Friday political trivia

California Lt. Gov. Robert Hutchinson FinchCalifornia Lt. Gov. Robert Hutchinson Finch was only 42 years old when former Vice President Richard Nixon offered him the number two slot on his ticket… sort of.

It’s not entirely clear whether an explicit offer was made or not.

Finch was a close political advisor of Nixon’s, having served as his assistant at the end of the Eisenhower administration and campaign manager for his 1960 Presidential bid.

He then returned to California, where he warned Nixon against a gubernatorial bid in 1962, but managed to steer George Murphy to a U.S. Senate seat in ’64, and himself to the lieutenant governorship in ’66.

Cut to the early August 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. Several meetings had taken place and still Nixon could not settle on a VP pick. Among those up for consideration were Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, Massachusetts Gov. John Volpe and Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker.

Nixon convened a meeting with John Mitchell, Bob Haldeman, Bob Ellsworth, Texas Sen. John Tower, First District Congressman Rogers Morton (who was also Nixon's convention floor manager), and Finch. Someone suggested Finch as the right man for the job, and then another said that he was too close to Nixon to be taken seriously.

Finch got up in arms, rose from his seat and insisted he couldn’t do it for stress on his family. Nixon took his friend into a side room, where they talked for a few minutes, immediately after which Nixon asked Morton about Spiro Agnew. When Morton demurred, Nixon suggested the Congressman might be interested, to which Morton is said to have replied, “If it’s between me and Ted Agnew, Ted would be the better choice.”

Given how things might have turned out, Finch passed up the opportunity to be the 37th president.

Then again, perhaps not. When Finch took a cabinet-level position as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, he quickly lost control of the entire department. Nixon, reluctant to lose such a close aide, then installed him as a White House counselor.