Voter ambivalence about party allegiance poses greater risks to Republicans than Democrats. A survey described last year to Republican state chairmen detected only 18 percent of the national electorate willing to commit themselves to the party, as against 42 percent who regarded themselves as Democrats and 40 percent as independents.

The Republican figure -- lower than the 22 percent recorded last week by the Gallup organization -- was not markedly larger than the 13 percent of the vote Governor Wallace obtained as an independent candidate for President in 1968. It persuaded the right wing, as Mr. Viguerie put it, "that if you take the White House away from the Republican Party, the whole thing is going to collapse like a house of cards."

William A. Rusher, the publisher of National Review, said that because Republicans had not controlled Congress "since God was a child, I am assuming they would not win the Presidency" if Republican conservatives deserted the party to join the remnants of Mr. Wallace's independent movement.

Source: Naughton, James M. Some Republicans Fearful Party Is on Its Last Legs. New York Times. May 31, 1976.