Hopes for Frank

At 22, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. said: "I positively will not go into politics." Last week, at 39, young F.D.R. (Frank to his friends) bid for the nation's second biggest political job: governor of New York. His announcement was no surprise; his father had stepped into the governorship (at 46) before stepping up to the White House, and Junior is trying out Father's footsteps for size.

Franklin Jr. not only has his father's name, he has his looks, voice and sweeping self-assurance. He is already taking instruction two nights a week (7 p.m. to midnight) on the problems of Albany.

He has won little distinction in five years as a Congressman (and as 1952 campaign manager for Averell Harriman), but he has picked up so much political know-how that he very nearly has the gubernatorial nomination wrapped up.

Since January he has been visiting every one of New York's 62 counties to gladhand upstate Democrats long neglected by the party's New York City wheels.

Almost everywhere the old Roosevelt magic worked; in Batavia, with 1,767 registered Democrats, 424 bought tickets to hear a dinner speech and hundreds more were turned away. By last week he had picked up 200 upstate delegates; he expected to have the full majority of 510 (out of 1,018) by the Sept. 21 nominating convention.

There could be one big hitch in the plans: New York City's five counties alone have 512 votes, mostly controlled by Tammany and Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. Like F.D.R. Jr., Wagner wants to follow a father's tracks--in his case, to the U.S. Senate. Wagner too may decide that the best route to Washington runs through Albany, as it did for Senator Herbert Lehman. Or he might be persuaded to run by those New York Democrats who feel that Junior is just plain poison. But, as of last week, the chances were that in November young Roosevelt would be the candidate, running against the man his father beat for the presidency: New York's Governor Thomas E. Dewey.

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