FOSTER CHANOCK FILES, 1975-76

Foster Chanock joined the White House staff as a consultant on October 14, 1975 and handled special projects for White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, including the preparation of background materials for Mr. Rumsfeld's confirmation hearings as Secretary of Defense. Virtually no materials from this period appear in this collection.

After Richard Cheney became Assistant to the President for White House Operations (Chief of Staff) in November 1975, Chanock's work involved research, writing, special projects, and the overall administrative coordination of the White House Operations Office. Most of his work related to the 1976 campaign. Much of the material in the files is addressed to Cheney and was then assigned to Chanock for his handling.

Chanock served as the White House liaison with the President Ford Committee's advertising and polling operations during the 1976 campaign. Approximately half of the collection consists of polling data and memoranda analyzing the data. While the polls include questions on issues, the primary focus is the campaign. A key set of materials is the memoranda and polling data received from Robert Teeter of Market Opinion Research in Detroit, Michigan. Teeter served as the polling director of the President Ford Committee and his memoranda include advice on the conduct of the campaign. Also included in the collection are the results of many national polls by Gallup, Harris, Sindlinger, the television networks, and others, as well as some information about state or regional polls.

Most of Chanock's research and writing projects were campaign related. Among the memoranda he drafted were ones analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of incumbency or comparing the chances of President Ford and Ronald Reagan to beat Jimmy Carter in the general election (based on polling data and primary election results).

The small amount of material on issues in the collection tends to be routine in nature. The collection contains no materials reflecting Chanock's work on the administrative coordination of the White House Operations Office or President Ford Committee advertising.

Related Materials (May 1987)
The files of Richard Cheney and other staff members in the White House Operations Office are available for research.

The Robert Teeter papers contain a large collection of polling data, a significant portion of which concerns the 1976 campaign, but they are unprocessed and unavailable at this writing. Additional information on public opinion polls appears in White House Central Files category PR 15, the Charles McCall clippings file (Box 78), and the Ford Library vertical file folders titled "President--United States--Election--1976--Public Opinion" and "Ford, Gerald--Public Opinion."

Other Ford Library materials on the 1976 election are described in "The 1976 Presidential Election: A Guide to Manuscript Collections Available for Research" which is available upon request.