Seeking support from various constituencies
Scott describes some of his constituencies and how he tried to win their support. He met with African American leaders and educators, eventually securing their endorsements.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Robert W. (Bob) Scott, February 4, 1998. Interview C-0336-1. 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:
-
I was going to ask, at this stage, in fact, in most of the history of the
Democratic party, African-Americans, or probably at that time referred
to as Negroes, were an important source of potential support, although
many of them had just recently gained the right to vote through the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Did you make or feel that you should make any
overtures to that community in your process of making your decision to
run?
- ROBERT W. (BOB) SCOTT:
-
Not so much overtures. That particular segment of the rural population
would normally gravitate toward me anyway, because of my father, who had
appointed the first black to the state board of education, and again,
being a populist, rural roads, rural schools, those kinds of things that
benefited blacks quite a lot. It wasn't a given, and when we
talk about the governor's race
I'll talk about that a little more; but I didn't
make any particular overt approaches to them, or any other group. Now,
when I got into the campaign itself, I did, and I'll talk
about that later, as well as to the Greek community in certain
[unclear] .
- JACK FLEER:
-
But for example, at the stage of the primary, you not only had Melville
Broughton as an opponent, or another candidate, but you had Reginald
Hawkins, who was, I guess, the first black to run for governor of North
Carolina, in 1968. Did that cause you any concern about the possibility
of getting the nomination, with the possibility of some of those votes,
maybe a significant number of votes that you thought might go to you
because of your father, not coming to you?
- ROBERT W. (BOB) SCOTT:
-
Yes, it caused some concern, but in a sense, and I'll have to
say this is in retrospect, the fact that you had Reginald Hawkins out
there running, and Melville Broughton, that positioned me in the middle.
And so there was a feeling then on the part of some of the
conservatives, "Well, you know, Bob Scott is not getting all
the liberal vote, they're voting for Hawkins." And
as you know, there are all shades and degrees of conservatism. And what
I tried to do was broaden—if I was going to be in the middle
of the road, then I was going to broaden that middle of the road, and
crowd the conservatives over closer to that ditch, and the liberals over
to that ditch, so that they didn't have much room except for
over on the shoulder, and I had the broad center. That's the
way it turned out. I'm not sure I had that straight to begin
with; it just worked out that way.
So Reginald Hawkins' entering into the race did not cause me
that much concern. Of course, I would have liked to have had all the
votes. I recall that I went before the—this is when I ran for
lieutenant governor—the very influential and even powerful
black leadership group in Durham, the Committee on Black American
Affairs, they called it then, or Negro Affairs, I suppose. Well, you
know, this was new to me, and I knew it was customary that the
candidates go. So I went before their group, and I remember Nick
Galifionakis, who was running for Congress at that time, was also there.
And Nick is from Durham, and he knew a little bit about it, so he sort
of coached me, and said, "You just go in there and
don't try to be somebody, just be who you are and answer
their questions, that's the way you're going to be
likely to get their support."
Well, I went in there, and they called me in and started to ask me
questions, how did I feel about this issue, how did I feel about that
issue, and I told the crowd, I said, "Well, you know, that
doesn't affect the office of lieutenant governor; the
lieutenant governor has nothing to say or do about that issue."
Most of them were national issues—voting rights, all those
kinds of things. And, as it turned out, I did not get their support in
the first primary. Now, some of the black leadership in Durham at that
time, they were friends of mine, and they wanted me to get the support
of that group. But I didn't get it. So, in a post-mortem of
that, and before the second primary of the race for lieutenant governor,
they said, "Now, you didn't handle that
right." I said, "Well, they kept asking me questions
about which I didn't know much about
and had nothing to do." He said, "That
doesn't make any difference. They wanted to know how you felt
about it, whether you had any part in it or not, they wanted to know
your feelings."
The next time, in the second primary, they didn't have a
meeting of the whole committee, which was a large group. They had an
executive committee. And so I appeared before the executive committee.
And the executive committee kind of told me in essence what I ought to
say about some of these issues, and they in turn recommended me to the
full committee, and I got their support in the second go-round. Cliff
Blue got their support in the first go-round, as I recall.
But anyway, at some point in time, in the latter part of my term as
lieutenant governor, I began meeting and some dialogue with officials of
the North Carolina Association of Educators, or Educator's
Association it was back then, and other groups like that, particularly
them, though. And I met with highway contractors, about roads and all
that kind of thing. You know, naturally they wanted more money for
roads, and I said, "Well, that's probably going to
mean another gasoline tax."
And one of the things with educators was, we'd been talking
for a number of years about public school kindergartens, and it seemed
to me like it was time to stop talking and start doing something about
it. So it was out of my discussions with them came the proposal for
public school kindergartens. Well, how you going to pay for it? Well,
that's when I put the tax on cigarettes, or asked for it, and
eventually got it. Because the tax on cigarettes
and soft drinks, the reason it was to be two cents, you
know—excuse me— [pause]
It was to be a nickel a pack tax on cigarettes, no soft drinks
involved. That's another story, it would take a little while;
if you'll make a note, I'll come back and tell you
about that fight. But, anyway, it was to get close to a hundred million
dollars into the general fund in order to finance public school
kindergartens. And I think we actually got ninety-seven million, or
something like that. But that was the beginning of that program, and
that was why I recommended a tax on cigarettes.