Chapter VI: Election Night 1976 (Part XIII)
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12:13 AM EST
Wednesday, November 3rd, 1976
MAJOR BREAKING NEWS DEVELOPMENTS: BROOKE WINS OREGON, ALASKA, HAWAII, EDGING CLOSER TO THE 270 MARK OF WINNING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
*Brown wins home state of California overwhelmingly with 63% of the statewide vote.
*Reports: Brooke has scratchy throat problems, going to bed at his summer residence in Cape Cod.
Reasoner: "Good Morning folks. It is Wednesday, November 3rd, 1976. I have major breaking news developments for you. We've got four major big calls to make, all of them at the Presidential level. We're not quite there yet, but these projections could be a major deciding moment of the 1976 Presidential campaign. Howard, tell us more."
Smith: "Indeed, this maybe a major deciding moment. ABC News can officially project that Vice President Brooke has won Oregon (6 Electoral Votes), Alaska (3 Electoral Votes), and Hawaii (4 Electoral Votes), putting him at 266 Electoral Votes: giving him just about very closer to clinching the 1976 Presidential election on this early Wednesday morning. Hawaii was too close to call for about three hours until the ABC News Decision Desk finally confirmed that Brooke won the Aloha State very narrowly by 1.6% in a margin of just 5,000 votes.
If you look at the electoral map right now, Brooke is on the edge of becoming the 40th President of the United States. 266 Electoral Votes! Once again, I want to repeat this for the viewers at home watching our election night coverage, 266 Electoral Votes and the potential of Vice President Brooke making history of also becoming the first African American President in our nation's history. It wasn't any surprise that Brooke won both Oregon and Alaska respectively as well, but I cannot imagine the scenes out in Sacramento as the Brown campaign is on the verge of a total political collapse."
Reasoner: "Now that's actually and absolutely stunning and shocking Howard. Who would've expected this? Not anybody covering this campaign throughout the entire year. We're going to have to go to another commercial break and then talk to our team of reporters in Sacramento at Brown headquarters."
12:29 AM EST
ABC NEWS SOURCES: BROWN PREPARING CONCESSION SPEECH ACCORDING TO INSIDERS
Reasoner: "We are back with our long coverage of The 76 Vote. We would like to talk with our reporter Becky Suarez from our ABC affiliate, KOVR-TV ABC 10 Sacramento at the Senator Hotel in Sacramento, which is the campaign watch party of Brown campaign headquarters. Becky, you're there with at least over 873+ guests watching election returns. What's the current mood there?"
Becky Suarez: "Harry, Barbara and Howard, the mood here was very optimistic several hours ago when all of the major networks called Pennsylvania and Ohio for Governor Brown, including a near sweep of the South except for Oklahoma, Florida and Virginia. However, disappointment soon came when the Texas call from our network came, though I would like to add that other networks haven't called Texas as of now. Nonetheless, the hall got very quiet when all of the major networks called Hawaii in Vice President Brooke's favor. You could almost feel the disappointment, anger and frustration in that complete, dead silence inside the ballroom of the Senator Hotel. And then we saw more tears when New York State was called for Brooke despite the Democrats winning the US Senate race up there with former US Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan defeating conservative incumbent United States Senator James Buckley (C/R-NY St). There's also more dread among the 873+ guests inside the ballroom as they haven't heard any clarity of developments coming out of Illinois and Washington, the possible only two avenues for Governor Brown to get to 270 Electoral Votes in order for him to pull off a miracle. I can strongly tell you that if Governor Brown was to make a comeback this late in the game, time is running out and running out FAST! I also spoke with several young campaign volunteers here who already had tears in their eyes. There was one young woman, 20 years old, who worked on the campaign of United States Senator John V. Tunney (D-CA)'s reelection bid, who ABC News can confirm has lost reelection in the California US Senate election to controversial former San Francisco State University President Sam Hayakawa despite the landslide victory of Governor Brown here in the Golden State, who garnered 63% of the statewide vote with 4,073,983 votes and carrying 55 out of 58 counties. Another female campaign volunteer, 19 years old, said to me that seeing Hawaii and Texas called in Brooke's favor feels over one hundred times worse."
Reasoner: "Now that's quite obviously understandable Becky. Now you've heard reports of Governor Brown preparing to concede?"
Suarez: "Harry, we should treat this speculative information with strong sense of caution. And I mean with extreme caution! One of the campaign surrogates just told me there's heated discussions within Governor Brown's inner circle about the next steps of proceeding. Some want Brown to begin preparing a concession speech and place a phone call to Vice President Brooke, while other such as Gubernatorial Chief of Staff Gray Davis, aggressively pressure him to holding out as long as possible. Especially with the unclear situation coming out of Illinois, Texas and Washington. Davis is aggressively pushing for legal action and filing lawsuits effective immediately beginning tomorrow. Davis is also pushing for court orders that all provisional ballots in Texas (26 Electoral Votes), Illinois (26 Electoral Votes) and Washington (9 Electoral Votes) all be counted. Another close source to the Brown campaign told me that they've run through all of the numbers and still believe with confidence they can win all three states, combined 61 Electoral Votes between them. Once again, I cannot confirm or deny these reports of speculation."
Reasoner: "Now that sounds very intriguing and interesting. Thank you very much Becky for that report. We will almost certainly talk to you again."
Smith: "We can hope all of this gets resolved soon. The main questions might become quite irrelevant if Vice President Brooke wins both Washington and Illinois. But again, we just don't know quite yet. We again have to go into a commercial break and will be right back. This is ABC News Election Night Coverage."
Wednesday, November 3rd, 1976
MAJOR BREAKING NEWS DEVELOPMENTS: BROOKE WINS OREGON, ALASKA, HAWAII, EDGING CLOSER TO THE 270 MARK OF WINNING THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
*Brown wins home state of California overwhelmingly with 63% of the statewide vote.
*Reports: Brooke has scratchy throat problems, going to bed at his summer residence in Cape Cod.
Reasoner: "Good Morning folks. It is Wednesday, November 3rd, 1976. I have major breaking news developments for you. We've got four major big calls to make, all of them at the Presidential level. We're not quite there yet, but these projections could be a major deciding moment of the 1976 Presidential campaign. Howard, tell us more."
Smith: "Indeed, this maybe a major deciding moment. ABC News can officially project that Vice President Brooke has won Oregon (6 Electoral Votes), Alaska (3 Electoral Votes), and Hawaii (4 Electoral Votes), putting him at 266 Electoral Votes: giving him just about very closer to clinching the 1976 Presidential election on this early Wednesday morning. Hawaii was too close to call for about three hours until the ABC News Decision Desk finally confirmed that Brooke won the Aloha State very narrowly by 1.6% in a margin of just 5,000 votes.
If you look at the electoral map right now, Brooke is on the edge of becoming the 40th President of the United States. 266 Electoral Votes! Once again, I want to repeat this for the viewers at home watching our election night coverage, 266 Electoral Votes and the potential of Vice President Brooke making history of also becoming the first African American President in our nation's history. It wasn't any surprise that Brooke won both Oregon and Alaska respectively as well, but I cannot imagine the scenes out in Sacramento as the Brown campaign is on the verge of a total political collapse."
Reasoner: "Now that's actually and absolutely stunning and shocking Howard. Who would've expected this? Not anybody covering this campaign throughout the entire year. We're going to have to go to another commercial break and then talk to our team of reporters in Sacramento at Brown headquarters."
12:29 AM EST
ABC NEWS SOURCES: BROWN PREPARING CONCESSION SPEECH ACCORDING TO INSIDERS
Reasoner: "We are back with our long coverage of The 76 Vote. We would like to talk with our reporter Becky Suarez from our ABC affiliate, KOVR-TV ABC 10 Sacramento at the Senator Hotel in Sacramento, which is the campaign watch party of Brown campaign headquarters. Becky, you're there with at least over 873+ guests watching election returns. What's the current mood there?"
Becky Suarez: "Harry, Barbara and Howard, the mood here was very optimistic several hours ago when all of the major networks called Pennsylvania and Ohio for Governor Brown, including a near sweep of the South except for Oklahoma, Florida and Virginia. However, disappointment soon came when the Texas call from our network came, though I would like to add that other networks haven't called Texas as of now. Nonetheless, the hall got very quiet when all of the major networks called Hawaii in Vice President Brooke's favor. You could almost feel the disappointment, anger and frustration in that complete, dead silence inside the ballroom of the Senator Hotel. And then we saw more tears when New York State was called for Brooke despite the Democrats winning the US Senate race up there with former US Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan defeating conservative incumbent United States Senator James Buckley (C/R-NY St). There's also more dread among the 873+ guests inside the ballroom as they haven't heard any clarity of developments coming out of Illinois and Washington, the possible only two avenues for Governor Brown to get to 270 Electoral Votes in order for him to pull off a miracle. I can strongly tell you that if Governor Brown was to make a comeback this late in the game, time is running out and running out FAST! I also spoke with several young campaign volunteers here who already had tears in their eyes. There was one young woman, 20 years old, who worked on the campaign of United States Senator John V. Tunney (D-CA)'s reelection bid, who ABC News can confirm has lost reelection in the California US Senate election to controversial former San Francisco State University President Sam Hayakawa despite the landslide victory of Governor Brown here in the Golden State, who garnered 63% of the statewide vote with 4,073,983 votes and carrying 55 out of 58 counties. Another female campaign volunteer, 19 years old, said to me that seeing Hawaii and Texas called in Brooke's favor feels over one hundred times worse."
Reasoner: "Now that's quite obviously understandable Becky. Now you've heard reports of Governor Brown preparing to concede?"
Suarez: "Harry, we should treat this speculative information with strong sense of caution. And I mean with extreme caution! One of the campaign surrogates just told me there's heated discussions within Governor Brown's inner circle about the next steps of proceeding. Some want Brown to begin preparing a concession speech and place a phone call to Vice President Brooke, while other such as Gubernatorial Chief of Staff Gray Davis, aggressively pressure him to holding out as long as possible. Especially with the unclear situation coming out of Illinois, Texas and Washington. Davis is aggressively pushing for legal action and filing lawsuits effective immediately beginning tomorrow. Davis is also pushing for court orders that all provisional ballots in Texas (26 Electoral Votes), Illinois (26 Electoral Votes) and Washington (9 Electoral Votes) all be counted. Another close source to the Brown campaign told me that they've run through all of the numbers and still believe with confidence they can win all three states, combined 61 Electoral Votes between them. Once again, I cannot confirm or deny these reports of speculation."
Reasoner: "Now that sounds very intriguing and interesting. Thank you very much Becky for that report. We will almost certainly talk to you again."
Smith: "We can hope all of this gets resolved soon. The main questions might become quite irrelevant if Vice President Brooke wins both Washington and Illinois. But again, we just don't know quite yet. We again have to go into a commercial break and will be right back. This is ABC News Election Night Coverage."
National Popular Vote: President (91% of the precincts reporting)
Vice President Edward W. Brooke, III (R-MA)/United States Senator Robert J. Dole (R-KS): 39,648,039 (49.25%) 266 Electoral Votes
Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., (D-CA)/Former Governor James E. Carter, Jr., (D-GA): 39,583,335 (49.13%) 236 Electoral Votes
TO BE CONTINUED: COMING UP IN CHAPTER VI OF THE CURSED AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: Segment from Brooke Campaign Headquarters in BostonVice President Edward W. Brooke, III (R-MA)/United States Senator Robert J. Dole (R-KS): 39,648,039 (49.25%) 266 Electoral Votes
Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr., (D-CA)/Former Governor James E. Carter, Jr., (D-GA): 39,583,335 (49.13%) 236 Electoral Votes
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