Hot on the Campaign Trail

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the Administration's unsuccessful wage and price controls, a policy he now says was mistaken. Not one content to be minding only his own business, he gave Nixon advice on a broad range of issues, stepping on the toes of a few Cabinet colleagues and Nixon advisers. When he left after 15 months, partly in frustration with the President's protective staff, Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson said, "The State Department is having a going-away party; it's now in its 32nd hour." Says New York Financier Felix Rohatyn: "I think he has a rather confrontationist attitude. I don't think that's a viable proposition any more."

Connally headed the Democrats for Nixon in 1972 and returned to Washington during the Watergate crisis for 2% months as a presidential adviser. But it was not until 1973, soon after the death of the Texas politician who first brought him to Washington, that he finally switched parties. One political confidant says Connally joined the Cabinet and later became a Republican because Nixon had promised to help him become President. Muses Connally: "Nixon said a lot of things to me. He told me he'd never make Kissinger Secretary of State. I knew what to believe and what not to."

After departing Washington for his ranch and returning as a partner with his Houston firm, Vinson & Elkins, he joined the boards of six major corporations, where he gained the contacts that have made him the first choice of the country's business managers. Says Dr Pepper Co. Chairman W.W. ("Foots") Clements: "He has a very incisive mind. He understands a problem and solution quickly."

For the 1980 presidential race, Connally's strategy is to make at least a respectable showing in the first few contests. In Iowa, which begins selecting delegates in January, Reagan has much stronger grass-roots support, and George Bush has the backing of many of the state's Republican leaders (a solid 534 prominent activists announced support of him last week). Connally did not even open an office there until last month, and because of the precinct caucus system, a good organization, which Reagan and Bush have, is crucial. His organizational strength has also been unimpressive in New Hampshire, where Reagan is so far ahead that he's practically out of everyone's sight.

In March, however, Connally hopes to leap ahead with big victories in Florida and Illinois, thinking he can there eliminate his conservative challenger from California. "If I can nick Reagan," he says, "he will come down fast."

Reagan is now rated as the front runner in Florida, but Connally will take advantage of his burgeoning bankroll and put a large part of it into that race.

(He has been stumping recently for support in Florida's November party convention, which will conduct a nonbinding "beauty contest," and two weeks ago, he was able to run about even with Reagan in one of the first county gatherings.) In Illinois, party leaders in both houses of the legislature, the state G.O.P. finance committee chairman and most G.O.P. state central committeemen have signed on for the Connally campaign.

Governor James Thompson is being cultivated and allowed to envision himself as a potential Vice President. In April's Wisconsin and Pennsylvania primaries, Connally hopes to take on either