Kentucky

...And along with the luster of his own successes in luring the independents and the uncertain Democrats, he again has the Eisenhower coattails...

...He opposes Lawrence Wetherby...

...Last week, Chandler announced that he would throw the state's Democratic organization behind the national ticket...

...succeeding Happy Chandler himself when that restless and questing spirit went on to be Commissioner of Baseball...

...Six months later, he won the self-delusive title of favorite son for purposes of the show in Chicago, but only by dint of packing precinct and county conventions with state employes and local henchmen and thus capturing the state Democratic organization...

...Clements and Wetherby made a mistake last year when they preferred another man than Chandler as Democratic nominee for Governor...

...The Republicans have their best men as candidates...

...to Stevenson's divorce, which nobody has ever mentioned...

...Cooper lost for the full term, then won another unexpired term in 1052...

...Wetherby by Republicans Thruston Morton and John Sherman Cooper, nobody who knows the operations of the Chandler mind—as what Ken-tuckian doesn't?—can miss his point...

...Here he is back, aspiring to the unexpired balance of the same term...

...the Eisenhower victory year...

...Because the word and the legend have got around, Kentucky is being swarmed over by visiting journalistic pundits, some of whom come up with extraordinary conclusions which the country would be well advised to ignore...

...To his consternation, his campaign for the Democratic nomination for President, though noisy, extensive and costly, was taken seriously by none but himself...

...Six Key Midwestern States KENTUCKY Senate seats and electoral votes depend on Chandler By Tarleton Collier Louisville "Courier Journal" Louisville Kentuckians have come to count that election year lost in which their state is not listed among the hotly critical areas...

...Last November, he was elected Governor by the largest majority ever given a candidate for that office in Kentucky...

...This is his first statewide race and in it he is up against a veteran campaigner who knows every lane and creek-bed in Kentucky...

...John Sherman Cooper, who resigned as Ambassador to India at President Eisenhower's request to make the race, has shown on two other occasions that he can attract enough Democratic votes to win when the trend is running that way anyhow...

...Senate would be elected, and events would come to a consummation normal for a state where Democratic registrations outnumber Republican by about 4 to 3. However, Albert Benjamin Chandler is a politician whose bright and shining star bears his own autograph...

...He came out as he went in, completely confused, though he might have found something of value to report if his questions had been in any way relevant...

...Clements is still likely to win, in the face of this hostility and who knows what subterranean deals, but the influence of Chandler's bitter resentments is still an imponderable...

...Two years later he lost again but that was to the invincible Alben Barkley...

...They had referred to racial segregation, which isn't and can't possibly be an issue...

...Stevenson would carry the state, the two Democrats out for the U.S...

...Except for the Democratic Governor, stewing in his rancors, there probably would be nothing to the contest in Kentucky as to either national or local meaning...

...He won a Senate seat in 1046...

...As this could be worked at one fell stroke through defeat of Senator Clements and Mr...

...Among other things, this calls for a major project of political rehabilitation, which includes as nearly complete destruction of the Clements-Wetherby faction as he can contrive...

...There was, for example, one expert who devised a set of questions and went about ringing a selected set of doorbells...

...He has announced conflicting and unbreakable appointments to keep him away when Adlai Stevenson comes to Louisville later this month...

...Indifference is probably not the word for it...

...Happy Chandler burns...

...But it will undoubtedly mean much for Democratic success—and organization of the Senate...

...Under ordinary circumstances, Earle Clements would be an automatic winner—but Happy hates him as a rival and a man...

...Several encounters within the last few months resulted in humiliation for him...

...In other words, the Democrats made a mistake by laughing at Chandler in Chicago when he proclaimed himself the only man who could win for them...

...This year is quite satisfactory, falling into the traditional pattern of doubt...

...The main question that seems to matter around here, yet which seems rarely to be asked by the experts who are so busily trying to protect their licenses, is "What do you think of Happy Chandler...

...and to the President's health, which is similarly let alone...

...He loudly declares himself to have been snubbed by Senator Earle Clements and former Governor Lawrence Wetherby, the two Democratic candidates for the Senate, and his indifference to their fortunes could cost the Democrats control of the Senate...

...His resolution seems to have been hardened, fixing his gaze on 1060...

...There is no question about the present situation's offering an unparalleled opportunity for attainment of Happy's insatiable urge to be the supreme Democrat, and to build on this foundation his tower...

...Just how far he will actually go in his support, however, is highly debatable...

...He was successful at this in three elections to the House of Representatives from the Louisville (Third) District from 1946 through 1952...

...Happy has lost prestige more swiftly and extensively than any popular hero in Kentucky politics...

...Just now, Happy Chandler wears a most obtrusive pique...

...Opposing Earle Clements, Thrus-ton Morton has demonstrated the same knack of wooing Democrats...

...even if characteristically (and grudgingly) admiring him as a fellow politician...

...Governor Chandler was busy elsewhere when Senator Kefauver came to Louisville: but he was on the spot and on the platform when President Eisenhower turned up at Lexington...

...Those who call him vain and selfish have a mass of evidence, both internal and external, to support their judgment...

...He is Old Family, wealthy, cultivated in a manner that fit well into the traditions of the State Department, in which he served as Assistant Secretary until his recent resignation...