Professionalizing political parties
Holshouser describes the growth of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Since his term as governor, both have grown in wealth and organization, and have undergone a degree of professionalization.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with James E. Holshouser Jr., May 9, 1998. Interview C-0328-3. 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 FLEER:
-
…Other than having in the chair a person who was sympathetic
to your administration—or compatible, let's say,
to your administration and your way of leading the Republican party,
what other aspects of the party organization and resources were you able
to try to control as governor?
- JAMES E. HOLSHOUSER, JR.:
-
Of course, at that time the party was a different creature than it is
now. You didn't have the tax check-off, or a significant
source of on-going funds. So the party organization as such really
wasn't much of an organization as such. It was almost totally
volunteers, including the chairman. From my recollection, when I became
state chairman in the sixties, we had one
employee, secretary who got the mailings out, and that sort of thing. We
had either a one office or a two-office suite in the Carolina Hotel in
Raleigh. It was just a minimal, minimal budget; the party was
$50,000 in debt, which was enormous for that time. We spent two
years just getting that paid off. That is the hardest money you ever
raise because it didn't go into anybody's
campaign. Campaign techniques and the party's ability to
function have come a long way since then in terms of being able to use
direct mail, for fundraising being able to…
[END OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
[TAPE 1, SIDE B]
[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE B]
- JAMES E. HOLSHOUSER, JR.:
-
…So both parties are better funded now than they were in the
sixties, I think. It's usually easier for the party
that's in control of the governor's office, to
have the governor's presence help the party draw a crowd at
fundraising dinners and that sort of thing. But both parties have gotten
much more sophisticated (Republicans may still be a little more
sophisticated) in terms of fundraising and campaign techniques.
[Recorder is turned off and then back on.]
- JACK FLEER:
-
We were discussing the ability of the governor to control the resources
of the party, and you were saying that parties are much better off
today, and that the Republican party might well be more sophisticated
than the Democrats.
- JAMES E. HOLSHOUSER, JR.:
-
And there's another factor in this, too. When a new
administration comes in, invariably the people who had been involved in
the campaign and got their adrenaline running come to Raleigh. Well,
that political adrenaline doesn't automatically turn off when
they become a state employee. With both parties having their state
headquarters in Raleigh, I suspect it's
pretty usual that some of those people end up volunteering for things on
nights and weekends with the party. If you watch campaigns in the
off-year elections, you will see people moving in and out of the
government fairly frequently into campaigns; somebody will leave this
position in this department and go into the campaign for Joe Blow
who's running for Congress, or the US Senate, or something.
After the elections, however, he's right back over
there—particularly if they lost.