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 up in the morning and tell him how to vote. He was very mediocre. Stone

 was a good state senator, he's a good secretary of state. Home, of course,

 is a very astute politician. Works, you know, has boundless energy and

 ambition and all of us kind of laughed when he said that he was going to

 retire. I mean, what are you going to do after you have been speaker of

 the house and president of the senate, you know. But everybody knew that

 he would run for something, because he is just a political animal. And

 Pettigrew is another hard worker. I think that all three of them were

 much better state senators than Chiles. I don't think that there is any

 comparison.

 W.D.V.: So, you think that that election of 1970 set them back a hundred

 years?

 Thomas: Yes, it really did. That may be stretching it a little bit too

 far, but we were going great guns. It was really going. The party was

 coming along in good shape and then the big split. And see, the sad part

 about this, here we are four years later and we still have some of those

 old wounds. When I was in Pinellas County yesterday, spoke twice,at the

 Clearwater Women's Club at noon and the men's organization at night, and

 of course, that's Cramer's home county, but the feelings are still very

 deep. They'll never forgive Ed Gurney for it. Never. Because they are

 the older Republicans,in Pinellas County, and you know, the median age

 there is very high, a lot of retirees, and a lot of them have been active

 in the party for many years, you know. And they just aren't about to

 forget it.

 J.B.: What's the outlook for Gurney this year?

 Thomas: Well .

 J.B.: Assuming that he doesn't get indicted.

 Thomas: Well, honestly now, you are not going to use this until

From the Southern Oral History Program, #4007, Interview 4-&0 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.