Mar. 9, 1964 - Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York ended his New Hampshire Presidential campaign today on the same note it began on four months ago. He said at a news conference that the principal issue in the primary tomorrow was whether the Republican party would choose a Presidential candidate in the “mainstream” of American thought. That is what Rockefeller said when he went to Nashua last Nov. 7 and announced his entry into the campaign. The Governor also insisted that Senator Barry Goldwater remained his principal opponent, and that the Arizonan was the favorite.
Two developments since Rockefeller began his campaign are expected to have an effect on the outcome tomorrow. One was the decline in talk about the Governor’s divorce and remarriage.
Mrs. Rockefeller accompanied her husband on three trips to New Hampshire and was cordially received everywhere. Mrs. Rockefeller’s political appearances were limited because she is expecting a baby in June.
At the taping of an ABC radio interview, Rockefeller was asked about statements by William Loeb, publisher of The Manchester Union Leader. Bill Downs, the ABC interviewer, said of Mr. Loeb: “He brings up the wife-stealing issue — or tried to make it an issue — and has charged you with that. Do you think this has helped you in the long run?”
Rockefeller snapped: “No, and I don’t think it helps when you bring it up either, that way.”
Mr. Downs apologized. “I don’t mean it that way, sir,” he said.
The other development was the write-in campaign for Henry Cabot Lodge, Ambassador to South Vietnam. Rockefeller said at his news conference today that a vote for Mr. Lodge “might be taken” as an endorsement of the Johnson Administration’s policies toward Vietnam, even though it would “not be intended in that direction.”
Asked how Lodge could be “an Ambassador and a non-candidate” at the same time, Rockefeller said: “Ask Lodge and Johnson.”
Rockefeller said that even if he ran behind both Goldwater and Lodge, he would fly to California Wednesday morning for three days of campaigning in that state’s primary. He has pledged to go “all the way” regardless of his success in the primaries.
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