-row seat for observing how Bliss liked to work. “In the realm of politics, he [Bliss] liked to take a situation that needed rebuilding,” said Wright. “Bliss would use his organization to pick the candidates, put the