NEWS CONFERENCE 143

would be to stay out of it entirely until the candidates have all filed
and then, at that point, to make the analysis and decide where their
support is going to go.

Q. Do you mean Republicans will support some candidates and
Democrats will support others?

A. I'm hopeful that when these candidates have all filed, that there
will be some people who are of such obvious stature in their profes-
sions and in their businesses and in their civic responsibilities of a
non-elective, non-political type, that both parties will find it expedi-
tious and convenient to support those people. Certainly, if a man like
Dr. Milton Eisenhower filed for the Constitutional Convention, I
would think both parties could support him. If a man like Dr. Otto
Kraushaar, the former president of Goucher College, filed, it would
seem to me that both parties could support him. So, what I'm saying
is, let's not freeze out real talent on the basis that you've got to have
a political endorsement to win.

Q. Again, Governor, whether this is a freeze to both parties to stay
out of direct partisan support, all you want is a bipartisan ticket, is
that right?

A. I want a complete nonpartisan convention if it's possible to get
it. I don't think that it's going to be possible entirely to get it. I think
there are going to be some political people in this convention. I'm
not sure it's bad to have some of them in there. I think members of
the Legislature may render in some cases a contribution to the conven-
tion. But the overall impact in the majority of this convention should
not be dominated by any political machine. That's what I have an
interest in. This doesn't mean they shouldn't belong to a political
party, it means they shouldn't be dominated by any political machine.

Q. Governor, if Representative Long launches a referendum cam-
paign on the bridges and the tunnel, will you open the campaign
again?

A. Well, I don't know what the referendum would be launched
against. Is he going to fight the Harbor tunnel? We already have in a
separate bill, enacted in the previous session, authority to go ahead
with the Harbor tunnel, and I indicated at our last press conference
that that was our first priority. So that the referendum, even if
launched, would not affect that. We haven't said a thing about going
ahead with any of the Bay crossings, yet. We haven't even assigned
priorities. So I think a lot of the people are under the impression that