President Jimmy Carter's Legacy

(music)

Former President Jimmy Carter was laid to rest this week. The 1976 Iowa Caucuses helped pave his way to the White House. We'll reflect on Carter's legacy and Iowa connections on this edition of Iowa Press.

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

(music)

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

Elite Casino Resorts is rooted in Iowa. Elite's 1,600 employees are our company's greatest asset. A family run business, Elite supports volunteerism, encourages promotions from within and shares profits with our employees.

(music)

Across Iowa, hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at iowabankers.com.

(music)

For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating more than 50 years on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, January 10th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

(music)

[Henderson] This is a special edition of Iowa Press. We are going to be talking about the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter and his connection to Iowa. We're going to begin by showing you part of an Iowa PBS documentary about the history of the Iowa Caucuses and, you guessed it, it starts with 1975.

(music)

In early 1975, a Georgia peanut farmer turned Governor, and his close staff, began testing the waters in Iowa.

[Bender] They came out and they had a lunch, I think it was at the Savory, with me and state chairman Tom Whitney and Ham Jordan and Jimmy Carter, and we basically told them, you're not really going to sell here. I don't think a southern Governor, nah. We were wrong.

I'm afraid I'm prejudice because you're a farmer and I am a farmer.

That's the kind of prejudice I like.

[Tim Kraft] In 1975 and '76 was retail with a capital R. He could talk to people about any sort of crops, weather, machinery, the hardships, the value of a family farm. He was good at that and so was his wife.

David Yepsen was a young cub reporter tracking one of his first political assignments at the Des Moines Register.

(music)

Iowa Press, Sunday, March 2nd with guest Jimmy Carter, former Governor of Georgia.

[Carter] I think to be disassociated with the horrible bureaucratic mess that exists in Washington right now is a political advantage. I think to have had a broad range of experience professionally is an advantage. I'm a farmer. I'm a full-time farmer. If I can exemplify what the American people would like to see in their president, then I'll be elected. If I can't meet those high demands, and I hope they are high, I don't deserve to be president.

[Woodruff] He was not afraid to go in and walk right up to people who had never set eyes on him, had no clue who he was, put out his hand and say, hi, I'm Jimmy Carter, peanut farmer from Georgia, former Governor and I'm running for president and I'm going to be elected president. He had a lot of self-confidence.

(music)

Tim Kraft ran Carter's campaign efforts in Iowa, leaning heavily on the southern Governor's interpersonal skills amid a cash-strapped long-shot candidacy.

[Kraft] When I first went to Iowa, I took a quick stock of what we would need in terms of headquarters, phone lines, postage, staff, transportation, etcetera, and I submitted a budget to Atlanta and they said, we haven't got that kind of money. So, I had to argue with the financial people in Atlanta to secure an initial budget of $18,020.

As the campaign entered the fall of 1975, Carter's organization was gaining steam and taking part in an Iowa Democratic Party tradition.

The occasion was the State Democratic Party's Annual Get-a-Bucket-of-Chicken Election Year Show and Tell, the Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner. The event attracted seven presidential candidates, three correspondents from the major networks, and four national political reporters.

[Frank Reynolds] We grasp at straws in this business, you know, and if you can detect the slightest straw in the wind or any kind of reaction to a candidate it can be helpful in the very early stages.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

(music)

[Carter] It would suit me fine if all the candidates ended all the primaries and presented themselves to the voters. [Woodruff] When I had first covered Jimmy Carter in Iowa when he was traveling around campaigning in the fall of '75, it was October, there were no other press around. There might have been a couple of print reporters around.

[Carter] Looks like we've got a lot of good journalists here today that you'd be glad to meet. Johnny Apple from the New York Times --

[Woodruff] But by the time we came back for the caucuses, believe it or not, there was Iowa press, there was national press there, because by that point people were connecting the dots with what McGovern, George McGovern had done four years earlier.

[Carter] Our goal in Iowa is to come in first. That's what we want to do. I'm not sure we'll do it.

On the democratic side, state chairman Tom Whitney says a heavier than expected turnout is delaying things.

But the results are slow. We've had the largest caucuses we've ever held or at least it appears that way. So, they're going to come in a little slower than we thought.

This is your first batch? Okay. We'll hold yours.

What if you want to check them over?

At Iowa Democratic Party headquarters on caucus night, volunteers were still struggling to understand the delegate calculations, while media reporters turned to the resident expert Johnny Apple of the New York Times.

And we've got about five percent of the democrats and Carter is wiping them out except for uncommitted.

[Woodruff] He didn't win the Iowa caucuses, he came in second. He was almost ten points behind uncommitted. But the fact that he did better than expected, the fact that the media was looking at him, that is what made all the difference. The media played, the national media played a big role.

Carter had taken McGovern's model and maximized it all the way to the White House.

[Henderson] We have two Iowa residents at the Iowa Press table today who have firsthand experience from the 1976 caucus campaign. Michael Mauro, you may recognize him as a former Iowa Secretary of State. And David Yepsen, the longtime Des Moines Political Reporter for the Register and a former host of this program. Welcome back to both of you.

[Yepsen] Good to see you.

[Mauro] Thank you.

[Henderson] Joining our conversation are Brianne Pfannenstiel, she is the Chief Politics Reporter at the Des Moines Register and Erin Murphy of the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

[Pfannenstiel] You both are there today because you've had that front row seat to Jimmy Carter's campaign here in Iowa. I'm going to ask both of you, but I'll start with Michael Mauro, what was your first impression of Jimmy Carter when he came to this state?

[Mauro] I'll be honest with you, I was very young and I impressed easy, but he was very impressive. Just everything about him radiated energy. He had a good look to him. When he smiled, he lit up the whole room. And he was, came across to me as a very honest, genuine person, just like they portrayed him today.

[Henderson] What did you do in the Carter campaign?

[Mauro] I got involved in the Carter campaign by accident, to be honest with you. I was young and they were trying to round up some people to meet him. And this was going to be a group of democrats in Polk County. He was coming to town and they wanted to get a group and they were having trouble getting people, to be honest with you. That's how I got involved. And it started at a hotel in Des Moines, the Ramada Inn that used to be by the Veterans Auditorium. And he showed up there. But before he showed we were sitting in the hallway and I was amazed at the conversation. We're going to be nice, it's a good guy, but let's don't make any commitments, I think there's going to be somebody better. And that's how it went. And then from there he came in and I think he impressed a lot of people. It was a hot day in August and he even went to the Fair. I drew the short straw since I was the youngest and drove him out to the Fair. And that's how it all started with me and amazingly as I tell people we got in line to buy tickets. We weren't driving through. We got in line, bought a ticket, walked over to the Varied Industries Building where the democratic booth was. He wanted to know where to go. I said that would be a good spot. And just like, I think Judy Woodruff wasn't that, just like she said, he shook people's hands and said, I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for President of the United States. I kind of stood in the background saying, wow, people had an amazing look. Nobody knew who he was. But he did this for about fifteen to twenty minutes, maybe thirty minutes. And then we got back in the car and he had about an hour or two, he was going to take a small plane to Davenport and with him was Tim Kraft and I believe Jody Powell. And we drove around Des Moines and we just talked about everything and dropped him off and I went back to work. I was selling real estate at the time and I had been gone most of the day. And they said, where have you been? You've been gone all afternoon. And I said, I was the first prophet, don't bother me, I've just been with the next President of the United States. Now, I didn't say that with a lot of confidence, but I thought, you know. And that's how it turned out. And from there, I got to spend some time with him, but as the crowds got bigger from 11 to 12 people to 12,000 people it was harder to get close. But he always remembered me and I went to the White House on two or three different occasions and had a wonderful time.

[Pfannenstiel] David Yepsen, we're really used to politicians coming through the Iowa State Fair now. But in 1975 when you were reporting for the Register, did you cover his first visit to Iowa? What was your first experience with Jimmy Carter?

[Yepsen] I was the rookie reporter at the Register then. Jim Flansburg was the Chief Political Writer. And I give Jim a lot of credit for spotting Carter early on. He and Johnny Apple of the New York Times really saw Carter's momentum early and paid attention to it. They knew something was going on there. And so, I got assigned things like Sunday afternoon press conferences. Who has press conferences on a Sunday afternoon? But one of my favorite memories that nobody showed up, it was the Fort Des Moines, no it might have been the Savory. And nobody showed up but me. And so, it was Jimmy Carter in one chair and I was in another. We sat there talking. He was eating grapes. There was no TVs, no photographers. So, that's where my memories of Jimmy Carter really start.

[Murphy] David, the story of Jimmy Carter and the Iowa Caucuses really starts in '76. But as Judy Woodruff talked about, it was set up a little bit by McGovern in '72. You said you were a rookie around '75 '76, so I don't know if you covered '72, but what do you remember about what happened in '72? And were journalists here in Iowa ready for what ultimately happened in '76?

[Yepsen] No, they weren't. One of the founders of the Caucus, George McGovern and Gary Hart, his campaign manager, who spotted, after the '68 convention they spotted the anti-war movement active in Iowa and decided McGovern and Hart to come to Iowa and make a play. And they put a little time in and there were a few reporters here who were watching it. But McGovern finishes a strong second place showing, beating the expectations, and that -- when he skyrocketed to the nomination in '72 I think the political community said, something is going on out there in Iowa. It told us something. And so, I think you've got to give credit to McGovern and Hart -- Jimmy Carter and Tim Kraft and Hamilton Jordan picked up on that play that McGovern wrote and turned it into '76.

[Henderson] Michael Mauro, let's travel back in time to 1976. This was the post-Watergate era in America. What made Jimmy Carter the candidate that people were gravitating to?

[Mauro] I think he came across as very genuine, even when you watch that little piece there he's talking about, I'm running for President, I don't know if I'm going to win or not, but I'm going to give it my best shot. And he came across as very genuine and sincere and if you look at those pictures back then he was kind of dynamic. He had a look to him that people kind of gravitated to and he had a personality, even though it was kind of a dry personality, it was a personality the people could relate to and connect with. I thought that's what set him off.

[Henderson] David Yepsen, there were sitting U.S. Senators running and there was a former U.S. Senator running and the person who had been the vice presidential nominee in '72 running coming here. What made this good ground, Iowa good ground for Jimmy Carter?

[Yepsen] It's farm ground. He was a farmer. And he knew agriculture. He knew -- I always say he knew where to step when he got into a livestock building. And that resonated with people. We're coming off of Nixon's presidency and the alienation people felt and these other guys are slick, they're politicians and Carter was genuine. That was one. He had run for office in a rural state and won.

[Henderson] If people don't remember what Georgia was back in 1976.

[Yepsen] Right, very rural. And so, Carter felt right at home. And he would stay in people's houses and be sure to make his bed when he got up in the morning. And I think it endeared people to him as genuine at a time when they were looking for some integrity and change and genuineness in the president.

[Pfannenstiel] Jimmy Carter was the first southerner elected since the Civil War. Michael Mauro, how did that play with Iowans as he came here?

[Mauro] I don't think it had any effect on anybody, at least from my standpoint and the people that I lived with and worked with. I just think they saw him as somebody different and David brought up a good point, we're coming out of the post-Watergate era, a good looking guy, genuine, looks like he's honest, comes across as honest to us. I think all of those things played -- and you're in Iowa, remember now. And one thing I found about campaigning in Iowa, it's an easy state to campaign in and people are attentive and they're interested and I think he was an easy sell, to be honest with you.

[Pfannenstiel] And you mentioned just a little bit ago, you kind of were jokingly saying, I just met the next President of the United States. Was there a moment ahead of the Iowa Caucuses where you genuinely thought maybe this guy can be a real contender?

[Mauro] Well, as he got into the campaign and as he starts going across Iowa and picking up support I thought, well this guy -- I still thought it's a long way to go, Iowa is the first of many, but I knew he was going to be a contender. You got the impression. I never still didn't say after he left, I'm not going to say I thought he was going to be president. I did make that prediction and I'm glad it came true, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking wow, this is going to be very difficult.

[Murphy] I want to get both of your thoughts on this because you come from different sides of Caucus night itself in 1976. David, we'll start with you. What do you remember about Caucus night as the results were coming in?

[Yepsen] Well, as you saw from the clip, Tom Whitney, the state chairman, a lot of results, they were falling way behind and frankly, Whitney made estimates of what the vote was. We talk today about head counts and all of this turmoil, they were having that problem in '76. It just, it wasn't, the integrity of elections wasn't questioned then quite like it is now. And that was the thing I remember, a lot of that was just Tom Whitney's this is how I feel this is going.

[Murphy] Is that a product of -- because it was newer because of the complicated democratic caucus math?

[Yepsen] No, I think it was because it was new and people were unfamiliar with it and the democratic rules were just so cumbersome then and now that Tom Whitney is in the position of explaining what delegate equivalents are.

[Murphy] I still need that help every once in a while.

[Yepsen] Well, it may not matter now that the Iowa democrats managed to lose the caucuses.

[Murphy] Michael, how about at campaign HQ? What was Caucus night like?

[Mauro] Well, it was interesting because nothing like we know today. Some caucuses are still held in homes, not big crowds, very little media. I don't remember much media at all. And they were intimate. And you got firsthand, you got a chance to maybe sit from here to Carter and talk with him. Those things changed as the Caucuses took off. And as the Caucuses took off and Carter became the candidate, as far as I'm concerned McGovern might have done it in '72, Jimmy Carter put the Caucuses on the map. From there in out you got to meet presidential candidates every year.

[Murphy] Did you know right away that night the impact that would have moving forward on the campaign? Or was that still unknown?

[Mauro] I thought it was a great positive but no, there was a long way to go.

[Henderson] Did you have an inkling, David, that the '76 Caucuses would become what the Iowa Caucuses did over the next decades?

[Yepsen] No you didn't because in '76 -- no, the short answer is no one could have anticipated this and it did, one thing feeds on another.

[Henderson] Well, would there an H.W. Bush presidency in his campaign here in 1980 had there not been a Jimmy Carter in '76?

[Yepsen] No, you're right because George H.W. Bush saw what Carter did and said, that's my playbook. And it worked for him in those '80 Caucuses when he did better than Reagan. One thing I want to -- Brianne made a point about rural and this was a time when democrats could win rural states. The one thing that gets overlooked in these discussions, Carter almost won Iowa in the fall of '76. Ford had 49.4% of the votes and Carter had 48.4%. The spoiler was Gene McCarthy who got a point and a half. Had McCarthy not been in the race, Jimmy Carter probably would have carried Iowa. Who ever thinks a democrat can carry Iowa today now?

[Pfannenstiel] Well, that is a good segway into my next question. What do you think is the legacy of Jimmy Carter here on Iowa politics and on the Iowa Caucuses?

[Yepsen] I think that is the legacy, he cemented it and he capitalized it and it lasted for 50 some years. So, I think that is the big legacy. And I think the other legacy, and it's something the party is trying to struggle with now, you've got to get rural votes. This is a rural state. Rural now is red across the country, it isn't just here in Iowa. But until democrats can figure out how to pick the rural lock again -- and look at Carter's profile. He's a farmer. He's an outsider. He went to the military academy too.

[Henderson] Evangelical Christian.

[Yepsen] Yeah, that was a time when there were evangelicals who did vote for democrats. Harold Hughes is a good example of that.

[Henderson] Former Iowa Governor in case you don't know.

[Yepsen] Right. So, I think the lesson is if democrats want to win, they've got to get somebody from the rural party.

[Mauro] I agree.

[Murphy] Michael, how are things -- you touched on it a little bit earlier about the size of the Caucuses, how they used to be intimate gatherings and now they're much bigger. In what other ways, when you watch this documentary, you think back on Jimmy Carter and what he did here in 1976, how are things different when you see politics now?

[Mauro] The Caucuses exploded in Iowa. They became a big thing. They became a big thing economically. Candidates, I can honestly tell you this, after the Carter presidency you would get telephone calls out of the blue, Dick Gephardt would call me up as he's traveling somewhere around the state and wanted to get my take or if there was a chance that we could meet. This is the kind of things that happened. In Iowa you had the opportunity to meet presidents, potential presidents every year. And believe me, the Caucus campaigning started a year or two before for some of these people that might have been just elected to the presidency and they might have been in their last term and they're starting again. And where are they starting at? They're starting in Iowa. You had a chance to meet them all. And that was absolutely tremendous. What got the difficulty became when the crowds got big, they couldn’t tabulate the results. Remember David said, the best elections are the ones that are landslides. And I knew because I had experience with that complicated formula with media wanting results by ten or eleven o'clock and retirees trying to make formulas out, it was going to be a disaster if anything was close. And you saw what happened.

[Yepsen] When you were county auditor you had the county auditor's prayer. Lord, I don't care who wins or loses, just let it be by a big margin.

[Mauro] You got that right. And when there were big margins in the Caucuses everybody went home and ten, eleven o'clock and boy, Iowa was great. Then you get into where we can't calculate them anymore and you've got 2,000 people in a gymnasium who are shifting groups. It was great and it's very, very I say sad because we are a great state for people being able to campaign on a retail basis. One of the things we missed with Carter is, and I thought was important I tell people, and I had a telephone call with Marco Rubio, he was in Florida, he was a Congressman and CNN had me on and we talked about the Caucuses. He wanted them out. And I said, in Iowa retail politics works. A person can come in like a Jimmy Carter, unknown, touch all the people here. And unlike in '75, the media now was covering these things. So not only was he campaigning in Iowa but every night on one of the cable news stations you were seeing what he was doing. Small budget, opportunity became very popular to win this thing and you go forward.

[Henderson] David, we're drawing to a close on our time together here. Any final thoughts about reflecting on Carter's legacy and what it means for the history books?

[Yepsen] Well, I think that outsiders can in. I think in both parties that prompted a lot of people say hey, if he can do it, I can do it. A lot of governors have made that calculation. And so, I think that is probably the big thing. But you'll see it, it's still a work on the republican side. Their Caucuses are still on. There will be an open contest in 2028 and I guarantee you within the next two years these two guys are going to be up in Hawarden, Iowa covering republican presidential candidates who have got the same dream Jimmy Carter had.

[Henderson] What did you see in Carter, and all of the other presidential candidates you've covered, that made you think there's a light switch that they turn on, that this guy, as Michael Mauro said, could be president?

[Yepsen] Well, I watch the body language and you could see Carter, people relating to him, nodding in a way that they didn't with other candidates. And I think it goes back to that rural piece. He understood rural America. He was from rural America. He never forgot that.

[Henderson] Michael Mauro, what was the light switch moment for you? You said it was --

[Mauro] A lot of the same standards. He connected, you could see he was connecting with people. And he had a chance, you're connecting one-on-one or one-on-five or one-on-twenty and he was able to connect with them and I think that he -- I always said in politics people have to like you and they have to trust you and he was likeable and I think he looked like the type of person you could trust. And I always thought that was a big success, I always thought it was a big success in politics to have those two attributes, likeability and to have the people build some trust and have confidence. And you can go a long way with that.

[Henderson] Well, Michael Mauro and David Yepsen, thank you very much for being here to share your history with our viewers.

[Yepsen] Good to see you.

[Mauro] I appreciate you having me. Thank you very much.

[Henderson] You can watch this and every episode of Iowa Press at iowapbs.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching today.

(music)

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

(music)

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

Elite Casino Resorts a family run business rooted in Iowa. We believe our employees are part of our family and we strive to improve their quality of life and the quality of lives within the communities we serve.

(music)

Across Iowa, hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at iowabankers.com.

(music)