symbol and spent one day a week performing a blue collar job, including installing a car engine, pumping fuel, pricing groceries, and driving a bulldozer. He reasoned, "When I sit down and open up my lunch box with that man or that woman who has been working side by side with me, sweating just like me, they know that I am sincere." His one major policy proposal was the creation of a Mississippi Internal Development Assistance System (MIDAS), which entailed coordinated action among state agencies to finance and supply workers to new industries, issue low interest long range loans to spur development, and increased marketing to attract outside investment. He shied away from journalists, not holding press conferences and avoiding television interviews. Winter denounced Finch's tactics as mere gimmicks, saying, "I am convinced that the people do not want a clown or stuntman leading you for four years." Finch retorted, "If they call them rednecks, clown, or whatever, then I'm proud to be one." Winter led the first primary with 36 percent of the vote, while Finch came second with 32 percent and Dantin placed third. Finch repeated his blue collar message in anticipation of the runoff, though Winter attacked him for lacking a substantive program. Winter suggested the two debate, but Finch declined, saying he was "too busy to give Winter a platform." He also increased his outreach to black voters, greeting a winning Miss Black America contestant at the airport and running a television ad showing him speaking about his youth to a black man. In the runoff, Finch won with 58 percent of the vote—one of the largest victories ever in a gubernatorial runoff—taking 442,864 votes to Winter's 324,749 votes. The 1975 general election marked the first time in decades that the Republican Party offered a serious candidate for gubernatorial office, Gil Carmichael. A black politician, Henry J. Kirksey, also ran as an independent. Carmichael offered specific proposals and stances, while Finch largely ignored him and espoused vague and confused statements, such as describing himself as "progressive, but conservative." The election was close, with Finch winning with just slightly more than half the vote; the margin was about 50,000 votes, and black voters proved key to his victory. In the same election, Evelyn Gandy won the lieutenant governorship, and Democrats retained control of the state legislature. Carmichael drew 47 percent of the vote, a high figure for