National Reports: The Election North Central
ROMER, SAM
NORTH CENTRAL Little change possible By Sam Romer MINNEAPOLIS THE STATES of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota will elect two Senators and 23 Congressmen on November 2. Senators Hubert...
...the fifth is Walter Judd from Minneapolis...
...The fourth, Roy Wier, a former AFL business agent, may be in trouble...
...Humphrey's friends hope for a 150,000 majority...
...Four of the five Republican Congressmen come from farm areas, and all broke with the Eisenhower agricultural program...
...Humphrey has little chance to repeat his 243,000 majority in 1948, when he was running with Truman and the farm issue and against an incredibly weak candidate in Joe Ball...
...Republican majorities in these states run from 40 per cent up...
...Even in 1948, the Republicans elected 16 of the 23 Congressmen...
...they expect 100,000??anything less would hurt...
...A stronger Democratic tide than is now running is necessary to defeat the other two Republicans...
...Despite the farm revolt, the Democrats can do little except conduct a strong campaign in the Dakotas...
...in addition, Humphrey has certainly lost many of the Republicans who then voted for him out of sheer disgust with Ball...
...his principal issue has been the Eisenhower record on farm supports, although he has not spared the Republicans on "the rich man's tax bill" and the downhill economic slide...
...In any case, it has drawn the fangs of the expected Republican attack on the ADA issue...
...no GOP Congressional victor in 1952 won with less than a 15-per-cent majority...
...But some of his friends would have preferred to have him meet the issue head-on...
...Paul and other Roman Catholic communities...
...he was elected in 1952 by a bare 10,000 votes, and his district is a hodgepodge of strong union wards, suburban Minneapolis and farm counties...
...in the North Central states, it merely cuts down the Republican majorities...
...A 10-per-cent shift in votes from the Republican to the Democratic column may bring an overwhelming victory nationally...
...the Democrats have patched up an inner-party split with a former Wallace faction and expect to win...
...If this is the case, where is the expected Democratic sweep in the farm country...
...Despite Humphrey's admitted lead, Bjornson has conducted an energetic and well-financed campaign with the aim of cutting down the former's majority...
...The answer is that all four states are, in general, solidly Republican...
...The 1954 vote will come nowhere near the 1,200,000 ballots cast in 1948...
...the few Republican attempts to renew the attack have been laughed at...
...Top billing in the campaigns here goes to the re-election race of Senator Humphrey, who is one of the leading Democratic national spokesmen...
...Humphrey's leadership in the fight to outlaw the Communist party has not cost him any votes, although it reduced his stature in the eyes of some supporters who idealized him...
...Of the 23 incumbent Congressmen, six are Democrats...
...Humphrey makes a reasoned, principled defense of the proposal...
...liberal money from out of the state has been channeled into closer races...
...are both certain of re-election...
...in doubt are two Republican and one Democratic seat...
...One Republican in real danger is Carl Andersen, who represents a district where Farmer-Labor sentiment once ruled...
...His Republican opponent, Val Bjornson, is a popular and seasoned campaigner who piled up tremendous majorities as State Treasurer...
...and Karl Mundt (R.-S.D...
...The Wisconsin situation parallels that of Minnesota except that the Democrats are hopeful of picking up a second Congressman from Milwaukee, where Republican Charles Kersten squeaked through in 1952...
...two of them come from solid Democratic districts, and the third is a farmer running where the farm revolt is in full swing...
...yet, it is doubtful that Judd or August Andresen (who led the rebel Republicans on the farm issue) can be defeated...
...this is still true...
...A Democratic tidal wave may also bring home Gaylord Nelson in Wisconsin's Second District, centered in Madison and the rich dairy country...
...yet, some of his friends admit that this issue was a measure of the man as politician??a measure that found him badly wanting...
...With what some Humphrey followers think is Texas-McCarthy money, Ryan is running a well-oiled television campaign, hitting below the belt with abandon...
...His name is an asset in Minneapolis, his religion in St...
...Three of the four Democratic Congressmen running for re-election are safe...
...This writer observed several months ago that the key to this election is the size of Humphrey's majority...
...There is some hope, however, that he will take votes from Bjornson as well as Humphrey...
...If Wier wins, he must depend on the farm vote...
...Humphrey has continued "running scared," but it has become more and more difficult to do so as Election Day nears...
...One hampering factor has been a lack of finances...
...The Democrats are conducting energetic campaigns in all five districts and admit defeat in none...
...What may be a real threat to Humphrey's majority is the "independent" candidacy of Frank Patrick Ryan, a reactionary Democrat who filed for the Senate after losing a primary race for Attorney General...
...NORTH CENTRAL Little change possible By Sam Romer MINNEAPOLIS THE STATES of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota will elect two Senators and 23 Congressmen on November 2. Senators Hubert Humphrey (D.-Minn...
Vol. 37 • October 1954 • No. 43
