Ahead of the Field

Iowa, which surprised everyone by going Democratic in 1948, reasserted its old Republicanism last week. Only a little more than one-fifth of the state's eligible voters went to the polls, but an overwhelming majority of those who did favored Republican Bourke Hickenlooper for another term in the U.S. Senate. Hickenlooper got more votes than all other candidates on both Republican and Democratic senatorial tickets combined.

Heretofore not a particularly strong candidate--his renomination was considered in doubt six months ago--plodding Bourke Hickenlooper had obviously made hay out of his hit-or-miss attack on ex-Chairman David Lilienthal's "incredible mismanagement" of the Atomic Energy Commission, and his support of Senator Joseph McCarthy's attack against the State Department.

To oppose him in the Senate race, Democrats picked an ex-Under Secretary of Agriculture, Albeit Loveland, who tried to make his race a popularity contest for the Brannan Plan (see below). His victory over five rivals could scarcely be called a sign that Iowa was ready for the Brannan Plan. He got only 37,000 votes, compared to the 190,000 votes which Hickenlooper drew on the G.O.P. side.

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