Note: The following transcript is a radio script. Therefore, it contains audio cues and other script conventions, as well as grammar and syntax errors some readers may find objectionable.
Stranglehold episode 2: The Dragon Egg
Love is a powerful thing - especially the first time you feel it.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Alright tell me what was your favorite primary.
BILLY SHAHEEN: Oh 76.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: You're just saying that.
BILLY SHAHEEN: No no no it was it was - it was you know it's like your first love. It is. It was it was unbelievable. I never you know I - I always believed but I never thought would happen. I never thought it would happen. And then it did.
(music)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Think about your own first love - it probably forever influenced the way you view relationships.
Your first love can change your life.
That’s what happened with Billy Shaheen - his first love was Jimmy Carter’s 1976 New Hampshire primary campaign.
He had his eye on Carter long before then...actually, I think we can say it was love at first sight.
BILLY SHAHEEN : I started watching this governor of Georgia named Jimmy Carter because his first official act as governor. It was the hang a picture of Martin Luther King in the state capital and declared segregation in Georgia was over forever. And I said to my wife. This guy has got some balls. I mean he really got guts. I love this guy. I'm going to watch him
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Those actually weren’t the first things Carter did - though he did do them.
But who among us doesn’t fudge the details of their first flirtation.
That sort of thing happens a lot when it comes to Carter’s 1976 campaign in New Hampshire - It’s now the stuff of legend around here - and so the details are often embellished.
And Billy Shaheen? He knows that legend maybe better than anyone.
He was one of the New Hampshire co-chairs of that campaign - and he went on to become a power broker in the Democratic party - he’s lead a bunch of other presidential campaigns here.
It’s actually why I gave him a hard time when he first told me 76 was his favorite - come on - I thought - I specifically came to you to talk about this campaign, you’re just trying to play right into my hand here...
But no - Shaheen told me.
He loves this campaign so much - because it showed the world what New Hampshire could offer the rest of the country.
It basically wrote the argument that our biggest defenders use as to why New Hampshire has to hold the first in the nation primary.
BILLY SHAHEEN: Jimmy Carter is an example of if you believe in you're ready to work hard enough you can be anybody and be president. And that's the hope that New Hampshire gives.
(music)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Now of course - the New Hampshire primary was around for decades before Carter came around.
But there’s a good argument to be made that 1976 was a defining moment in New Hampshire’s political history.
This campaign changed people’s lives in a way that previous primaries hadn’t - I’m serious - many of the New Hampshire staffers on the Carter campaign would go on to incredibly powerful political careers - not just here but in Washington.
And so in 1976 it was clear - this first in the nation primary thing? Forget candidates - for local politicos - it could be their ticket to power.
[START THEME SONG HERE]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Jimmy Carter’s run in 1976 is an essential piece of the first in the nation primary mythology.
And that story has been passed down over many political generations - re-told hundreds - maybe thousands - of times.
KATHY ROGERS: The advice I always give anybody that's working in a campaign for the first time in New Hampshire is it's always and how I kind of felt. It's kind of like you got this little dragon egg and it's this little bitty creature and then all of a sudden at the end you just grab onto the tail and hold on for dear life and hope you don't get thrown off because it just blows up.
[THEME MUSIC DRUM BREAK HERE]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Now - you could google the 1976 New Hampshire primary and figure out who won - spoiler alert - it was Jimmy Carter of Plains, Georgia.
But the story you probably don’t know - and won’t find on the internet - is what his campaign did for New Hampshire and how his win here continues to shape the assumptions and expectations of what running for president is supposed to look like.
JIMMY CARTER: Well New Hampshire is a unique state and it's the only place in the nation where we have a chance to campaign on a personal basis.
KATHY ROGERS: Jimmy Carter wasn't supposed to win. He was seen as the joke.
Billy Shaheen: Listen to me. Every vote you get in New Hampshire is worth ten thousand votes someplace else
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: From New Hampshire Public Radio - I’m Lauren Chooljian and this is Stranglehold.
(music)
(WHATS MY LINE music) Come on let’s all play what’s my line!
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Our story begins in 1973 on the set of What’s My Line.
It was a classic game show with a pretty simple concept - a panel of celebrity guests ask yes or no questions to try and guess someone’s job.
Larry Blyden: In the meantime would our first challenger enter and sign in please. (music 5 sec) X!
The mystery guest in this episode is a really smiley, blonde guy in a suit.
He walks on set, stops at a chalkboard and draws a big X - then he takes his seat across the stage from the panel.
LARRY: Panel all I can tell you about Mr. X is that he provides a service and we will now show the audience who our guest is and what his line is. (Applause)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Maybe you see where this is going… the guest’s name flashes in white block letters across the TV screen: It’s Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
This is three years before Carter enters the White House.
And these panelists - they have no clue who they’re staring at. They don’t know this dude.
It’s why I got such a kick out of watching this episode - because Carter’s face - his smile is so famous now - yet there he is - just cheesin away at four clueless panelists.
LARRY BLYDEN: And let's begin the questioning with Arlene Francis.
Arlene Francis: Well they're crazy about your service. Would I be?
Jimmy Carter: About my service.
LARRY: Probably.
JIMMY CARTER: I think so.
Arlene Francis: Is it. Is it a service that has to do with the women.
Jimmy Carter: Yes certainly does.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: So this goes on for a while - the panelists keep taking stabs at who the heck this guy is? But they really struggle to get anywhere.
They end up stumbling into the answer that helps them solve it.
LARRY BLYDEN: 4 down six to go Arlene
ARLENE: I can rule out that you’re a government official of any kind, can’t I?
CARTER: No.
ARLENE: Oh you fresh thing! (laughing)
BLYDEN: 7 down three to go Gene
GENE: You are a non federal official is that correct?
CARTER: That’s correct
GENE: Are you a state official?
CARTER: That’s correct
GENE: Are you a governor?
CARTER: Yes.
LARRY: That’s it he is Gov Jimmy Carter of the state of Georgia
(applause)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: I wonder if like years later - the panelists thought back on this episode and laughed to themselves - like jeeze, how did it happen that the random smiley governor - would go on to be the leader of the free world?
(MUSIC)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: It all happened because of a rare opening - kind of a glitch in the system…
But it wasn’t Jimmy Carter who first spotted that glitch - he had some help from this group of young guys who had been with him since his first unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1966.
They were Hamilton Jordan - Jody Powell - and Jerry Rafshoon.
And these dudes were memorable to say the least. They’d establish reputations as savvy political strategists - and that campaign whiz kid reputation got two of them on the cover of Rolling Stone.
They were described by the magazine - ready for this - as: apple-cheeked, clean-cut, fraternity-boy yokels with their cocky grins and smart-ass humor.
Powell and Jordan are dead now - but Rafshoon is keeping the love for Carter and the smart-ass humor - very much alive.
For example - a thunderstorm rolled in while we were on the phone...
JERRY RAFSHOON: I'm so magnetic I start thunderstorms I know it's just let there be light.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN:: Oh my god.
JERRY RAFSHOON: Don't don't be - don't be throwing Jimmy's name around in vain.
(beat/music etc)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: So - it was 1972 when the idea first struck these guys that Carter should run for president.
Carter had been governor for over a year at that point - and he, Rafshoon and Jordan went to the Democratic National Convention in Miami.
They looked around the big convention center and saw a lot of wannabe presidents - Birch Bayh, George Wallace - guys who were already angling to run four years from then.
Jordan turned to Rafshoon and said - man, if these guys can run for president, Jimmy could do that.
(Music)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Jordan and Rafshoon decided - alright - when we get back to Georgia - we’re gonna tell Jimmy he should run for president.
So they get home - and Jordan was apparently pretty nervous - they went over to the Governor’s mansion and they sat in front of Carter.
RAFSHOON: And we said um, we want to talk to you about your future. And he said yes...And we said well you can’t run for reelection, he said I know that, he was term limited could only be one term at that time...and Hamilton said we think you should run - p p p p president! And Jimmy looked at him and says - oh really?
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: It was at that moment Rafshoon could tell - Carter had been thinking about it, too.
[MUSIC]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: So he’s gonna run - but how? I mean - as you’ve heard - hardly anyone knew who this guy was.
Carter put it all on Hamilton Jordan - you tell me how I’m gonna do this thing.
And so he did. And this is why a fairly unknown governor of Georgia ends up spending so much time in New Hampshire.
(MUSIC)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Hamilton Jordan mapped out a strategy for how Carter could win the White House.
He typed it out in a nearly 60 page memo - spelling out exactly what it would take, step by step - he assessed Carter’s potential opponents - his strengths and weaknesses as a candidate...
And Jordan also made a really bold prediction - that early primary states - including the tiny state of New Hampshire would be KEY for a no name like Carter to win the nomination.
That might seem obvious now - but at the time this was a totally new idea.
How’d he come up with it? WELL a few reasons…
First - the rules on how the country picked presidential nominees had recently - and drastically - changed.
Party bosses had just lost a lot of power.
[INSERT SOUND HERE OF 1968 PROTESTS IN CHICAGO]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: 1968 marked a major turning point for presidential politics.
Up until then - presidential nominees were largely chosen by powerful people.
It was party bosses who chose delegates to the political conventions and those delegates chose the nominees.
Regular voters didn’t have a real say in the process until the general elections rolled around.
But in 1968 - many voters were desperate to be heard - there was so much anger over the Vietnam war - grief over the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr - and then Bobby Kennedy - it all erupted into massive protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
[MORE SOUND POP IN OF PROTESTS]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: So Democrats made a big change - voters would now pick delegates for the national party conventions.
Republicans would eventually go along with these rules too.
Now - were party bosses totally out of the process? Of course not…
But over the next few cycles - more primaries and caucuses would be added to the calendar…giving more voice to regular voters.
So Jordan looked back at all this and realized -if the people picking nominees are now normal people - a different kind of candidate could have a shot - so long as they appeal to regular voters.
“I could go on and on” - he wrote to Carter - “but we need to begin thinking now about party rules vis a vis primary states and your own effort. It is here that the nomination will be won or lost.”
JODY POWELL: If this had been a nomination process that was essentially controlled by the leadership of the Democratic Party, then Jimmy Carter would have stood no chance.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Here’s one of the three campaign whiz kids - Jody Powell- talking with NPR.
These guys also knew New Hampshire was early in the calendar - and they predicted that a win there - or in Iowa another early state - that could bring some serious momentum to the campaign.
JODY POWELL: So, if we could win in Iowa and win in New Hampshire, we just might have enough money to compete effectively in Florida.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: And New Hampshire had a reputation.
Jordan referenced it in the memo..
Over the last few cycles - New Hampshire had become a place where dark horse candidates could become serious contenders - and where sure winners stumbled.
GEORGE MCGOVERN: But remember! When I came here to New Hampshire the first time I only had 4 percent in the polls!
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Jordan and those guys remembered well the 1972 Democratic NH primary - George McGovern scored a surprise second place finish - and Edmund Muskie - previously the front runner - faded out not too long after that.
And four years earlier there was the 1968 primary - where Gene McCarthy shocked the world - coming in a close second to President Lyndon Johnson - which forced the sitting president to drop out of the race.
CBS: By any political measure President Johnson has suffered a major psychological setback in New Hampshire
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: So there was a history of underdogs punching above their weight in NH.
BUT it's not like those underdogs had become presidents.
(PAUSE)
So Jordan put all these pieces together -the new rules, the reputation, and N.H.’s first-in-the-nation status -- and he realized this tiny New England state could be a springboard.
BUT to make it work, they’d have to run a new kind of campaign.
DOT PADGETT: I'm up here from Plains Georgia to ask you to vote for my friend Jimmy Carter for president and she'd stop for a minute but she said but I'm so damn cold.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: We’ll get to that in a moment.
BREAK
SONG: I heard a young man speaking out, just the other day. So I stopped to take a listen, to what he had to say. He spoke straight and simple, by that I was impressed. He said - once and for all why not the best.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: I am honored to introduce you to the 1976 Carter campaign song: Why not the best.
SONG: Then he laid out a plan of action that made a lot of sense. He talked about the government and how good it could be for you and me…
WHY NOT THE BEST - was the vibe of the entire campaign - because the best was the opposite of what most Americans felt their government had given them lately.
CARTER IN SONG: I want to see us once again have a nation that is good and honest and decent and truthful and competent and compassionate and is filled with love as all the American people
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: By the time Jimmy Carter was running for president - the country was still processing Watergate - they were angry with President Richard Nixon - and then President Gerald Ford goes ahead and pardons Nixon..
SONG: I was listening to quite a man talking to me.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Sorry - can we just - I can’t get enough of this song - so can we just take a minute out of our day here - and just bask in this glory of this gem!?
SONG: We need Jimmy Carter! Why settle for less! America!
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: That’s my favorite part!
SONG: Once and for all why not the best! We need Jimmy Carter. We can’t afford to settle for less! America! Once and for all, why not the best.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Okay. Thank you for that. Now - Carters team had high hopes for this vibe - cheesy as it may seem now - they figured it would help set their guy apart from the rest of the field...
CHRIS BROWN: I believe it's fair to say that Jimmy Carter was the only non Washington non beltway candidate running so that created a little additional interest
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Chris Brown was the New England campaign director for Carter - so he was keeping a close eye on the competition - and the Democratic field in 1976 was crowded -
CHRIS BROWN: Well they called us the Seven Dwarfs...because none of the candidates had high name I.D.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: There would actually be way more than seven Democrats by the time this race was over.
And Chris Brown’s right - in the 70s and now, some of these names likely won’t ring a bell - like Mo Udall, Birch Bayh, Scoop Jackson, Sargeant Shriver...I could go on...
Yet Carter was one of the most unknown of them all - there was a Gallup poll taken at the beginning of the campaign - asking voters for their impressions of 31 possible candidates - Carter wasn’t even included!
But - not all of them campaigned in New Hampshire - some of them didn’t even get in the race until New Hampshire was long over…
Because New Hampshire just wasn’t a must stop place for presidential candidates at that point.
But Carter was about to change that.
(beat)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: I want to take you through some of Carter team’s strategy for how they’d take N.H. by storm.
Because THIS is where one of the myths behind the New Hampshire primary that people love to celebrate really begins.
It’s the idea that anyone can come to New Hampshire - and work hard enough - look enough voters in the eye - that that was enough to become president of the united states? That started right here in the Carter campaign.
(music)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: OK so what would this look like on the ground in New Hampshire….
First - they needed a team of people who are devoted to the candidate - potentially borderline obsessed.
Billy Shaheen: These campaigns run on two things love and hate. If you love somebody you'll do whatever they want. And you work as hard as you can. If you hate somebody you'll drive through a mountain to get them. Passion is what wins campaigns. Passion. You can like somebody is much different than loving somebody. I mean the kids that were working for us will work in 20-22 hours a day. I mean they believed in that. That's the secret.
And when Billy Shaheen mentions KIDS he’s not exaggerating here.
The New Hampshire team was full of rookies - most of them had never worked on a presidential campaign before - Shaheen included.
Billy Shaheen: everybody who was anybody was with somebody else other than Jimmy Carter. I mean I was a nobody and just a nobody. And it was just me in a handful of people.
That handful of people included Carter’s actual family members - this was a new thing and something that Carter’s team was really committed to - they covered early states with his family.
His second oldest son Chip literally moved to New Hampshire - all the way from Plains, Georgia.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN:Was that an exciting thing at the time? Were you into it
CHIP CARTER: Obviously into it but it was more scary than exciting at first.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Why is that?
CHIP CARTER: Well, I failed speech three times in college and I was expected to make at least a speech when I got there. So that was nerve racking to start with. (laughs)
(beat)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: OK so they’ve got the New Hampshire team - made up of mostly rookies and relatives - and they’re starting to understand the competition - next: they needed their candidate to meet New Hampshire voters.
And obviously - there was no internet.
So there was no going live on instagram from your kitchen while drinking a beer - or filming youtube videos from your tour across your home state….
If candidates wanted to introduce themselves to voters - they literally had to do it in person. It’s an essential part of New Hampshire campaign lore - but it’s also a matter of logistics.
This is a small state - only 82 thousand people voted in the 1976 democratic primary - hardly enough to fill some big college football stadiums - and NH aint Texas -- you can drive from the bottom to the top of the state in less than four hours. So, visiting grocery stores or main streets is actually efficient.
JIMMY CARTER:I’m Jimmy Carter, running for president, I just wanted to shake hands with you.
VOTER: Oh yes I saw your picture in the paper.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Carter was pretty good at this. He’d look voters right in the eye and tell them - I’ll never lie to you.
JIMMY CARTER: Well New Hampshire is a unique state and it's the only place in the nation where we have a chance to campaign on a personal basis. Just the candidate and individual voters in colleges, high schools, grammar schools, barber shop, factory shift-lines, and restaurants and on the street. And this is what I've done. A kind of campaigning I like
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Jordan had a feeling Carter would go over well in New Hampshire.
He wrote in the memo that this rural state could be a good fit - quote I believe that your farmer-businessman-military-religious-conservative background would be well-received there. End quote
And at the end of a long day of glad handing or pressing the flesh in New Hampshire, Carter would sleep in supporters’ houses
ELLIS WOODWARD: I mean would it be easier if he just stayed in hotels. Oh God yes.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Ellis Woodward was Carter’s scheduler in New Hampshire - so he was responsible for setting up Carter’s sleeping arrangements.
ELLIS WOODWARD: It’s quite something else to find where he’s going to stay if he’s staying in a private home. And then there’s also balancing might be two or three people who want him to stay at their home... And then figure out how you're gonna explain to the other two people why he's not staying with you. Right. I mean this all sort of juvenile but you do have to do that. ////
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: This whole sleepover business started as a cost saving measure for the Carter campaign - but it became another thing entirely.
Nixon’s presidency had been famously called the Imperial Presidency - and now - here you have a guy running for the same office - sleeping at strangers’ spare rooms.
ELLIS WOODWARD: Now George McGovern probably did it. Eugene McCarthy probably did it...But these are the sort of things that happen that get woven into the story, and once they start to get woven into the story well, what’s the candidate and the campaign gonna do? You can’t close the chapter on that, I mean you have to continue doing it whether it’s annoying or not right?
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Of course you have to keep doing it - because the people who got to host Carter loved it - imagine waking up early to put the coffee on for a potential president!
And you better believe those people would tell their friends about it… and word would spread about how Carter was the perfect house guest - very gracious - very neat - and he always made his bed perfectly … just the sort of image Carter’s team was hoping to project!
But something else was happening here too - having Carter sleep at your house wasn’t just good for him - it started to change how N.H. voters would think about themselves - We feed breakfast to future presidents! We’re important! We make history!
Hosts would prominently display “Jimmy Carter slept here” plaques in their homes.
Even now - I just saw a real estate listing for a house in Laconia New Hampshire - and in the description - right after “new toilet in half bath” it says “A beautiful historic home where James Earle "Jimmy" Carter slept during the 1976 NH Democratic Primary.
Each mention -- a small bit of proof - that New Hampshire is special. And deserves to be first.
(BEAT)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Now what about when Carter wasn’t in New Hampshire? The campaign needed to hammer home to voters this image of Carter as an honest, good guy.
And to do this - Hamilton Jordan came up with a new, frankly, kind of silly idea - the next best thing to the actual candidate was a plane full of sweet, honest to goodness Georgians, who knew Jimmy personally.
DOT PADGETT: Well I know I had one man that listened very politely as I told him the story of Jimmy Carter and I handed him the brochure and told him why I was there...when I finished he looked at me and he said Young lady I have not understood a word you have said...
(music in between)
And I had you know I probably was talking pretty fast in my Southern accent and but he said but I will take the brochure and I will read about your friend Jimmy Carter and I thank you for coming.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Introducing the Peanut Brigade. A group of around 100 Georgians - people who knew Carter from church or when he was governor - who flew to New Hampshire - and eventually other states - to campaign for their pal.
Dot Padgett was known as the den mother of this crew.
It was January 1976 - the primary was just a month away.
And when they land - the campaign gathers the brigadiers together to share some key New Hampshire intel- like what to wear in the snow - how to drive in the snow - because you know - January in New Hampshire is not for the weak. And many of these Georgians had never been this far north.
Kathy Rogers was a Carter intern at the time - she’s now a New Hampshire state representative - and she remembers this meeting.
KATHY ROGERS: Well they didn't want to waste their time /// they want to get out on streets which was good. But! Then within half an hour of getting out we started getting phone calls. They were lost. They were stuck in the snow. They were cold. They were. Is like every imaginable thing happened that you could imagine happening.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: There are so many stories like this - Georgians without proper New England winter footwear - slipping on ice - falling through snow banks and not knowing how you’re supposed to walk through a snowy yard to get to someone’s front door.
BILLY SHAHEEN: Some woman got her fur coat on, mink fur coat course that didn't go well in NH. But she's doing it anyway because she wants to do it. So we sent her out to the richer neighborhoods.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Someone told me a story of a peanut brigaders almost driving into someone’s garage. And apparently the Georgia Lieutenant Governor’s wife went missing for a while?
KATHY ROGERS: But they were so friendly and they were so charming and they were. I mean you know how northerners melt with a Southern accent. And they were all charming about it too. So they found as many troubles as they found themselves in. They found people to rescue them because people couldn't resist them.
DOT PADGETT: A woman whose husband was mayor of Plains Georgia six hundred people you know. Went knocked on a door and she was a very refined Southern lady and she knocked on the door and these people opened the door just a little bit it’s 2 or 3 degrees outside. /// And she told them she said. I'm up here from Plains Georgia to ask you to vote for my friend Jimmy Carter for president and she'd stop for a minute but she said but I'm so damn cold. She said I don't care who you all vote for. And the people the people laughed and invited her in for a cup of tea cup of coffee. She sat around the kitchen table and they were so intrigued with her story//// they invited some of the neighbors in.
(music)
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Carter’s 1976 NH primary campaign gave New Hampshire one hell of a gift: It’s best argument for why it should be first….why it deserves this privileged status.
Here you had a powerful image of participatory democracy.
Now expectations were set for candidates: You can’t just announce you are running and hope the NH voters come to you - you have to hustle - you have to answer real questions - and show voters who you really are.
And - to this day - when New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary is threatened - that is what our biggest defenders turn to - you want to take away the power of real people to pick their president? New Hampshire voters are savvy - they know who is the real deal and who is bullshitting them.
[BRING BACK CARTER CAMPAIGN MUX]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: New Hampshire they say - makes better presidents.
We’ll be right back.
BREAK
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: OK so what voters saw in New Hampshire - the Carter family visits - the peanut brigade - Jimmy Carter was running a similar play in IOWA.
Because Carter’s hot shot political aide Hamilton Jordan - he was putting all his chips on the two earliest contests: The Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
It was a gamble - no one had ever done this before - but in January of 1976 they’d get their first indication that Jordan’s bets could pay off.
Carter got his first surprise victory in Iowa.
ELLIS WOODWARD: That was that's what Hamilton and those guys had envisioned. I mean if they were thinking lift I mean we got lift off.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Ellis Woodward you’ll remember was Carter’s scheduler in New Hampshire.
Now - Carter technically didn’t win the Iowa caucus - he came in second to uncommitted - meaning the largest number of votes didn’t go to any candidate.
But the media spin that would come out of Iowa was essentially that he won - which plays right into Jordan’s strategy - that momentum was the real power here - not winning in itself - but having a good underdog story that can push you forward.
ELLIS WOODWARD: And when I think back at that /// that was the circus comes to town. And and and I freely admit we were not ready for it.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN:Carter had got some press in the lead up to the Iowa caucus - you know, interviews in local papers… and who could resist the peanut brigade….
But after the Iowa caucuses? Suddenly - Carter was the center of the political universe.
Everyone wanted to see him in action. Everyone followed him back to New Hampshire.
Here’s Kathy Rogers - the Carter intern who worked with the peanut brigade.
KATHY ROGERS: Last trip before Iowa. We had like a minivan that we put the press in but now we need a bus. It's like we need a bus. This is incredible.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: The stakes were really high now. They had to win New Hampshire to keep the momentum from Iowa going and take it to the other states.
BILLY SHAHEEN: Listen to me. Every vote you get in New Hampshire is worth ten thousand votes someplace else
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Billy Shaheen says this is when he learned an important lesson.
That the days between the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are critical - all of N.H. is paying attention now - so you’ve gotta really hammer home your final argument with people.
BILLY SHAHEEN: You want someone who's brave and and and who's good and honest. This is the guy and you and you just repeat his story. I imagine it's just like the Bible. Why would why do we talk about Jesus. Because of the examples he sent for us. Well Jimmy Carter's got all these examples of being good and kind and you just repeat them.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: And remember - only 80 thousand or so Democratic voters are gonna come out and vote - so any trip to any town could be what puts a candidate on top.
It’s the reason why the campaign took a last minute gamble - with the primary just days away - they splurged on two small planes that would take them up to Northern New Hampshire - to Berlin - a city of about 14 thousand people.
And at first - it seemed like maybe this was the wrong call.
ELLIS WOODWARD: It was a horrible horrible horrible day. It was snowy windy icy. They were - The Secret Service was not wild about the prospect of us flying up to Berlin in this. And Carter wanted to go and Berlin was and we thought Berlin was so important.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: So they take off - two little planes - one full of press, one with Carter and his team.
Woodward says they flew right over the White Mountains and it was a harrowing journey - both planes are getting tossed around - secret service agents are turning green - but eventually one plane lands.
ELLIS WOODWARD: And we were there waiting for the press plane to arrive which didn't. I mean we waited and we waited. The tower couldn't contact them and so you know there's this few moments that we know we all still wait at the airport and because my God had this plane crashed?
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Thankfully no - it hadn’t - it flew into Canada or something and was lost a while.
But the point is - the Carter campaign needed every vote they could find.
And that dedication - the idea that a guy running for president would nearly die to meet voters in the north country? Talk about New Hampshire primary mythology…
ELLIS WOODWARD: And to the people of Berlin. I mean the stories immediately spread around Berlin very quickly not only because we got a schedule we saw all kinds of people and but what he did to get there. And he flew back and and that you know he cared enough that he was going to come up here. He was no matter how bad it was...
RICH PATENAUDE: So that flight to Berlin got dubbed the white knuckle flight.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Rich Patenaude volunteered for the Carter campaign up in Berlin - he was the one who really pushed them to make this trip north.
He knew if his neighbors got to meet Carter one more time - face to face - right before election day - they’d go for him.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: I mean you probably had white knuckles while waiting.
RICH PATENAUDE: No, no said I was fine I just I was so thrilled that he was coming because I really needed for him to come I really you know just kind of seal the deal.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: This response kills me - oh I was fine - Patenaude says - no matter that a bunch of people almost crashed - my neighbors need to feel like they know a candidate before they can vote for him.
Because in 1976 - and still today - that was the expectation - that if you want to win here? You better throw yourself at the feet of the New Hampshire voters.
And you know how it ends now - it all paid off.
AMBI: We’re number one!
JIMMY CARTER: And what I want is to repair the damage that has been done to the relationship between our people and our government and to tear down a wall that separates us from it. And you are the ones who have made it possible for me to do it.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: You also know how the rest of Carter’s story ends too - he’d go on to be a one term president.
And his win in New Hampshire charted a path that many candidates have followed since.
He gave every political outsider out there a little hope that they could make it to the White House.
BILL CLINTON: That New Hampshire tonight has made Bill Clinton the comeback kid
RONALD REAGAN: Mainly our thanks and our joy goes out to you the people of New Hampshire
JOHN MCCAIN: But tonight we sure showed ‘em what a comeback looks like
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Looking out at a screaming crowd - after an unexpected victory in New Hampshire - this - this is the moment every candidate for president now dreams about.
BILLY SHAHEEN: And you want to talk about euphoric and that's the only way you can describe it. I was. My feet weren't touching the ground
Billy Shaheen you’ll remember was the New Hampshire co chair. He says he was standing up on stage while Carter delivered his victory speech.
BILLY SHAHEEN: And it was such it was like all this hard work. It's like a crescendo. You keep building building building building each year. Even now you know you OK I'm going to work two days a week //// all of a sudden is eight hours a day and then all of a sudden you're not even sleeping you're just running on adrenaline and you know you got to deliver this thing you can't miss a single vote you're going crazy and everything is bubbling to a point and you've got the team. That's what you've built. You've built this team that people you can count on. /// And and all of a sudden it builds and builds and builds and then you win. I was so naturally high at that moment.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: And this is the moment that every New Hampshire campaign staffer now dreams about.
Because this feeling Shaheen experienced… the story he now tells - it didn’t just happen to him - and it doesn’t only happen to Democrats.
It happens every. Four. Years. New Hampshire staffers up on or behind that stage at the victory party - so naturally high - basking in the glory of victory after months and months of hard work.
But look - it’s not just about winning - it’s about where they could go from here.
Without the primary - who is Billy Shaheen? Maybe a successful attorney but he wouldn’t be getting calls from presidential candidates.
BILLY SHAHEEN: It Changed my life. Absolutely. I never would've been U.S. attorney. I doubt if I would have been the judge in Durham. It certainly made my wife's career.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: His wife by the way - that would be New Hampshire’s Senior U.S. Senator and former governor Jeanne Shaheen - a powerful national politician. They both got their start on this campaign.
BILLY SHAHEEN: Yeah. In fact there's a there's a moment about. Six or seven years ago when I was in Washington I went in trying to find where Jeannie was and she was at a Senate hearing.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: It was 2009 - so ten years ago now - Shaheen wandered around Capitol Hill until he found the hearing room the Senator was in - he squeezed into a seat in the audience - where he could only see the back of the head of the person testifying - and then - he heard a familiar voice.
PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: Oh and let me say that I think that the fact that this foreign relations committee is addressing is extremely important.
BILLY SHAHEEN: As soon as I heard Jimmy Carter’s voice I said that Jimmy Carter said. /// he said we have one more question from Senator Shaheen. And she said Mr. President.
SENATOR JEANNE SHAHEEN: Welcome Mr. President, Rosalyn, Amy thank you for being here
BILLY SHAHEEN: And he said. Let me hold let me stop you there.
PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: Thank you for helping me be president
SENATOR JEANNE SHAHEEN: Well, I was going to say I also need to thank you for my being here because It was my….
BILLY SHAHEEN: And she said and I wouldn't be a U.S. senator without you. Pretty good. Yeah. So. It actually made her career. Yeah. So - changed my life.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: There are a lot of people in New Hampshire whose lives have been changed by New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary.
They either were relative nobodies like Corey Lewandowski - who jumped on the Trump bandwagon early and now has a direct line to the White House and as I wrote this episode - he was considering running for the U.S. Senate.
Or they were already powerful people but would advance even further - like former Governor John H Sununu - who would go from the statehouse - to being chief of staff for President George H W Bush.
I can’t tell you how many interviews I’ve done with people - outside of this podcast - who name drop that some presidential candidate called them lately - or they just so happened to have left on their desk a photo with them and some other candidate.
I’ve sat in a lot of offices - surrounded by pictures of past New Hampshire primaries…
And lately - I’ve been asking a lot of these people an uncomfortable question
So much has changed in our politics since Carter’s 1976 campaign. There’s a 24 hours news cycle now - bigger televised debates - social media - some candidates lean on massive campaign rallies...
Is the New Hampshire primary truly as powerful as it once was?
BILLY SHAHEEN: Will it be forever. I don't know. I don't know if it will be forever. But there was a time point in time where it was camelot.
[CAMELOT MUSIC]
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN:To see a photo of Billy Shaheen’s trophy wall of photos with him and presidents and celebrities - go to our website: Stranglehold podcast dot com.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN:You got Diana Ross though
BILLY SHAHEEN: Yeah I got Diana Ross. I got Willie Nelson. No I have one at home
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Is that Ted Williams?
BILLY SHAHEEN: Yeah.
LAUREN CHOOLJIAN: Damn.
BILLY SHAHEEN: Yeah.
CREDITS:
This episode was reported and produced by me, Lauren Chooljian.
And I’ve learned that podcasts are a real team sport - and I’m very thankful for all the help I had in putting this episode together.
Jack Rodolico is Stranglehold’s senior producer. Stranglehold is edited by NHPR’s Director of Content Maureen McMurray and News Director Dan Barrick.
Additional editing help came from as Casey McDermott, Josh Rogers and Tony Arnold. And sound mixing by Hannah McCarthy, me and Jason Moon.
Big thanks also to Jason Moon for - honestly - being a producer spirit guide through this episode
Jason and Lucas Anderson also created the dope original music in this episode - including that great 70s shaker situation.
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Digital Director and Sara Plourde made our beautifully aggressive podcast graphics.
And of course very special thanks to dad - Barry Chooljian - who helped us name this podcast.
Additional thanks to Jason Marck, John DiStaso, James Pindell, Jonathan Alter, Ray Buckley, Morgan Milardo Schermerhorn and extra thanks to Chris Brown for connecting me with many of the voices you heard in this podcast.
And some of our archival tape was courtesy of NBCUniversal Archives.
Stranglehold is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.