A Call for Rockefeller To Withdraw

After some delay, the Harvard Republican Club voted officially this week to ask former New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller to withdraw from his nomination for vice president.

The 13-member executive committee voted 7-2 in favor of the statement, which criticized Rockefeller for "substantial loans and gifts to friends on the public payroll."

Richard N. Smith '75, who drafted the motion, cited Rockefeller's gift of $550,000 to William Ronan after Ronan resigned from the New York Port Authority as a possible "conflict of interest and an attempt to unduly influence public employees."

The club's statement also criticized Rockefeller for his $1 million debt for back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, saying the country "at this time can ill afford a wrenching national debate over the personal property of a nominee for high office."

The club had considered passing a statement last week that would have called on President Ford to withdraw Rockefeller's nomination and for the Congress to vote against it. But the executive committee settled for the more moderate resolution.

Rockefeller and the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, with the exception of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54, will receive copies of the statement.

The club was one of the first Republican organizations to call for the resignation of Richard M. Nixon from the presidency last year.