MCBC 8 page 5

 When the governor finally capitulated on Sunday after that Friday, finally gave up
 [occupying] the building and keeping out the school board, Jerome turned on him
 and really tore into him for giving up. I think the people in Manatee County
 understood what he was trying to do. It was a tough fight, and it was tough from
 a PR [public relations] standpoint, I think, all over the state. He caught a lot of
 flak because he went to California during that teacher strike. I think there was
 some play back and forth that way.

B: Do you think that the teacher strike had any effect on the Manatee County
 situation? Was there a connection there?

H: Possibly a little but not major, I do not think. It was kind of ironic, too. When we
 got there, it was going to be a payday for the teachers in Manatee while we were
 doing that. I also handled the Governor's Club [Kirk's fundraising arm] for the
 governor, so I had to pledge funds from the Governor's Club to cover the payroll
 to make sure the teachers got paid. We handled that okay, too.

B: Was it correct that you had to put the money in escrow in order to back the
 checks?

H: Yes. Correct. That worked out all right.

B: I was wondering if you could possibly explain why exactly Governor Kirk chose
 Manatee County, because my understanding was that there were some
 situations revolving around bussing in the Daytona area where he had to back off
 after a judge threatened him with contempt.

H: I do not know why he necessarily chose Manatee County over anything else. As I
 said, when I was in the governor's office, education was not one of my areas, so
 I did not follow it to that extent. It just seemed like it fell in place for his ideas of
 stopping forced bussing. He just felt like it destroyed the neighborhood-school
 concept. I do not really remember the first [episode in Daytona] that you spoke of
 that much, but when it presented itself in Manatee County, he did not waste any
 time tackling it. He certainly tore right after it. Like I said, it was due to happen on
 Tuesday, and he suspended the board on Monday. I mean, he made the
 statement to me and to others that, you know, absolutely we were to see to it
 that no forced bussing took place. He even jokingly said, if you get shot, you lay
 there and bleed, but you stop any activity. And for a while, it did get a little scary.

B: Did you have any awareness of how race relations were in Manatee at that time?

H: I never knew of any real problem in Manatee County. The whole time I was
 there, I never...I could understand the feelings of the black community especially,
 how they felt about the court's decision and that they expected the bussing to
 take place. I think I can accurately say now that they do not believe in the forced