Sanders: Romney Leads G.O.P. in South

Carl E. Sanders, former Governor of Georgia, said yesterday that George Romney, or possibly Ronald Reagan, would be the most popular 1968 Republican Presidential nominee in the South.

Sanders, the last honorary associate of the Institute of Politics, said in a taped interview that Romney's "fervent religious background might be very attractive to the people in the Bible Belt." Either Romney or Reagan, he added, would probably now run stronger in the South than even Richard Nixon.

Sanders campaigned in 1964 for President Johnson, whose popularity, said Sanders yesterday, is not increasing in Georgia. The Administration's Vietnam policy is what most Georgians want, Sanders said. But "this does not necessarily carry over into improving the popularity of a President when you take all the issues he is responsible for."

Sanders argued that the possible candidacy of Alabama's George Wallace for President in 1968 would hurt Georgia Republicans more than it would Georgia Democrats. "He might splinter the Republican Party, and the Democratic vote could easily be 52 per cent," he said. In 1964 Barry Goldwater carried 51 per cent of the Georgia vote. A third party candidate in that state must get 100,000 signatures in order to be placed on the ballot.

"I don't think the state feels it would be the integral part of any block that Governor Wallace or anybody else might speak of as being his country," Sanders said, although he added that Wallace would capture a large number of the state's votes.

Sanders described his successor, Lester Maddox as "very moderate and a pleasant surprise" on the race issue. He warned, however, that a change in Maddox's position might come this summer if there are demonstrations or racial conflicts in Atlanta.

Sanders said he believed that Georgia cities on the whole have genuinely accepted de-segregation laws. "It is still a fact of life that tokenism exists in rural areas and de facto segregation remains in the cities ... I doubt if you're going to change this in the near future."