Oregon Roundup

Here it was, just two weeks before the Oregon presidential primary, and the only Republican candidate still in there personally swinging was Nelson Rockefeller.

Rocky delivered a speech in Portland and drew an enthusiastic crowd of 2,000. When he got to Grants Pass (pop. 10,000), a bunch of characters wearing animal skins descended and made him a member of the Oregon Cavemen, a local society that quadrennially pops up to embarrass presidential candidates by making them look like idiots in photographs. In Albany (pop. 13,000), several colorfully clad "Princesses" belonging to the Timber Carnival and some red-suited gents ceremoniously made Rocky an honorary Woodpecker.

Alas, neither woodpeckers nor cavemen swing much weight, votewise, in Oregon. And the latest Portland Oregonian poll, even while showing Rocky up by three points, still gave him only 21%. Barry Goldwater looked worse than before (from 14% to 12%), and had all but kissed Oregon off. Even so, Field Director Steve Shadegg brought Goldwater Sons Barry Jr. and Mike in for a campaign swing, and insisted that "right now, Goldwater has 25% of the vote in Oregon, and maybe more. We need about 20,000 votes more to win. I wouldn't be surprised if we'd pick them up. Anybody who writes off Goldwater is nuts." As for Dick Nixon, his Oregon friends professed an uncommon amount of cheer over a telegram that was, if nothing else, cautiously worded. "I shall look forward to working with you in the final campaign," Nixon wired, "in whatever role our convention decides I can best serve the cause."

That left the fellow whom the Portland Journal sniffed at and called "the Mail-Order Bride." According to the Oregonian's poll, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge still led the field with 40% of the vote. Lodge's Oregon campaign chief, David Goldberg, sent out a broadside promotion mailer to 353,000 Republicans, and within a week got back 22,000 pledge cards. "That's already a better percentage than we had in New Hampshire," he said happily. Thus, barring a last-minute surge on someone's part, it still looked as if Oregon were about to hand its primary to Lodge.

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