New England
SHELDON, COURTNEY
NEW ENGLAND Republicans still favored By Courtney Sheldon Boston The forecasts for November 6 in New England almost uniformly relegate Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to President Eisenhower,...
...There is a residue of comment about the President's health and some anti-Nixonism among independents...
...If it diminishes seriously, the Democrats stand to gain all along the line...
...In fact, if New Hampshire Governor Lane Dwinell's opposition were as strong as Vermont Governor Joseph B. Johnson's he would be in serious straits, for he has been handicapped by a factional GOP fight...
...If a strong tide runs either way, one party or the other has a good chance of picking up one Congressional seat...
...How well Ike runs in Connecticut could determine the future of incumbent Republican Senator Prescott Bush, who is being challenged by Representative Thomas J. Dodd...
...NEW ENGLAND Republicans still favored By Courtney Sheldon Boston The forecasts for November 6 in New England almost uniformly relegate Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to President Eisenhower, Rhode Island probably to Adlai Stevenson, and Massachusetts and Connecticut (though possibly still leaning Republican) to a doubtful status...
...Sumner G. Whittier, the Republican Gubernatorial candidate, is not the choice of the money branch of the Republican party, but he does have wide rank-and-file support and has been grooming himself for a try at the Governorship for 20 years...
...There are now 767,000 registered Democrats, 709,000 Republicans and 1,046,000 independents...
...Over the years, the Democrats have been gaining in the Bay State...
...and Rhode Island...
...50.9...
...Voters of Greek origin have not been happy over Administration policies toward Cyprus, and Eisenhower has lost considerable support from this quarter...
...The seats are now divided 7 to 7. Representative Thomas E. Lane of Massachusetts, convicted of income-tax evasion and a brief resident of the Federal penitentiary at Danbury, Conn, until September, was renominated by a minority vote in a split field in September...
...The majority are expected to remain Democratic...
...He almost knocked off Senator Leverett Salton-stall two years ago...
...Jewish groups, women in particular, have been alarmed at John Foster Dulles's policies on Israel...
...Now he says he has changed his mind...
...Nevertheless, there are strong indications that many Democrats who switched to Ike in 1952 are now quietly reverting to the Democratic party...
...his divorce is still not forgotten among Roman Catholic women...
...Representative Chester E. Merrow escaped defeat narowly in 1952...
...He now has the support of Senator John F. Kennedy, something he lacked in his 1954 fight...
...But there is no overwhelming sentiment for Stevenson...
...Rhode Island, Democratic by tradition since the Hoover days and afflicted with textile-industry woes, appears in the mood to return to the Democrats...
...This calculation is based, in part, on the President's percentage of votes in 1952: Vermont, 71.7 per cent...
...Only a Democratic landslide, not anticipated by cither party in New England, could throw the northern-tier states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont into the Stevenson camp in the Presidential race...
...The state's 6 Congressional seats may once again be divided 5 Republicans to 1 Democrat...
...Democratic influence, however, is apparently on the way up in Vermont, even as it was in Maine in September...
...Massachusetts and Connecticut have flipfiopped back and forth between the two parties too often to permit confident forecasts very far in advance...
...In Massachusetts, the Gubernatorial race is even more doubtful than the Presidential...
...Many are headed back into the Democratic party...
...Maine, 66.2: New Hampshire...
...There has been no angry, throw-the-rascals-out revolt against Ike in these two relatively prosperous states...
...Irish-Americans, who comprise the heart of the Democratic party in Massachusetts, are currently tending to gravitate back toward the Democratic party in the areas where they are concentrated heavily, though not yet in landslide proportions...
...55.9...
...Democratic Governor Dennis J. Roberts lias a tight grip on his office, as do the two Democratic Representatives...
...Before the Democratic National Convention, Governor Abraham Rib-icoff stated frankly that Ike was too far ahead to be overtaken in Connecticut...
...Republican Gubernatorial candidates in both Vermont and New Hampshire may not be quite as strong as Eisenhower...
...There seems no doubt that Republican Senator Norris Cotton of New Hampshire will be re-elected, as well as Vermont Representative Winston L. Prouty and New Hampshire Representative Perkins Bass...
...If the Eisenhower margin should drop from 125,000 to 50,000, Republicans concede that Senator Bush will be in difficulty...
...Up until the national conventions, when Democratic party organizations began to show an enthusiasm not common in 1952, it was conceded that neither state could be easily shaken out of the "I just like Ike" class...
...As in the rest of New England, the Eisenhower margin, generally regarded as down from 1952, will be crucial...
...On the other side of the coin is the indication that at least some Negroes are planning to shift from Stevenson to Eisenhower on the civil-rights issue...
...His outlook is regarded as better this year, but a Democratic tide could swallow him up...
...Many of those who now say they will vote against Ike say it almost regretfully...
...While Whittier was once the favorite, Furcolo is now felt to have closed the gap...
...Jewish men, in closer touch with the business community, are not quite as pro-Democratic...
...His Democratic opponent, Foster Furcolo, is a former Congressman and State Treasurer...
...He is not regarded as an asset to the Democratic ticket, but nothing much has been said about him yet on a statewide basis and he is likely to be re-elected in his overwhelmingly Democratic district...
...Connecticut...
...Massachusetts, 54.4...
...60.9...
Vol. 39 • October 1956 • No. 44
