page 22


 died, his father was a rare individual, a rare character. He was elected

 to the state senate, he had been dean of three or four law schools, a

 tough old bastard. But very well respected by everybody and he died in

 office and his son was appointed and then ran for the job and was

 re-elected and we are making headway in Hillsborough County, in Tampa.

 J.B.: Who is that?

 Thomas: David McLean. And largely because of this one man. It is a

 very Democratic county.

 J.B.: What do you perceive is the role of the latin population in

 Florida and particularly the Cubans in Dade County?

 Thomas: Well, that's a strange thing. They can be a great help to us,

 but truthfully, we lack some good leadership in the Cuban area down there.

 The problem that I have with them, and they are very devout but they are

 peculiar people. And they tell me that this is the way they did it back

 home, you know. In Dade County, at one time we were registering before

 Watergate, about 85% of the Cubans registering were registering Republican.

 Now, it's about 60 40%. We've dropped off quite a bit. But the

 trouble is that there are about four big cliques and then there are about

 eight minor ones, so there are a total of about twelve cliques. And if I

 go into the county and have lunch, they call me, and the leadership in

 one clique wants to see me and if somebody else in one of the other cliques

 sees me even having lunch with these other guys, oh my God, you know,

 they are calling and raising hell and wanting to know, "What have I done

 wrong? What's wrong, you don't love me any more." And all this, I

 tell them that that doesn't have anything to do with it. I have simply

 met with these people because they asked me and there are no deals with

 them or anything. They are always afraid that somebody else is going to




From the Southern Oral History Program, #4007, Interview /4-O 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.