Conventional Sparring

"It's stupid," protested Pennsylvania's new Democratic Governor David Lawrence, longtime National Committeeman. Among those who agreed were New York's Tammany Boss Carmine De Sapio, Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, and Illinois' veteran National Committeeman Jack Arvey. In ragged unison the powerful Democratic old pros were warming up for a free-for-all fight at the next full meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington. Subject of fight: the National Committee's site-selection committee and its choice of Los Angeles as the place for next year's convention (TIME, Jan. 26).

For the public record, the protests were based on the great distance that many delegates would have to travel to get to Los Angeles. But the real reasons--aside from the desire of Illinoisans to get the convention to Chicago and Pennsylvanians to get it for Philadelphia--went to the very roots of Democratic power politics. Among them:

P: Dave Lawrence & Co., representing the party's old pros, fear the increasing power of Western Democrats as represented by California's zealously liberal National Committeeman Paul Ziffren, who swung the site-selection committee to Los Angeles. Beyond that, they are convinced that the liberal climate of a Los Angeles convention would work against their reaching a North-South compromise necessary for a united party in the 1960 elections. P: Los Angeles is Adlai Stevenson territory, and Paul Ziffren is one of the oldest and most devoted of Stevenson's followers. Since Ziffren would presumably be in charge of convention arrangements (with 6,000 gallery tickets to pass out), the admirers of such presidential hopefuls as Massachusetts' John Kennedy and Missouri's Stuart Symington could only shudder at the prospect.

P:The old pros have long feuded with Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul Butler, who is much too intransigently liberal for their tastes. Since Butler helped swing the convention for Los Angeles, a change of site might force his resignation.

At last count, California's Ziffren seemed to have the votes to hold onto the convention for Los Angeles when the full committee meets late this month. But before the session is over, there may be a fascinating preview of the sort of fighting the U.S. can expect in 1960.

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