Bob Ray and I never really got along. I thought he ran the Iowa Republican Party as his personal reelection machine without caring about anyone else. After the party central committee suggested in 1975 that Republicans not attend a speech Ronald Reagan was giving at Marshalltown, that got my dander up (NOBODY tells me who I can or cannot hear) and I became active in the grassroots movement for Reagan. I was even selected as an Alternate Delegate to the 1976 National Republican Convention. Our delegation was split 19-Ford and 17-Reagan. We should have gotten almost half of the committee assignments and other things, to be fair, but Bob Ray and his goons (one literally twisted my arm behind my back while telling me to vote a certain way at the district convention) shut us out entirely and no Reagan people had seats on anything. The Cedar Rapids Gazette ran a front page picture of Bob Ray and me shaking our fingers or fists at each other.
I don't know if this letter was ever published because I
lived in Miami at the time and did not get the Des Moines Register
on a regular basis.
February 1, 1982
Letters Editor
Des Moines Register
714 Locust Street
Des Moines, Iowa 5 0 3 0 9
To the Editor:
Its almost worth climbing out of the pool to come back to Iowa to watch Gov. Ray when President Reagan addresses the legislature.
For a dozen years, Bob Ray has snubbed Ronald Reagan every time he visited the state, always arranging to be out of town -- once even scurrying out of the state a day early for another meeting.
Many think Ray's early support for Gerald Ford caused the Reagan candidacy to lose enough early momentum in 1976 so that Ford narrowly received the GOP nomination, thus giving us the Carter disaster.
Now Reagan is President and coming to Iowa, and Ray's traveling buddies have already flown off to visit Russia without him, so he will be stranded in his capitol office when the President comes to call.
Oh well, Ray shouldn't squirm too much.
After all, he can always ask Reagan's good friend, Lt. Gov. Terry Branstad, to introduce him to the President.
Stanley R Zegel
16621 SW 104th Ave
Miami, Fla 33157
305/251-9951