Word: ahmanson
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Knight wanted his Southern California campaign manager, Insurance Executive Howard Ahmanson, named vice chairman of the state central committee-a job that would almost automatically make him state chairman next term. A bloc of Nixon's closest political friends, including Congressmen Pat Hillings, Carl Hinshaw and Joe Holt and Republican Glamour Girl Mildred Younger, came to the convention with other plans. The Nixon group backed Rancher Ray Arbuthnot for the job. They held a press conference, at which Hillings said: "Governor Knight conceded . . . that he is trying to control the Republican Party by pressure and brute force." Knight answered...
Then Knowland, who has always considered Dick Nixon an upstart, arrived at the convention and quietly passed the word that he was for Ahmanson. He blocked a move for a secret ballot in the election, and the Nixon bloc caved in. Ahmanson was chosen by acclamation, and thereby Goody Knight took a long step toward control of the California delegation to the 1956 Republican National Convention...