page 18


 he was running. They can't get tosee him. The attorney right here in

 this county who was his county co-chairman wrote a hot letter to him

 and released it to the press, because he was disappointed in his liberal

 leanings and wrote him for an appointment and didn't even get an answer.

 So, he blasted him in the paper, all over the state. He has not done

 his homework and one reason that he hasn't done it is that he has

 surrounded himself, his staff there is only one conservative on

 his staff. That's a man by the name of Harvey Cotton. The rest of

 them are very liberal and the guy who is giving him the most trouble

 now one of his press men is an old aide, a fine man by the name

 of Moose Harling, from Pensacola. But he doesn't have any clout. The

 man who is running the show there now is a man by the name of Don Pride,

 who is an ultra-liberal reporter from an ultra-liberal paper, the most

 ultra-liberal paper in the state, the St. Petersburg Times. And Pride

 is running the show. And it is damn sure going to kill him.

 W.D.V.: Do you see the two parties realigning themselves along liberal

 and conservative lines in this state?

 Thomas: I see them doing it nationally. I see it happening in this state

 and I think that within another four to six years you can almost throw

 away the labels "Democrat" and "Republican." I think that we will be

 just about like they have been in England. I think that you will have

 the liberal-labor party and the conservative party.

 W.D.V.: Will that be the basis for building Republican strength?

 Disaffected conservative Democrats?

 Thomas: Yes. It has been for .

 W.D.V.: I mean, is that a conscious strategy by the party?

 Thomas: Oh yeah, sure. Hell yeah.. We've been wooing the conservative

 Democrats and telling them that they are in the wrong party ever since I've

From the Southern Oral History Program, #4007, Interview /-60 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.