NEWS CONFERENCE 735

is selected prior to the enactment by the Legislature of the present
method of handling the situation, whether the retroactivity is per-
missible.

Q. Well, if the court decides that the central committees cannot
select the delegates, how would they be selected?

A. I couldn't state at the moment; we'll have to wait for the court's
decision.

Q. Governor, will the Republican Party wait until they are brought
into court or do you think they'll act accordingly before the [gar-
bled]....

A. It's pretty hard for me to judge just what the party will do
because it's contingent on what the court decides and the specifics of
what the court decides. I just can't comment until I see the decision.

(Assessment of Legislature)

Q. Governor, do you have anything to add to your assessment of the
legislative session beyond what you said in your letter the other night?

A. I am very pleased with the assessment — not with the assessment
of the session from some quarters — but I am pleased with the ses-
sion, the productivity of the session. I'm a little bit disappointed with
the assessment of the office — the Governor's office and its effectiveness,
but it is a comment and a fair comment — based on someone's opinion.
My opinion is a little different. I think we were extremely successful
in many major areas. The Water Pollution program; the Redding
Highway Financing Committee, which was a joint undertaking but
under the leadership of a person whom I personally recruited; the
Regional Detention Centers; the Governor's powers in regard to civil
disorders; the National Guard Assistance Compact; drug abuse con-
trol; State Police revision; and one of the last actions taken by the
General Assembly was to recognize that the treatment of alcoholics
is an important problem in the medical sphere and certainly not to
be continued as a criminal problem. Not only that but I think some
of the most controversial legislation that was deferred — and I use
this word very strongly because it hasn't been knocked out of the box
— by the Legislature and sent to the Council for further study will
come up and will be successfully enacted later on. I feel that the over-
all assessment that the Governor's programs fell by the wayside is not
compatible with my judgments. One thing that has to be thoroughly
recognized is that a governor of a minority party and working with a
Legislature cannot go around beating his breast and throwing his