Wisconsin played major roles at both big political conventions
Wisconsin was in the thick of both major political parties’ national conventions in August of 1968 — although it meant different things that summer to be in Miami Beach, for the Republican National Convention, and Chicago, for the Democratic National Convention.
GOP: Nixon’s the one (but they liked Reagan, too)
The Republicans held their convention first, on Aug. 5-8. While Richard M. Nixon was expected to win the nomination, he had some rivals, including California Gov. Ronald Reagan.
Reagan — who had all of California’s delegates pledged to him even though he hadn’t formally announced his candidacy — showed up in Miami Aug. 5 and finally declared he was in. Heading up his campaign was Henry A. Bubb, chairman of the board of Milwaukee-based MGIC Investment Co.
“Reagan’s down to earth in practical things like race relations and Social Security,” Bubb told Milwaukee Journal reporter Gordon L. Randolph in a story published Aug. 5, 1968. “Plus the fact that he has done such a grand job of governor in a state with the toughest problems in the union.”
Nixon still won on the first ballot — and Wisconsin put him over.
When it was the state’s turn to announce its vote, Republican Gov. Warren Knowles took the mic and said all 30 of Wisconsin’s delegates were for Nixon.
While Knowles was getting congratulated, U.S. Rep. Glenn R. Davis handed the governor “a white paper bag containing two telephone numbers,” The Journal’s Eugene C. Harrington wrote in an Aug. 8, 1968, front-page story.
“Nixon wants you to call,” Davis told Knowles.
After Knowles finally got through to the new GOP nominee, he told Harrington that Nixon “was very pleased that a primary state like Wisconsin had given him the necessary votes.”
Democrats: Wisconsin in the battle of Chicago
There were insurgents at the Democratic convention, too. Patrick J. Lucey — who, in 1970, would be elected Wisconsin’s governor — had the job of luring uncommitted delegates to Eugene McCarthy’s side during the convention, held Aug. 26-29.
“The former Wisconsin lieutenant governor is trying to round up enough votes to nominate Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy at a convention that almost everyone believes is going to be all Hubert Humphrey,” Journal reporter John W. Kole wrote in a story published Aug. 25, 1968.
Outside the convention hall, it was mayhem.
It peaked on Aug. 28, when about 3,000 protesters — who saw Humphrey’s nomination as a sign of support for the Vietnam War — tried to march from Grant Park to the convention and were met by police and 1,200 members of the National Guard. Much of the battle aired live on national television.
Inside the convention, delegates supporting McCarthy and other antiwar candidates tried to make themselves heard but were frequently silenced. Donald O. Peterson of Eau Claire, who led Wisconsin’s pro-McCarthy delegation, was one of the few to get a word in.
After Peterson was interviewed about the convention’s heavy-handedness, The Journal reported on Aug. 29, NBC’s David Brinkley called him “extremely impressive — he says what he thinks and doesn’t care what anybody thinks about him.”
But Peterson and the other McCarthy delegates lost just about every skirmish. By the time Wisconsin’s votes were counted, Humphrey already had enough to win the nomination.
The next day, as a gesture of protest, Ted Warshafsky, a Milwaukee attorney and vice chairman of the Wisconsin delegation, nominated for vice president Julian Bond, a civil rights activist and Georgia state legislator.
Warshafsky’s action made Bond, who later was president of the NAACP, the first African-American to have his name entered into nomination for vice president by either major party.
Democrats, Warshafsky said, should “make the American dream a reality not only for affluent delegates but for young people who march in the park,” the Sentinel’s Richard Bradee reported on Aug. 30.
Convention officials responded by shutting off the Wisconsin delegation’s microphone.
Even the Wisconsin delegates’ final act of protest — a march to the convention hall, planned “as a symbol of the delegates’ concern over the harsh treatment of young protesters, other delegates and the press,” The Journal reported Aug. 30 — was cut short by police.
“We didn’t want anybody getting hurt,” Peterson told The Journal. “We think we’ve served our purpose.”