STRUGGLE FOR WISCONSIN

McMillin, Miles

The Humphrey-Kennedy Race Struggle for Wisconsin by MILES McMILLIN Anything can happen in a state that in one brief decade can swing its choice for Senator from a LaFollette to a McCarthy to a...

...National Committeeman Herman Jessen is for Humphrey and National Com-mitteewoman Vel Phillips is for Kennedy...
...Kennedy replied by saying that there are no differences on basic issues worthy of debate...
...Humphrey's father was at the bottom, where politics is a philosophy...
...Many Republicans will cross over because there is no contest in their own party...
...Governor Nelson and Senator William Proxmire have remained strictly neutral...
...The difference is apparent in the way they handle the day-today problems of campaigning...
...Humphrey, it is generally agreed, has a better chance to get the Stevenson vote because there is a closer ideological kinship and, more important, because many of the Stevenson followers are well aware that the best chance to get their idol's name before the convention is to slow Kennedy down in Wisconsin and prevent him from executing his blitz strategy at the convention...
...By all the signs the politicians honor, Kennedy should capture a substantial majority of the popular vote for Wisconsin's thirty-one delegates to the Democratic National Convention at the April 5 election...
...If recent history is an accurate yardstick the outcome will have little positive impact on the convention decision...
...He jokes that no one campaigning with him will ever be bored by over-organization...
...Kennedy is considered likely to carry the urban districts where Democratic strength is concentrated, while Humphrey is reported ahead in the more numerous rural districts where the Democratic vote is relatively small...
...The success of the effort of the Humphrey supporters to cushion the effect of a majority popular vote for Kennedy brought a roar of protest and violent charges of "vote stealing" from the Kennedy supporters...
...Kennedy's is sophisticated and calculated...
...But it has not gone unnoticed that his audiences are swelled by many who have come to see a handsome matinee idol...
...A casual survey of the sources of voter strength of each candidate reveals that Humphrey has substantially greater strength among the articulate and influential labor leaders, though the Kennedy forces have been strong enough to block official endorsement of the Minnesotan by the state AFL-CIO...
...But their voices have been futile against the storm...
...It all started with a Humphrey victory in the state party over the distribution of delegates...
...Their unwavering devotion to Humphrey is something this state hasn't seen since the elder LaFollette was in the ascendancy...
...Humphrey's humor is earthy and spontaneous...
...Both candidates helped settle the MILES McMILLIN, editorial writer for the Madison Capital Times, covers Wisconsin politics for the New York Times and New York Post...
...The teas and coffee hours with a member of the family present, which have worked so successfully in Massachusetts, have been transplanted to Wisconsin on a massive scale...
...To counter this religious advantage as much as possible, prominent Minnesota Catholics like Senator Eugene McCarthy and Minnesota National Committeeman Gerald Heany are spending considerable time in the state...
...It may be worth recalling, however, that in the last twenty years the national conventions of both parties have selected a winner of Wisconsin's early primary contest only once...
...Wisconsin's Democratic leaders are about evenly divided in their allegiance...
...State Chairman Patrick Lucey, Madison Mayor Ivan Nes-tingen, Attorney General John Reynolds, and Representative Clement Zablocki are among those supporting Kennedy...
...There is no way of knowing whether they will make the effort to vote for him—or have ever bothered to vote for anyone...
...Representative Lester Johnson, whose district adjoins Minnesota, is also behind Humphrey, as is State Senator Carl Thompson, former national committeeman...
...How the rank and file of labor will divide is less clear...
...In a bitterly fought battle, the Humphrey forces on the controlling committee mustered a two-vote margin to reduce by half the number of delegates elected by the state at large, and increase the number elected in each of the state's ten Congressional districts...
...The Kennedy-Humphrey struggle began as a brass knuckles affair, and more of the same may come in the closing days of the campaign...
...In the meantime, Robert Kennedy, brother of the candidate, touched off another uproar by attempting to tie his favorite villain, James Hoffa, to Humphrey—a task made easier for him by Hoffa's invasion of Wisconsin to denounce Senator Kennedy...
...With Republicans watching gleefully from the sidelines, Democratic Governor Gaylord Nelson, who has maintained neutrality in an effort to avoid a fatal party split, proclaimed himself referee and was promptly denounced by both sides...
...Whatever the merits of either candidate's position, it remains true that no issue of outstanding significance has developed between them, and there is little prospect that any will in the closing days of the campaign...
...Most Stevenson backers are working diligently for Humphrey...
...People today," said the teacher, who is a strong Humphrey supporter, "are uncomfortable with a man with a cause...
...But there are curious cross-currents which make the Humphrey forces feel they have a fighting chance to win...
...So far as campaign help from outsiders is concerned, the Kennedy operation is largely a family affair...
...It is true, of course, that a defeat in Wisconsin has sometimes stopped a Presidential hopeful dead in his tracks...
...Humphrey cracked back by asking why Kennedy entered the campaign if there are no differences...
...Kennedy's private polls show that he has a commanding lead...
...Senator Kennedy said no one was trying to tie Hoffa to Humphrey and Kennedy backers ceased shouting "Thou shalt not steal" at those who voted for the change in delegate distribution...
...There is evidence that Kennedy will benefit from the vote of a large number of Republicans voting in the Democratic column...
...Humphrey worries an audience with his fervor, even as he delights it with his cascading wisecracks...
...Governor Orville Freeman, Representative John A. Blatnik, and Lieutenant Governor Karl Rolvaag have become familiar figures in Wisconsin...
...A poll of Democrats completed recently by Representative Robert Kastenmeier in the Second Congressional District (Madison) revealed Adlai Stevenson a strong first choice, with Humphrey running six per cent behind in second place, and Kennedy following eight per cent behind Stevenson in third place...
...Kennedy leaves his listeners purring...
...There is little dispute that Catholics will vote for Kennedy overwhelmingly...
...The Humphrey-Kennedy Race Struggle for Wisconsin by MILES McMILLIN Anything can happen in a state that in one brief decade can swing its choice for Senator from a LaFollette to a McCarthy to a Prox-mire...
...Kennedy is pleasant and correct, reflecting his exclusive school training and privileged background...
...Humphrey's smaller audiences consist mostly of people genuinely interested, in varying degrees, in politics...
...The Republican crossover may be more Machiavellian than philosophical—in other words, mischief-bent Republicans, some observers believe, will vote for Humphrey because they regard him as the candidate least likely to get the nomination...
...What Kennedy learned about the hard realities of politics as part of growing up, Humphrey learned from experience in his adult life...
...A teacher at the college whose political judgment is widely respected reported that Kennedy made a far better impression than did Humphrey...
...If the number of people who turn out for campaign speeches is a measure of the strength of the two candidates at the polls, Kennedy should be an easy winner...
...His sisters and brothers have been extremely active...
...Kennedy often seems ill at ease with the subject and with them...
...His crowds are spectacularly large...
...The Humphrey forces claim they are not worried by Kennedy's capacity to draw greater throngs...
...A Wausau housewife said, "I'd like to cuddle him...
...Some observers suggest that if the Wisconsin primary gives Kennedy the momentum he needs to win the nomination at the convention, the Republicans of Wisconsin will have named the Democratic candidate...
...Humphrey's supporters say, "Kennedy wants to run on Hubert's record...
...Humphrey's schedule, in contrast, is often mangled, with frequent delays and missed connections...
...Humphrey is voraciously gregarious and ebullient, greeting each person as a life-long friend...
...Humphrey knows farmers' problems and talks about them in their language...
...In a Wisconsin primary, where the number turning out is notoriously low, this could be important...
...a severe defeat would almost certainly rule Humphrey out of the race, while a similar fate could wreck the Kennedy bandwagon's dash for a quick decision...
...Kennedy and Humphrey spoke within a few days at a small Wisconsin college...
...dust of battle by denouncing personal attacks on each other...
...Some of the more thoughtful Democratic leaders decided to stand away from the fight in the hope that the party, which holds power in Wisconsin for the first time in twenty-five years, could be stabilized against the hurricane force of Presidential politics...
...Wisconsin is about thirty-five percent Catholic, with the greatest concentration in heavily Democratic Milwaukee...
...They say Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley would draw crowds similar to Kennedy's...
...But his intervention and his pleas for harmony helped drive the bloodiest fighting underground...
...A smaller number of Democrats whose hearts belong to Stevenson are backing Kennedy as the candidate whose glamour would give the party its best chance of defeating the detested Richard Nixon in November...
...He packs a tremendous amount of activity into each day, with every move timed to the second...
...They are more likely to back their interest with votes...
...It is not unlikely that the contest will be decided by Democrats who want neither of these two men as the candidate for 1960...
...This is also true of farm organizations, particularly the Farmers Union, which has looked upon the Minnesota Senator as "the farmers' Senator from the Midwest...
...There is one view, however, that Humphrey, too, may benefit from Republican votes in the Democratic primary...
...It is this unpredictable quality of Wisconsin politics that adds spice to the Democratic Presidential primary race between Senators John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota...
...Kennedy's campaign is not only better financed, but it is a model of efficiency...
...One of the remarkable sidelights of the campaign is the time and expense many of the Minnesota Democratic leaders are putting into the Humphrey campaign...
...Wisconsin law requires no party registration, permits voters to choose either party in the primary as well as general election...
...I intend," said the Senator from Massachusetts, "when Humphrey's name is mentioned, to speak well of him...
...They have disagreed in the past on farm policy, but Kennedy now says he has changed his views, after learning more about farm problems...
...The great differences between Kennedy and Humphrey lie in their personalities, character, background, training, and approach to political problems...
...If the vote runs that way, it is possible that Kennedy could carry the state in the popular vote—even by a substantial margin—and still win only about half the delegates...
...I request, moreover, that everyone working on my behalf in this state abide by the same principles...
...But the Humphrey camp is fond of pointing out that the same poll takers found in 1958 that Governor Gay lord Nelson had no chance of winning...
...Humphrey himself dismissed Kennedy as a "fabricated friend of the farmer—in other words, no friend at all...
...The Midwestern Senator from rural Minnesota, aware that Kennedy is somewhat vulnerable on farm issues in agricultural Wisconsin—the lat-ter's record includes votes against rural electrification and in favor of the unpopular flexible price support program—insists that their records be compared and discussed, but Kennedy has rejected the challenge...
...Kennedy shows the advantage of having been introduced to politics by a father who was at the top, where politics is a business...
...They remember former Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's big crowds and they remember too how he trailed far behind his own ticket...
...Humphrey invited Kennedy to join him in a series of debates—to save campaign expenses and provide the voters a clearer choice on issues...
...Lieutenant Governor Philleo Nash, who is considered "Truman's man in Wisconsin," is for Humphrey...
...If any of my supporters," said the Senator from Minnesota, "should raise any phony issues or say anything that reflects on the honesty or integrity of Senator Kennedy, they will not be with me for long...

Vol. 24 • September 1960 • No. 4


 
Developed by
Kanda Sofware
  Kanda Software, Inc.