The Pittsburgh Press (July 25, 1944)
Dewey, Bricker plan 9-week campaign
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Ohio Governor John W. Bricker will pack their presidential and vice-presidential campaigns into the nine-week period preceding the Nov. 7 election, Republican National Committee Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr. revealed here.
Making his first visit to RNC headquarters, Mr. Brownell said that the rest of July and August would be given over to organizing the campaign. Mr. Bricker will arrive at Republican headquarters Thursday for campaign conferences.
Mr. Dewey will be in St. Louis next week for a meeting of Republican governors, but that is a political development related to the campaign only indirectly since it involves a collective effort and no series of speeches by the candidate. Mr. Brownell said the exact itinerary of the St. Louis trip with other stops would be made public later.
Confident of victory
But he was ready with victory claims, expressing confidence that the Republicans would have Election Day majorities in the 26 states which now have Republican governors and which have 339 votes in the Electoral College. A majority necessary to elect is 266 Electoral College votes.
But Mr. Brownell is still wary of some of the personal support already offered Mr. Dewey for this campaign, notably the pledge which recently came from President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers of America. Neither does Mr. Brownell want to discuss in any detail whether, when or how Wendell L. Willkie, the 1940 Republican presidential candidate, will participate in the Dewey campaign.
Brownell was sharp in his criticism of “left-wingers” at the Democratic National Convention but under questioning avoided any commitment whether he included the Congress of Industrial Organizations in that group. He said the Dewey-Bricker ticket expected to get some CIO support.
Questioned on Willkie’s role
After he had stressed Republican Party unity, Mr. Brownell was asked if he included Mr. Willkie in the unity statement. He replied:
You will find as the campaign progresses that every Republican leader will be behind the Dewey-Bricker ticket.
“Does that include Mr. Willkie?” he was asked again. Mr. Brownell replied that he would let his statement stand.
Continuing to explain that the Republicans expected to get a big labor vote, Mr. Brownell was asked whether Mr. Lewis would work actively for the Dewey-Bricker ticket. The question has come up before and Mr. Brownell was ready with an answer which avoided any direct acceptance of Mr. Lewis assistance but suggested that the mine leader was following the trend of his own rank and file.