in his bid for the presidency. Augusto Gómez Villanueva (Secretary of Agrarian Reform). Close to President Echeverría, his previous experience as President of the National Peasants' Confederation as well as his tenure as Secretary of Agrarian Reform solidified his leadership of the peasant sector, which supported his presidential bid. José López Portillo (Secretary of Finance). He had little political experience - having previously been a law teacher and later working as a government bureaucrat-, but he had the particular advantage of being a childhood friend of President Echeverría, to whom he owed his government career, including his arrival at the Secretariat of Finance in 1973. López Portillo was not initially considered a serious contender for the PRI's presidential candidacy, as he didn't seem to have the support of any of the PRI's sectors for his bid, and he was relatively ignored by reporters and other politicians in comparison to the aforementioned contenders. In October 1974, the Instituto Mexicano de Opinión Pública (IMOP) carried out, for the first time in Mexican politics, an opinion poll to reveal the public's perceptions of the contenders and their chances to obtain the PRI presidential candidacy in 1976 and succeed Echeverría. 2,730 people were asked to choose which contender, in their opinion, better fit the following criteria: Muñoz Ledo would later recall that during this period, he received a visit from President Echeverría. During the meeting at Muñoz Ledo's house, Echeverría went to the garden and commented that it was "too small to receive delegations". Muñoz Ledo understood the phrase as meaning that he would be the chosen one to succeed him as President, interpreting Echeverría's comment as referring to the PRI delegations that would visit his house to congratulate him on his nomination, and so he decided to buy the land that was behind the garden so as to enlarge it. However, he would later discover that he had misinterpreted Echeverría's comment, and that he wasn't his chosen candidate. In June 1975, Echeverría privately told López Portillo that he would be his successor, and on 5 October he was officially nominated by the PRI as its presidential candidate for the 1976 elections. The aforementioned Muñoz Ledo was then appointed both President of the PRI's National Executive Committee as well as General Coordinator of López Portillo's campaign, while López Portillo appointed Julio Rodolfo Moctezuma as director of the party's Instituto de Estudios Políticos, Económicos y