Lieutenant Governor Donald Dwight said last night that "Massachusetts is not going to be punished" by the Nixon administration for supporting George McGovern in the presidential election last month.

Dwight told a group of about 30 students in the Freshman Union that President Nixon's campaign staff had "written off" Massachusetts up until June, when a Boston Globe poll showed Nixon trailing McGovern by only four percentage points, 47-43.

Dwight had been head of the Nixon campaign in Massachusetts. His dinner speech at the Union was sponsored by the Harvard Republican Club.

After the results of the Globe became known, Clark MacGregor, President Nixon's National campaign manager, said it was time to "show the flag." Dwight said. He said that a total of $70,000 was allocated for the statewide campaign (excluding media expenditures), and that 120 Nixon headquarters were opened between August 1 and election day.

Dwight said that McGovern's national campaign was "herky-jerky," and attributed the Senator's defeat to his image as "a radical" among many American voters.