The Shakedown

In five states last week, primary elections shook down fields of hopefuls for the serious campaigning ahead: P:In Ohio a pair of fireplug-size campaigners earned the right to meet in November for the governor's chair that Frank J. Lausche is vacating to run for the U.S. Senate. Ex-Federal Price Boss Michael V. Di Salle (5 ft. 5 in., 212 Ibs.) gathered more votes than his four Democratic opponents combined, while State Attorney General C. William O'Neill (5 ft. 5 in., 160 Ibs.) drubbed Lieut. Governor John W. Brown for the Republican nomination. Biggest surprise in Ohio: the failure of Lausche, unopposed in the primary (as was his Republican senatorial opponent, George Bender), to capture all of the state's 58 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Lausche lost three delegates (one by default) in his home county of Cuyahoga (Cleveland), another outstate.

P:In Indiana, where voters had a choice of either Republican or Democratic ballots, a Democratic-predicted "farm revolt" vanished in a cloud of Republican ballots as President Eisenhower rolled up 353,938 votes to 242,422 for Senator Estes Kefauver, unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Vanderburgh County, which Indianans proudly claim has backed every presidential winner since 1896, gave Ike 15,129, the Keef 12,550.

P:In Maryland, Democrat Millard E. Tydings, 66, began a comeback by edging out George P. Mahoney in the closest senatorial primary in Maryland history. He will face John Marshall Butler, who in 1950 knocked Tydings out of the Senate seat he had held for 24 years.

P:In West Virginia, running for the U.S. Senate seat of the late Harley M. Kilgore, ex-Senator Chapman Revercomb led a Republican field of five, and Governor William C. Marland edged past State Attorney General John G. Fox to win the Democratic nomination. But in the race for governor, Democrats turned their backs on Marland-backed Milton J. Ferguson, picked Congressman Robert H. Mollohan to run against the G.O.P.'s Cecil H. Underwood, minority leader of the state house.

P:In New Mexico Democratic Governor John F. Simms Jr. (pro-Stevenson) narrowly missed becoming the first incumbent governor in the state's history to lose in a primary election, defeated State Corporation Commissioner Ingram B. Pickett (pro-Harriman) by less than 2,300 votes. Simms will face ex-Governor Edwin L. Mechem, the Republican choice.

In another New Mexico campaign. Sandoval County Republicans pondered promises by Julio Tenorio, a candidate for sheriff, that prisoners would not be beaten by "my under sheriff or deputies" but would be "well guarded so they will not be able to escape twice a week or beat the jailer," then voted for Tenorio's opponent, Rudy Montoya, 483 to 450.

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