Formal Announcement of the President's Candidacy

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THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

July 1, 1975

MEMORANDUM FOR: DON RUMSFELD

FROM: JERRY H JONES

SUBJECT: Formal Announcement of the President's Candidacy

Dean, Bo, Ron Nessen, Dick Cheney and I all agree with the Transition Group that the announcement of the President' s formal candidacy should be as low key as possible. Assuming agreement on this point, only three matters concerning the announcement need to be decided -- the participants, the setting, and the timing of the announcement.

Participants
In keeping with the low key approach, Dean Burch recommends that campaign personnel be kept to a minimum and include only Bo Callaway, David Packard, himself and Bob Moot. As an alternative, of course, Dean's entire advisory group could also be included. Dean, however, feels that this would raise the profile of the event much more than we would want and recommends firmly against including the advisory board in the meeting. In addition he and I also considered the possibility of inviting the advisory group to a luncheon in the Residence after the announcement to indicate a movement immediately toward organizational matters. Again Dean, after some thought, feels that he is not yet ready to highlight the advisory group and prefers to leave them in the background for now. Dean states, and I agree, that we can raise their profile after the structure is set and we can get the appropriate coverage of the advisory group at a later time.

As for staff participation, the President and you should decide that question but I recommend that you keep staff to an absolute minimum and seriously consider not having any staff members other than the above mentioned personnel present at the announcement.

The President also needs to decide whether or not the First Family should participate in the announcement. The lowest of low key approaches would be to not include Mrs. Ford, Susan, Jack, (Liberty). In my view, that is too low key and I recommend that at least Mrs. Ford and probably Susan and Jack be included. This is a family undertaking and since there have been questions about Mrs. Ford's health in the past, I think eyebrows might be raised if she is not present. Also, Susan and Jack are most attractive youngsters and I think they can and should be included without raising the profile of the event.

Include:

A. Campaign Staff

• Callaway [initialed by GRF]
• Packard [initialed by GRF]
• Burch [initialed by GRF]
• Moot [initialed by GRF]

B. Advisory Group at announcement ["no" by GRF]

C. Advisory Group for lunch after announcement

D. Meet with Advisory Group later

E. White House Staff

F. Mrs. Ford only

G. First Family members in Washington [initialed by GRF]

If we are to use the White House there are four potential settings -- a) the Oval Office, b) the Press Room, c) the Rose Garden, d) some spot iii the Residence such as the Library. Each will associate the President to varying degrees with the Office of the President but subtly shade that degree. The Oval Office of course gives the highest degree of association and the Press Room the least. The Rose Garden or the Library would be in between. There are other considerations, however -- a setting to include Mrs. Ford, Susan and Jack could be more comfortably arranged in the Rose Garden or the Press Room and somewhat less comfortably in the Oval Office (a Presidential meeting with his campaign team in the Oval Office would not be convincing if the First Family were also there).

On balance, I slightly prefer a Rose Garden announcement with the President coming to the steps from the Oval Office. Dean Burch has no views and is ambivalent on the exact setting other than strongly favoring the White House. Nessen feels the Oval Office would be somewhat uncomfortable if we include the First Family and that the Press Room would be the most low key setting to use. However, he has no strong feelings on the matter.

Oval Office
Rose Garden [initialed by GRF]
Press Room
Library
Other

Given our Traverse City parade on Friday, July 11th, the announcement should come either on the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th. Bo Callaway prefers that, if possible, we should make the announcement before the Congress returns. To do this would require a Monday announcement (the Senate will be in, the House will return Tuesday). As for news days, all are about equal, but with Monday a slight preference. Dean Burch tells me that David Packard, however, will be unable to arrive until late Monday evening; so we must pick Tuesday, the 8th, Wednesday, the 9th, or Thursday, the 10th, if David is to attend. On balance I prefer Tuesday and have planned the schedule around that as a tentative announcement date. Dean Burch has no problems with Tuesday.

Announce on:
Monday, July 7
Tuesday, July 8 [initialed by GRF]
Wednesday, July 9
Thursday, July 10

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