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Fred Thompson Presidential Campaign 2007-2008
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Edited | Chronicler Aug 20, 2022 09:04pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Chronicler |
| News Date | Sunday, August 21, 2022 02:50:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Fred Thompson was a Republican contender for the presidential nomination in 2008. He entered the race on 9/5/2007 at a time when his friend John McCain was performing poorly in the polls. After McCain began to rise in the polls and then started winning primaries, Thompson’s support faded. He suspended his presidential campaign on 1/22/2008 and endorsed McCain for the nomination.
Background
In the middle of the second term of President George W. Bush, Republicans were worried about who could successfully carry the party’s banner in the 2008 election. The Midwest blogger "Brian J" asked Republican organization officials about various candidates. He found in September 2006 that Fred Thompson was viewed favorably by 75% of his contacts and that the remaining 25% didn’t know who he was. No Republicans had a negative view of Thompson (Memphis Commercial Appeal, 9/3/2006).
Fred Thompson had a unique place among Republicans in 2006. He had represented Tennessee in the US Senate from 1994 to 2003, winning a runaway 60-39% victory in the 1994 special election to fill the remainder of Al Gore’s seat and then winning re-election in 1996 by a 61-37% margin. Thompson had a generally moderate to conservative voting record. On several occasions he successfully amended bills that had been designed to punish Democrats, resulting in a higher quality of legislation. When Thompson’s term in the Senate ended, he resumed his acting career by joining the show Law & Order, playing District Attorney Arthur Branch, who had a character remarkably similar to Thompson's. His role on Law & Order raised his reputation among the electorate.
The first movement to urge Thompson to run for president materialized in early 2007. Two other former US Senators from Tennessee, Howard Baker and Bill Frist, recognized Thompson as one of the few Republicans who might be able to win the 2008 presidential election. Thompson appeared on Fox News Sunday on 3/11/2007. He said that he was "giving some thought" to a presidential run (Jackson [TN] Sun, 3/13/2007). An unofficial website for his campaign appeared on 3/8/2007 (fred08.com, accessed at archive.org).
A movement to draft Thompson began soon thereafter. Tennessee St. Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) organized the "Draft Fred Thompson for President 2008" steering committee at the beginning of April (Johnson City Press, 4/5/2007). Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas wrote an editorial setting forth his reasons to support Thompson soon thereafter (Myrtle Beach Sun-News, 4/18/2007).
Thompson spent time in May 2007 testing the waters. He was interviewed by bloggers and appeared on podcasts. When Michael Moore challenged Thompson to a debate, Thompson handled it masterfully. With his schedule already filling, Thompson filmed a short response video. Sitting in a leather office chair, Thompson looked at some correspondence while smoking a cigar. Turning to the camera, he simply drawled, "I’ve been looking at my schedule Michael, and I don’t think I have time for you." Republican voters cheered Thompson's needling of Moore. The video appeared online during the second Republican presidential primary debate, earning 600,000 views in the first five days compared to only 20,000 views of the key moments of the debate (Coshocton [OH] Tribune, 5/20/2007).
Thompson took his first step towards an official candidacy as May turned to June in 2007. On 5/28/2007, he stepped down from his Law & Order role (Columbia State, 6/1/2007). Because he was entering the presidential race, re-runs of his episodes of L&O were suspended in order to avoid the equal time policy (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/25/2007). His first campaign appearance after forming his exploratory committee was a speech to the Virginia Republican Party on 6/2/2007. He called on the party to return to its "first principles… It's time we leveled and are straight with the American people" about the issues of the day. The Gannett reporter wrote "During the speech, Thompson appeared to be testing themes and catch phrases for future use. Some worked, others didn't" (Nashville Tennessean, 6/3/2007).
In early June, Thompson’s official website appeared (imwithfred.com, accessed via archive.org). Because he had not officially entered the race, Thompson was not eligible to appear in the presidential primary debates, although other contenders mentioned him in their debate answers. He was placing generally third in presidential polls at that point. Thompson was interviewed by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show on 6/12/2007. He didn’t announce his candidacy yet, but he answered one of Leno’s questions by saying "I've never craved the job of president, but I want to do some things that only a president can do" (Nashville Tennessean, 6/13/2007).
Thompson rose in popularity among the large field of Republican contenders. In late June, state polls showed him leading in SC, GA, and NV, and he was running second in IA, FL, OH, and PA (Atlanta Constitution, 7/1/2007). A Rasmussen poll released on 7/16 showed Thompson leading nationwide with 24% to Giuliani 23% and McCain and Romney tied at 12% (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7/17/2007). During July 2007, Thompson raised almost $3.5 million for his campaign (Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal, 8/17/2007).
The first piece of negative news about Thompson appeared in early July. A reporter discovered that in 1991, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association wanted to lobby the George H.W. Bush administration to loosen some federal regulations about abortion counseling at clinics receiving federal funds. The group hired Thompson, who was an attorney, to speak with John Sununu. Interestingly, there was no evidence that Thompson had followed up. He didn't remember the situation, and Sununu said that Thompson never spoke with him about it (Nashville Tennessean, 7/7/2007). At the same time, stories about Thompson's role in the Watergate investigations appeared in the press. These stories were partially based on the White House tapes, giving Nixon's impressions of Thompson. It was something of an irony, since Thompson was the person who had asked the question during the hearing that revealed the existence of the tapes, and now the same tapes were being used against him. In the long run, Thompson's involvement in the Watergate controversy wasn't a major story in 2007; Nixon and Thompson had been wary of each other back in the early 1970s, and Thompson was not defending the president (Scranton Times-Tribune, 7/8/2007). Newspapers in late July 2007 ran a series of negative stories about Thompson's wife Jeri, who was 25 years younger than him (Orlando Sentinel, 7/22/2007).
With his campaign gaining traction, Thompson re-organized his campaign on 7/24/2007. Tom Collamore, who had been working as acting campaign manager, was re-assigned as a senior advisor. He appointed former US Senator Spencer Abraham and Florida strategist Randy Enright as campaign managers (Austin American-Statesman, 7/25/2007).
Thompson ran an unorthodox campaign in order to maximize press coverage. In general, he favored a shorter campaign period. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire cherished their favored status as the first two nominating contests, and they were unhappy that Thompson wasn't putting in the work through local events such as the Ames Straw Poll. When a primary debate was held in New Hampshire, Thompson still hadn't announced and so didn't appear on the stage, but his campaign ran an ad during the debate. Again, he appeared to be taking the easy way out (Detroit Free Press, 9/6/2007).
Entering the Race
Thompson officially entered the presidential race on 9/6/2007. Instead of holding an event in his hometown, Thompson held his inaugural event in Des Moines IA. He said "the preseason is over, and let's get on with it." Most of his short speech addressed security issues. Once his speech was over, he walked into the crowd and gave hundreds of autographs. He also went back on The Tonight Show to tell Jay Leno about his announcement, filming the interview during a Republican primary debate. Thompson then began a five-day bus tour through Iowa and New Hampshire, where he opened his first event with the words "I hear you've been waiting for me" (Nashville Tennessean, 9/7/2007). His bus tour ended on 9/15 in his hometown of Lawrenceburg TN (Nashville Tennessean, 9/14/2007).
During the early days of his campaign, it became clear that Thompson was not angling to be the most conservative candidate. Social conservatives in Iowa asked each Republican contender about a proposed US Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. McCain and Giuliani had already expressed reservations about the proposed amendment; Thompson joined them, saying that marriage was a state issue and shouldn't be regulated by the federal government (Palm Springs [CA] Desert Sun, 10/2/2007).
Thompson made his first debate appearance at the 8th Republican primary debate in Dearborn MI on 10/9/2007. In the days leading up to the debate, the media had portrayed him as lazy and uninformed and pointed out that he usually didn't answer questions from the media. During the debate, Thompson spoke on 15 occasions. After Romney challenged him for taking so long to join them on the debate stage, Thompson said that he had watched the earlier debates and joked "it was getting kind of boring without me." Afterwards, the nine contenders generally agreed on everything, and the overarching discussion was whether Giuliani or Romney had done more to cut taxes. The moderator asked Thompson directly the name of the prime minister of Canada, and Thompson knew it was Stephen Harper. He thus appeared more informed than he had been previously portrayed (Newport News Daily Press, 10/10/2007).
A year before election day of 2008, newspapers began to report about Philip Martin, then serving as co-chairman of Thompson's campaign. Martin had been convicted of selling marijuana in 1979 and then violating his probation in 1983. After turning his life around, Martin became a wealthy businessman and loaned his private jet to the Thompson campaign. When reporters asked Thompson about Martin's record, he said that he had only learned about the charges over the weekend and wouldn't "throw my friend under the bus" for decisions Martin had made 25 years earlier. Thompson was asked about Martin during an appearance on Meet the Press and said "Nobody's made any accusations that [Martin has] done anything illegal with regard to our campaign" (Carbondale Southern Illinoisan, 11/5/2007). Martin withdrew from Thompson's campaign, taking his jet with him (Los Angeles Times, 11/6/2007).
By mid-November 2007, polls showed that Thompson's support was waning. Nationwide, he remained in second place behind Giuliani, but he had fallen to a second place tie with McCain. Thompson's support was falling in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. His campaign issued a statement on 11/18 that SC would be critical to his chances (Nashville Tennessean, 11/19/2007). A conservative blogger surveyed a group of Republicans in NH and found that 50% of them would not support Thompson "under any circumstances." Thompson had entered the race so late that most of the air time in NH had already been purchased, hampering his effort (Springfield News-Leader, 11/23/2007). Mike Huckabee was rising in Iowa at the time; an ABC poll showed Romney leading with 28%, followed by Huckabee with 24% and then Thompson falling to 15% (Quad City Times, 11/25/2007). Huckabee's rise was draining Thompson's more conservative supporters.
A number of incidents in December 2007 characterized the Thompson campaign. At the 13th Republican presidential primary debate, the moderator asked the contenders to raise their hands if they believed climate change to be a serious threat. Some candidates did and others didn't, but Thompson said that he believed the show of hands trivialized the issue and was un-presidential (Des Moines Register, 12/13/2007). Duelling news stories either defended Thompson's rigorous schedule or otherwise sustained the charge that he was lazy. An ABC poll showed that Thompson continued to slip in Iowa; Huckabee had taken the lead with 28% to Romney with 25% and Thompson with 10%; Thompson had lost one third of his support (Quad City Times, 12/20/2007). Just before Christmas, Thompson found a new tactic: he was offering leadership while the other Republicans offered a maze of plans (Sioux City Journal, 12/22/2007).
Republican Primaries and Caucuses 2008
Iowa held its caucus on 1/3/2008. The results confirmed the final poll; Huckabee placed first with 34%, followed by Romney with 25% and Thompson and McCain tied for third with 13% (Des Moines Register, 1/4/2008). Then in the New Hampshire primary on 1/8/2008, McCain won an unexpected 37% over Romney with 32%. Thompson placed sixth with just over 1%. Michigan held its primary on 1/15; Thompson bypassed it since he thought he had a better chance in SC, where he was campaigning mostly nonstop (Charlotte Observer, 1/13/2008). Heading into the SC primary, the final poll showed Thompson had fallen into fourth place with only 13% (Charlotte Observer, 1/18/2008). When the primary was held on 1/19, Thompson did slightly better than the final poll showed, placing third with 15.6%.
True to his word, Thompson withdrew from the race on 1/22/2008. Rather than holding a press conference or a rally to make the announcement, Thompson simply sent a short e-mail to his supporters (Los Angeles Times, 1/23/2008). Thompson later endorsed McCain, and at the Republican National Convention he delivered what was considered one of his best speeches of the campaign, in which he urged voters to support his Senatorial colleague.
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