Campaign Strategy Plan for the Ford Campaign

After the completion of the 1976 Republican National Convention, President Gerald R. Ford went to Vail, Colorado for some relaxation and a series of campaign planning meetings with his political advisors for the upcoming campaign against Jimmy Carter.  One of the documents they discussed was this campaign strategy plan drafted by White House aide Michael Raoul-Duval.

This campaign strategy plan contains the following sections.  Each major section has been scanned into a separate Adobe PDF file and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat reader (see note below).

Section I - Background

Overview (pages 1-7)

Major Constraints (pages 8-9)

Definition of Problem (pages 10-11)

Elements of Perception Problem (pages 12-33)

Targets of Opportunity (pages 34-48)

 

Section II - Conclusions/Goals

Conclusions (pages 49-55)

Goals for Campaign (pages 56-60)

 

Section III - Description of Strategy

The Recommended Strategy (61-78)

Analysis of the Recommended Strategy and Alternatives (pages 79-85)

Themes (pages 86-92)

Synopsis of Implementation Plan (pages 93-102)

Pre-Campaign Plan (pages 103-110)

Attack and Carter's Reaction (pages 111-120)

Tab I - Strategy Details

State Budgets (19 pages)

Constituency Groups (24 pages)

Sample Ethnic Plan for Hispanic-Americans (10 pages)

Tab II - Background Papers

Campaign History (14 pages)

Clifford's '47 Memo (6 pages)

Analysis of Catholic Vote [This paper does not appear in any of the Library's copies of the plan]

Carter's Lead (2 pp.)

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