The Word from Jersey

The biggest news of Election Day flashed out of New Jersey, the only state electing a member of Congress and one of two electing a governor. Everyone agreed that it was big news, but its significance looked somewhat different in Jersey than it did on the nation's front pages.

For Congress. Created in 1932, the Sixth Congressional District in northern Jersey had never elected a Democrat. Nevertheless, a young (33) lawyer from Plainfield named Harrison A. ("Pete") William Jr.* decided he had a chance.

When he asked the Democratic National Committee for financial support, Williams was turned down. Party leaders said they did not care to invest in a lost cause. With only about $3,000 to spend, Candidate Williams plodded around the district in a faded raincoat and a battered, narrow-brim hat. He knew that Republican Representative Clifford Case, who had resigned . to take a Ford Foundation job, was highly popular. So he promised to follow in Case's voting footsteps: e.g., he promised wholehearted support of the Eisenhower foreign policy. Williams' Republican opponent was another Plainfield lawyer, George Hetfield. The Democratic nominee had once served as the Hetfields' baby sitter, later was a law clerk in Hetfield's office. But he quickly found a label for his old friend: "An Old Guard Republican."

The result: Williams 68,793, Hetfield 66,796. Across the U.S. Williams' victory was widely analyzed as a slap at the Eisenhower Administration. Williams said he thought his biggest weapon was his pledge to carry on in the path of Eisenhower Republican Clifford Case.

For Governor. In the race for governor of New Jersey, the result was less surprising. By Election Day, most observers agreed that the Jersey Republicans had kicked away their chance to hold the governorship (TIME. Nov. 2). Exposes of corruption, intraparty strife, a colorless candidate and an inept campaign put practically all of the local issues on the Democratic side. The Democrats ably seized the advantage and held it. Their nominee, Lawyer Robert Baumle Meyner, a bachelor from Phillipsburg (pop. 19,000), beat Republican Nominee Paul Troast, a wealthy building contractor, by 154,000 votes.

New Jersey Democratic leaders generally agreed on why they won the governorship: "Public disgust" over the scandals that had touched the New Jersey G.O.P. The last straw, they thought, was Republican Candidate Troast's admission that he had asked New York's Governor Thomas E. Dewey to commute the sentence of Labor Extortionist Joey Fay. Winner Meyner (rhymes with signer) disagreed heartily with the interpretation that got him headlines across the nation. He thought he had won on local issues, didn't think his victory was any reflection on the Eisenhower Administration.

* No kin to Harrison Williams, the utility tycoon, and his best-dressed wife.

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