REPUBLICANS: Informal Candidate

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With less flourish than a tip of the hat, Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon, 47 last week, let it be known that he is a candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency. In fact not Nixon but his press secretary Herbert Klein, editor on leave from the San Diego Union, did the honors. Amiable Herb Klein called in some of the Washington press corps for a 20-min. press conference, said casually that Nixon had "willingly" let his name be entered for the G.O.P. primaries in New Hampshire, Oregon and Ohio. Nixon, he added, would not go into the states to campaign—"not even once." Said Klein: "His main concern in the months ahead will be working with the President on tasks of the Administration." Does the Vice President foresee "an uphill fight" for his party's nomination? Hearty laughter.

"Do you think this is as much an announcement as there will ever be before the convention?" "I think so."