Waiting Game

In the mile-high valley beneath Wyoming's Teton Range, the nation's Republican Governors assembled last week for a conference that was expected to have considerable bearing on the 1968 nominating convention. Representing half the states, with well over half the population and convention delegates, the Governors, had they been united, could have virtually locked up next summer's nomination. But they fell far short of agreement on anything except that it was too early to unite behind one man.

For the current favorites in the quest for the G.O.P. nomination--Michigan's Governor George Romney and former Vice President Richard Nixon--the meeting at Jackson Lake Lodge was at best a disappointment, at worst a storm signal. Romney's backers wanted the Governors to issue a pronouncement of support for their man, thereby puffing some wind into the sails of his be calmed campaign. No such gust was forthcoming, despite the earnest efforts of New York's Nelson Rockefeller and Rhode Island's John Chafee. Nixon, though undoubtedly relieved by the Governors' failure to rally behind Romney, also had reason to fret. A strong surge of support for California's Governor Ronald Reagan raised the threat that Nixon's conservative backing, the hope of his campaign, was ebbing.

Let George Do It. Aside from Nelson Rockefeller--whose father donated the land for the Jackson Lake resort and whose brother Laurance oversees its operation--the men who were discussed most were not even at the meeting. Nixon was vacationing back East --and observing his self-imposed moratorium on active campaigning. Reagan and Romney were in their respective capitals waging last-minute battles to push big new tax increases through recalcitrant legislatures.

Of the two, Romney fared somewhat better. To help keep his $1.1 billion budget balanced, he got a $270 million tax increase through the legislature, giving Michigan its first income tax. Reagan, meanwhile, had to sign California's biggest budget ever, a $5.1 billion package. Moreover, because the deadline was running out at the end of the fiscal year, he had to do so before the legislature acted on the $1 billion tax increase he requested. Reagan hopes to get the increase through by mid-July.

At Jackson Lake, about the only Romney agent in sight was his wife Lenore, who was seen toting a handbag embroidered with the slogan, LET GEORGE DO IT. Only one Reagan operative was on hand. But F. Clifton White, the upstate New Yorker whose brilliant organizational work was a major factor in Barry Goldwater's 1964 nomination, flew in with several of the men who helped him pull off that coup.

All are believed to lean toward Reagan, not Nixon.

Dead in the Water. Many moderates were concerned by Romney's failure to generate more enthusiasm among G.O.P. professionals, despite his preeminence in the popularity polls. "A lot of us out here simply aren't convinced that Romney is the chosen moderate to lead the party in 1968," said Washington's Governor Daniel Evans. Oregon's Tom McCall, who makes no secret of his admiration for Rockefeller, asked: "What the dickens has happened to Romney's campaign? At the moment, it's lying dead in the water."

From Jackson Lake, at least, Nixon's campaign appeared equally quiescent. As New Mexico's moderate Governor David Cargo put it: "Reagan's rapidly replacing Dick Nixon in one wing of the party." The Californian's growing popularity was glaringly evident earlier in the week, when 13 Western Governors--eleven of them Republicans--met in the village of West Yellowstone, Mont., just across the Wyoming border from Old Faithful. Fresh from an enthusiastic reception from the conservative Young Republicans in Omaha, Reagan breezed into the Yellowstone meeting "like a man on a white charger," as McCall put it. "He's the hottest piece of political property the Republican Party has going."

Though Reagan denies that he is seeking the nomination, he is not about to issue a Shermanesque statement. "If the Republican Party comes beating at my door, I wouldn't say, 'Get lost, fellows,' " he said last week. "But that isn't going to happen."

Perhaps not, but it is entirely possible that those who are most eagerly pursuing the nomination, Romney and Nixon, could find themselves somewhere in the middle of the pack when the nominating convention assembles next summer, and that the reluctant dragons, Reagan and Rocky, could be right up front. Said a Western Governor: "As Romney goes down, Rocky goes up. As Nixon goes down, Reagan goes up." There was even talk of a possible Rockefeller-Reagan ticket. To be sure, one Governor dismissed it as an "oil-andwater" mixture, and Reagan himself seemed to be ruling Rocky out of any consideration when he declared that no body who was deeply involved in the 1964 primaries should run next year. But Rocky has recently spoken favorably of Reagan, indicating that he does not find him ideologically impossible.

"This Guy's a Loser." Neither Nixon nor Romney is by any means out of the running yet. Of Romney, Oregon's McCall declared: "Somebody just has to crank him up again." Having taken the lead too early, he has deliberately slowed the pace of his presidential campaign. But his supporters are convinced that once he begins campaigning, he will prove, as he has three times in Michigan, that he is a tireless, dynamic and nigh unbeatable stumper.

As for Nixon, he is running a campaign that is markedly similar to Goldwater's in 1964--striking a low posture to avoid overexposure, and all the while rounding up the state and county chairmen whose votes often determine the nominees. But there is a significant difference from 1964. Then, Goldwater stood unchallenged as the champion of the G.O.P.'s conservative wing, thus was able to prevail over the badly fragmented moderates. Now, Reagan's ascendancy poses the threat of a conservative split. Reagan, in fact, said of Nixon to one Republican Governor: "This guy's a loser. Any guy who can lose to Pat Brown can't win the presidency."

Wide-Open Convention. Romney will have another opportunity to rally the G.O.P. Governors in September, when they join their Democratic counterparts for a floating Governors' convention aboard the cruise ship Independence in the Caribbean. But the Governors seem disposed to wait.

"They're all trying to play it cool," complained one pro-Romney Governor. "It can only serve to help Nixon's candidacy--and ensure a Republican defeat in 1968." What the Governors' hesitancy is more likely to do is to enhance the importance of the primaries. Nixon has realized all along that without a strong showing in the primaries to demonstrate that he can win elections, his candidacy may wither. Romney, unless he manages to coalesce the moderates behind him, may also have to gamble everything on the primaries. Both Romney and Nixon see New Hampshire's March 12 primary, the first in the nation, as a critical contest that could get their campaigns off to a running start or detour them into a dead end. For that reason, Romney is spending four days this week at a friend's home on Lake Winnipesaukee, meeting with local politicians, college professors and businessmen. Also important will be the laundry-list primaries in Nebraska and Oregon, where Reagan, and possibly Illinois Senator Charles Percy, will be facing Romney and Nixon. The result of the primaries could well be a standoff, with no man emerging as the obvious pacesetter. In that case, the 1968 convention may turn into the most open and hard-fought contest the G.O.P. has witnessed in a generation.

*Wisconsin is also considering a bill to change to a presidential primary like the one in Oregon, where any man who is considered a potential candidate is placed on the ballot.

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