Names & Numbers

From the Canadian border to the outer tip of Staten Island, New York Democrats last week were rousing themselves for the quadrennial rite of nominating a candidate for governor. This year there was reason for some excitement: the cast of characters flashing across the preconvention screen read like a glossary of the great names in the Democratic Party.

First of all, there was U.S. Representative Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., just turned 40 and sounding more like his daddy every day. He had been campaigning for the nomination ever since 1952, had already lined up pledges of some 300 of the 1,000 delegates to the state convention. Until last month, it seemed that he would run away with the nomination.

Word Along the Line. Then another big Democratic name was dropped in. Aging (62) Averell Harriman, the New York banker who became a doctrinaire New-Fair Dealer, and served Democratic administrations in a long series of top-level jobs, announced that he was available. This was a shock to some Roosevelt supporters who had thought all along that Ave would back Junior, who had backed

Harriman, noisily if not wisely, at the 1952 Democratic National Convention. Demonstrating that there is still no ill will between them, Roosevelt and Harriman (along with Bronx Borough President James Lyons) smiled happily for the cameras last week during a Democratic outing at the Saratoga races.

Harriman is a poor campaigner ("He's getting better all the time," his friends have been saying for years). Nevertheless, he is gathering support from 1) some conservative Democrats who still look upon him as a man of business, 2) others who want a generous amount of Harriman money in the campaign fund, and 3) still others who think that F.D.R. Jr. is a brash young man running on nothing but his father's name. Through the Washington pipeline came private word that "Honest Ave" had the quiet support of the country's two biggest Democrats: Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson.

Power in the Rooms. Around the edges were two other big names. New York's Mayor Robert F. Wagner, another junior, kept saying that he was not a candidate for governor; he wants to follow his father's footsteps to the U.S. Senate. But some Democrats kept insisting that he will be drafted. Sitting on the sidelines was the onetime master strategist, former Democratic National Chairman James A. Farley. Considered too conservative by New York Fair Dealers, Farley had little chance to be the candidate, but probably will play a role at the convention.

While all these important names moved through the headlines, a long-faced politician from the Democrats' Italian-American bloc and a gnarled Irishman watched with quiet interest. Carmine De Sapio and Charles Buckley are little known outside New York City, but they are big men in the rooms where New York Democratic decisions are made. De Sapio, Democratic national committeeman and the boss of Tammany Hall, will control at least 212 votes in the convention. U.S. Representative Buckley, boss of The Bronx, will walk in with 108. Some time before the convention begins on September 21, De Sapio and Buckley will make up their minds and pass along the word. Then the race will be over.

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