I'M going to mention two words to you," a TV reporter told pedestrians in downtown Atlanta. "You tell me what they mean. The words are: Spiro Agnew."
"It's some kind of disease," said one man.
"It's some kind of egg," ventured another.
"He's a Greek who owns that shipbuilding firm," declared a third.
Richard Nixon's choice as running mate would not have batted an eye. "Spiro Agnew," admitted Spiro T. Agnew last week, "is not a household word." Anonymity may indeed have been one of the strongest factors in his selection as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. For if the Maryland Governor has done little to excite attention beyond the borders of his own state, he has done even less to arouse real antagonism in the G.O.P. Outside Maryland he has been known chiefly as the first Governor of Greek descent.
Elected in 1966 after a Democratic split, Agnew, now 49, quickly gained a reputation as a competent, if not brilliant Governor. With the help of a newly apportioned Democratic legislature, released for the first time from rural domination, he pushed through a number of progressive measures. His accomplishments gained added luster when his record was contrasted with the mediocre one of his Democratic predecessor and the putative program of his segregationist opponent, the bumbling George Mahoney. More money was put into much-needed state services and state administration was modernized. With experience gained during four years as executive of Baltimore County, the populous (620,000) suburban area that surrounds the city of Baltimore, Agnew was more than usually sensitive to the problems of local government. As a pragmatic, administration-minded Governor, he appealed to Democrats as well as Republicans.
If his administration was progressive, his stand on civil rights was positively liberal in a Border State that still retains many vestiges of segregation. At his urging, a 306-year-old antimiscegenation law was repealed, the state public-accommodations law was broadened, and the first state open-housing law south of the Mason-Dixon Line was enacted. Negroes were appointed to some high offices and, for the first time, to the Governor's personal staff.
The Most Ardent Admirer. While most other moderate Republican Governors were hedging on the party's 1968 presidential nominee, Agnew was out working for his man—who was then New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller. "Nelson Rockefeller," he said again and again, "is the man best qualified to be President." In response to "the ground swell of public opinion that I have seen developing," he sponsored a draft-Rockefeller organization, flying around the country in a Rockefeller-chartered plane to sing the New Yorker's praises. He was still singing when Rocky pulled out of the race on March 21.