This story was published in the March 16, 1968, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Robert F. Kennedy has decided to run for President. He will announce Saturday an all-out attempt to wrest the Democratic nomination from President Johnson.
Kennedy plans to battle for the nomination in at least two primaries — Oregon and California — and may enter Indiana.
At the same time, the New York Democrat’s organization will attempt to gather delegate votes prior to the Democratic National Convention in August.
It is understood that he has made no arrangement to cooperate with Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, D-Minn., the other aspirant for Johnson’s crown, for a possible pooling of delegate votes at the convention.
The 42-year-old brother of President John F. Kennedy will make his announcement in the same forum used by his late brother when he opened his drive for the presidency in 1960.
Kennedy is making it clear that he is not running simply to dissent from the Johnson administration’s policies, but in full confidence that the nation is ripe for a change and that he can win.
Kennedy told a group of Long Island women at a meeting in King’s Point: “I am going to make an announcement tomorrow. You can help me in my efforts which I am going to undertake.”
Later it was learned that the announcement will be that he is going to run.
Moreover, in Indianapolis, Sen. Vance Hartke, D-Ind., quoted Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., as telling him over the telephone that his brother would announce for the nomination Saturday.
Indiana Unsettled
Hartke told newsmen he did not know whether Robert Kennedy would enter Indiana’s May 7 presidential preference primary, already a target of McCarthy.
A positive decision pitting Kennedy against McCarthy for the anti-administration and anti-Vietnam vote was seen by some political observers as a boon to Johnson’s chances for renomination.
Elsewhere on the national political front:
Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller still was withholding his own announcement of whether he will contest former Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the Republican presidential nomination. Rockefeller is expected to announce his decision next week.
LBJ Aide Comments
In Washington, President Johnson’s press secretary, George Christian, said the chief executive has given no top priority to upcoming Democratic primaries.
For some months, Kennedy said he would not be a candidate for the Democratic nomination, that he agreed with McCarthy’s anti-Vietnam war stand, but that he intended to support the Democratic presidential nominee, and expected that nominee to be Johnson.
However, earlier this week Kennedy announced that as a result of the New Hampshire primary he was reassessing the possibility of running for the nomination. And he was quoted as saying that he no longer feels he can support President Johnson — a remark to which the White House offered no comment.
McCarthy won 42 per cent of the primary vote in New Hampshire, against a 48 percent write-in for President Johnson.
This story was published in the March 16, 1968, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
