[HOWARD PHILLIPS WHO TRIED TO SHUT DOWN THE NATIONAL POVERTY PROGRAM NOW CONSIDERING RUNNING FOR SENATE FROM MASSACHUSETTS]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R002000100024-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 24
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00 80R002000100024-3
WASHINGTON POST DATE 1.2 - 3 f k-j PAGE l 7 ,=
Of
The man who tried to shut down
the national poverty program for
President Nixon is considering run-
ning for the Senate from Massachu-
setts-as a Democrat.
Howard Phillips, 37, told reporters
at a breakfast here Thursday that
he's "90 percent sure" he'll enter
the September Democratic primary
for the seat held by Republican
Edward Brooke. Phillips will get
the results of a poll by fellow
conservative Vern Kennedy of
Alexandria, La., this Thursday and
will decide by the first week in
June, he said.
Phillips, as acting director of the
Office of Economic Opportunity,
tried to dismantle the agency. He
resigned under pressure in 1973. Ile
claims he has been a Democrat since
1974.
Phillips' assumption is this: the
other candidates in the Democratic
primary will be liberals; he thinks
he can win a plurality-and thus the
nomination-by running on conser-
vative issues.
The addition of Phillips would
further enliven a contest one can-
didate has dubbed "a sequel to
Looney-Tunes Presents."
Elaine Noble, the only avowed les-
bian stale legislator in the nation
and one of the Democratic candi-
dates, made the characterization last
week at a press conference called
to inform an already bewildered
press corps that she is still running
for the Senate.
"I need to say that today because
for the week past-and perhaps
the week ahead-there is confu-
sion about who's running and
who's not, and for what, and why,
and perhaps, the wherefore," she
said.
Noble, never known to pull her
punches, took off the gloves in an
attack on Lt. Gov. Thomas P. O'Neill
III, son of the House speaker, who
caused a furor by considering run-
ning against Noble and then an-
nouncing he wouldn't. "A lot of peo-
ple are all dressed up with no place
to go," she quipped.
And on the entry of Rep. Paul
Tsongas (D-Mass.) into the race, she
said,, "I don't care if Genghis Khan
is in the race,I'm still running."
Approved For Release 2004/07/08 : CIA-RDP81 M00980R002000100024-3