Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [283]
By July 18, after the eleven states that didn’t hold primaries had chosen their delegates in conventions, The New York Times had Ford with 1,102
delegates, only 28 short of the number required for nomination. But Reagan was not far behind with 1,063. About 100 delegates were still uncommitted, and they were fought over fiercely in the month leading up to the convention. According to Laxalt, “We soon realized that competing for these delegates against the White House wasn’t a fair fight. Ron would call them—even visit with them personally—and did reasonably well. But then Jerry Ford would invite them to a meeting in the Oval Office. It was like a guy with a Volkswagen vying for the attention of a girl against a competitor who has a Rolls-Royce.”92
“I was furious,” Nancy later wrote. “President Ford took full advantage of his office. He brought dozens of uncommitted delegates to the White House for lunches, cocktails, meetings, and dinners. He invited an entire state delegation to have lunch with him. In July, he invited Clarke Reed, the chairman of the Mississippi delegation, to a State Dinner for Queen Elizabeth. . . . Over the July 4 weekend, he invited seven uncommitted delegates Reagan vs. Ford: 1975–1976
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to watch the tall ships sail into New York Harbor from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.”93 The 1976 Bicentennial celebrations marked a turning point in the national mood: patriotism was suddenly back in style.
On July 11, the Reagans were in Palm Springs for the wedding of Frank Sinatra and Barbara Marx, a tall, gorgeous blonde who three years earlier had divorced her first husband, Zeppo Marx. The ceremony took place at Sunnylands, with Freeman Gosden as Frank’s best man and Bea Korshak, the wife of the shadowy Beverly Hills lawyer Sidney Korshak, as the maid of honor. The 130 guests included Spiro Agnew, Sammy Davis Jr., the Armand Deutsches, and the Gregory Pecks. The New York Times noted, “Reporters were made to stand outside the gates in temperatures approaching 115 degrees.” The reception was held at the Sinatra compound, a mile down Frank Sinatra Drive from the Annenbergs’.94
After the wedding, Reagan flew east with Sears on a two-day “raiding expedition” to try to turn around delegates pledged to Ford in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The head of the Pennsylvania delegation, Drew Lewis, was “rumored to be unhappy” with Ford, according to Nofziger.95 Sears, who realized that things were looking grim, had come up with the bold idea of having Reagan announce his choice for vice president prior to the convention—which had never been done before—in hopes of winning over enough delegates from the Northeast to put him over the top. Now he decided that the best choice to accomplish that was Pennsylvania senator Richard Schweiker, who was a childhood friend of Lewis’s and a member of the same small religious sect, the Schwenkfelders. The only problem was that Schweiker was seen as a liberal who might turn off Reagan’s core supporters.
Before going to Reagan, Sears convinced Laxalt, Nofziger, and Deaver one by one of the wisdom of this maneuver. On July 20, Laxalt got his fellow senator and Sears together in his Capitol Hill office, and Schweiker, after deliberating with his wife for two days, agreed to fly to Los Angeles for a secret meeting with Reagan. Sears flew out a day in advance and sold Reagan on the idea of a liberal running mate while simultaneously making the argument that Schweiker was not really a liberal. “He’s against gun control, he’s a big man in the Captive Nations movement, and he’s against abortion,” Sears told Reagan.96 On July 24, Nancy had a lunch at home for the Schweikers, Sears, and Laxalt. According to Sears, “I remember 4 5 4
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House that it was paramount that Justin Dart and Holmes Tuttle be there to meet them as well.