NEWS CONFERENCE 729

A. The Maryland judicial system reform that's been in the mill for
five or six years has been all directed toward the idea that proper
nominees to judicial positions should be screened by persons expert
in the area, and then should be submitted later to the electorate for
confirmation or ratification. The idea of having judges elected from
districts without any screening — by the bar associations or any citi-
zens' groups that have some particular knowledge in the area —
makes it very easy for strong political groups, in an area like Balti-
more County, to name the nominees of their party or even on a non-
partisan basis to support the nominees who will be responsive to the
party. I think we're going back to the Tammany Hall type operation
of judicial office if we do this. I think it's a step into the past. Not
only do I feel this way, the Maryland State Bar Association feels this
way. I understand the Baltimore County Bar Association feels this
way, and certainly the Constitutional Convention leadership concurs
that this would be a very bad bill.

Eddie Fenton: May I suggest that it is very close to 2 o'clock.

[At this point the Governor recessed his regular news conference
(scheduled with other news conferences in a memorandum issued by
his press secretary on February 23, 1968) in order to view and hear
with the press a televised statement by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller
of New York about the latter's availability for the Republican presi-
dential nomination. Thereafter the Governor's conference resumed,
as printed below. — Ed. ]

(Remarks on the Rockefeller Statement)

First of all, I think what the Governor said today is that he meant
it several months ago, and as he said consistently, that he will not be
a candidate for the nomination. Again, he has not ruled out the possi-
bility of being a candidate for election if a legitimate draft develops in
the sense that the delegates to the Convention would name him as their
choice to run against a Democratic nominee. I think that his position
is entirely consistent. I confess that I am tremendously surprised. I
also frankly add that I am greatly disappointed, because as an ad-
vocate and enthusiast for his candidacy, a person who has seen the
sentiment that's being expressed over the country, I felt that there
was a good chance that he could enter the campaign actively with-
out becoming divisive to the party. Apparently, he doesn't feel this
way. It may well be — and I conjecture at my own initiative on
this — that he feels that some of the support that is being expressed
for him is contingent upon his adoption of a dove-like stance in