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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with David Pryor, June 13, 1974. Interview A-0038. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Valuing instincts over polling

This passage illustrates Pryor as a believer in personal politics. He claims that he will not use polling during his governorship—he plans instead on using his instincts to get a sense for what Arkansans need.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with David Pryor, June 13, 1974. Interview A-0038. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

JACK BASS:
Do you plan to use polling as governor?
DAVID PRYOR:
Nope. I have no plans for it. I'm not saying I won't do it, but I don't have any plans for it. I've never used it in a campaign.
WALTER DE VRIES:
I think you ought to spell out what you mean by polling. Polling on issues. An indepth kind of a feeling as to how people react to certain kinds of issues. I'm not talking about head-to-head polling for candidates.
DAVID PRYOR:
I have no plans for it. I think that I'll be able to get a feeling about what people are thinking about it. It's small state. You can get a. . . . It doesn't take you long to get a feeling about things if you work at it. You know, if you sit up there in the governor's mansion and the state capital all the time and never leave it, you're going to be insulated or isolated by your staff and all like that. If you read the Gazette you're not going to get a real feeling for what the people are thinking about, I'm sure. Due respect to the Gazette. It's been one of the. . . . I don't know where this state would be without the Gazette today. But I think I'll be able to get a pretty good idea of what people are thinking about. I don't plan to use them.