Held in Ranks

Republicans over the nation had just about given up the special election in California's 24th Congressional District, a jig-sawed piece of Los Angeles County. The district usually votes Republican, but two members of that party were running, and each was expected to get about half the G.O.P. vote.

Glenard Paul Lipscomb, endorsed by his local party organization, was backed by Vice President Richard Nixon and California's new Governor Goodwin Knight. The other Republican, John L. Collier, was the candidate of the opposing faction (followers of ex-Governor Earl Warren, now U.S. Chief Justice, and Senator William Knowland). The Democratic candidate was George Arnold, 32-year-old son of Trustbuster Thurman Arnold and a son-in-law of Columnist Drew Pearson.

Still smarting from their defeat in New Jersey's Sixth Congressional District, national G.O.P. leaders were afraid that Arnold would get more votes than either Lipscomb or Collier. More and more local Republicans recognized the need to get behind one candidate. They went all-out for Nixon's man, Lipscomb, with an effectiveness that Senator Knowland reflected when, four days before the election, he, too, issued an endorsement of Lipscomb. The 24th District stayed Republican after all. The vote: Lipscomb 42,880, Arnold 34,545, Collier 3,616.

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