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Chevrolet dealer here got killed in an automobile wreck and it was

a bigger and better deal, so I moved down here. I got here and there

are still no Republicans in this part of the state to speak of. We

are outnumbered here six to one in the county, but I met with a few

Republicans that were here, a very prominent lawyer who was the county

chairman. The organization was dormant, but we had a fellow by the

name of Kirk running for governor, I'm sure you've heard of him. And

we had a meeting to select the county chairman for him and they were

about to select a Democrat. And even though I had only been here a

short time, I said, "Hell no, that won't work. You'll never build an

organization by doing that." I went to Tallahassee and met Kirk,

because I wasn't going to support him if I didn't know him and didn't

like him and didn't think that he could do the job. I met him, liked

him and came back and took the job as his county chairman and then in

a matter of a few weeks, I took the job as coordinator of the whole

northern section of Florida for Kirk. And of course, as you know, he

was elected. And it is a crying shame that he was the kind of a guy

that he is. I mean, personally I still like him and get along fine

with him, but in my opinion, he set the Republican party in Florida

back a hundred years. Because he really didn't have the philosophy

and didn't believe in the things that we believe in. He was an

opportunist. You could flip a coin and he would take either side, he

was an attorney, he'd take either side of an argument either time and

he was an egomaniac. And the day that he was sworn in as governor, he

started to run for vice-president and he did some of the damnedest

things that anybody has ever done. And as a consequence, he tore this

party asunder. Just raped and ruined it and it just makes me sick every


From the Southern Oral History Program, #4007, Interview I-SO in the Southern Historical Collection,
University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill. FOR REFERENCE ONLY: PERMISSION TO
PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED. WARNING: MOST MANUSCRIPTS ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT.