NEWS CONFERENCE 895

(Appointments)

Q. Governor, the Legislature in the last session OK'd four new
judges for the Supreme Bench. When do you plan to appoint these
four?

A. Well, I'm not going to appoint all four of them, certainly in the
near future, and I probably would anticipate not appointing any of
them until the summer session of the Court is over.

Q. Would Judge Watts of Baltimore City be one of them?
A. I haven't made any decision on those judgeships yet.

(Future Plans)

Q. Governor, you said you aren't running for anything now. There
are some Democrats in the State who look to cynical reporters as
though they're running for things like the Governor's office. We
can't infer from your statement that you're not planning on running
for Governor again?

A. What ever gave you that idea?

Q. Well let me put it differently — nothing gave me that idea. I
was hoping that you might agree with me. Do you plan to run for
Governor again?

A. I'd answer that by asking you, do you know what you are going
to do two years from now?

Reporter's Answer: I know I'm not going to be running for Gov-
ernor.

Governor, continuing: I have no plans. I really don't. I will have
to look at the situation; as I have said so many times, when you are
a representative of the minority party, you can't make these decisions
— and I think Mr. McKeldin made this very clear when he was Gov-
ernor — you can't make these decisions based on knowing how the
situation's going to be. You have to have an unusual situation to
beat the majority candidate.

(Judge Byrnes)

Q. Governor, getting back to the judiciary. Have you had any in-
telligence or correspondence with Judge Joseph Byrnes, I think, from
Baltimore about whether he intends to file or run for re-election?

A. No, I have not.