The death of longtime York County Republican Party boss John W. Thompson brings to mind an early test of his leadership.
J.W. Gitt, publisher of The Gazette and Daily in York, declared he would not run advertisements for Republican president candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964.
The newspaper would not run patent medicine, cigarette or alcohol advertising because those products were bad for one’s health.
According to Gitt, Barry Goldwater was bad for America’s health.
The paper was simply being consistent in denying the hawkish Republican ad space...
Republicans shot back with an advertisement in the sympathetic York Dispatch, the Gazette and Daily’s afternoon competitor.
“A Newspaper afraid is a community betrayed," the advertisement stated. “Vote Republican and vote against censorship and repression!"
John W. Thompson signed the ad for the county GOP party.
This would be an early blast at the media.
And not his last.
A statement low in the ad proclaimed, “The Peoples Party Not The ‘Bosses.’ ‿
Interesting.
For the next 42 years, the York County GOP would be the Boss’s party.
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