Page:1976 Campaign Strategy Paper.pdf/9

 here to cover the runoff. Your public posture in the runoff should be determined by the candidate who gets in the runoff. I suspect that whoever wins is going to want you to stay out of it publically because your open involvement and opposition to Maddox would simply contribute to his false image of being the underdog, fighting the politicians and the establishment. On the other hand, I think that it is critically important that the national press know that you are working quietly and effectively behind the scenes to defeat Lester Maddox. When it is all over, hopefully the news stories will read that the progressive administration of Jimmy Carter and his political organization in I Georgia were major factors in Lester haddox's defeat. If Maddox wins, there is no way to escape the analysis that Georgia and the South have not changed that much after all, and Haddox's election was definitely a political defeat for Jimmy Carter and his people. Nothing could be worse than to have it written that Jimmy Carter got scared in the runoff and did not do all that he could have to defeat Lester Maddox. I would simply hope that you would be available to these national press types and aware of the fact that they will probably have Reg Murphy telling them on the same visit that Jimmy Carter is’a tremendous handicap to Lance or Busbee. If they are writing stories that will be in print before the runoff, you probably should go "off the record" with