Rolling Bandwagon

The day before he announced his candidacy, Massachusetts' Senator John Kennedy got an important telephone call from Columbus, Ohio. On the other end of the line, Ohio Governor Michael V. Di Salle had good news: he was committing himself and Ohio's 64 Democratic Convention delegates to Kennedy as their choice for the presidential nomination. Kennedy thanked him, cautiously called back later to ask if this was an all-out pledge. "All the way," promised Di Salle, "until you're nominated or you release us."*

After making it official at a press conference last week, rotund Mike Di Salle admitted that Kennedy "wasn't exactly disturbed by the announcement. He almost traveled over the telephone." For Jack Kennedy the news was cause for jubilation. It finally answered the long-dangling 64-vote question: with Ohio, Kennedy could count the convention's fifth largest delegate bloc in his preconvention muster. It regained momentum for the Kennedy bandwagon--which had slowed perceptibly since the birth-control issue (TIME, Dec. 7). And it marked Roman Catholic Kennedy's first major breach of the line that Catholic bosses of big states have thus far held against him.

Rule or Ruin. Mike Di Salle, like such other notable Catholic leaders as Pennsylvania's Governor Dave Lawrence, California's Governor Edmund ("Pat") Brown, Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, New York's Carmine De Sapio, is especially sensitive to the fact that a fellow Catholic will come under heavy fire both at the Los Angeles convention and in the general election. But Di Salle is also a political realist. In a series of meetings and telephone calls over the past seven months, Kennedy made it quite clear to Di Salle that 1) Kennedy's best chance of winning the nomination lies in making a strong showing in the primaries; and 2) he regarded Ohio as a must state on his list. Kennedy threatened to challenge Di Salle and any other comers, if necessary, to get Ohio's vote (TIME, July 13).

A personal swing through the state convinced Di Salle that Kennedy has a huge following in Ohio; a private poll showed Kennedy well ahead with 60% of the vote. To be defeated in his own home ground by an outsider would mean political ruin for Di Salle and the Democratic machine he has so carefully been building.

So he decided to play it safe. "My primary concern," he said candidly, "was with what it meant as far as the Democratic Party in Ohio was concerned." Stop & Go Man. Before leaving on a Mexican fishing trip, California's Pat Brown stood by his determination to take his 81 delegates to Los Angeles without any commitments. Pennsylvania's Lawrence, whose 81 convention votes could put the nomination in Kennedy's lap, still opposes him and remains, in fact, the one Democratic boss with the strength and prestige to put together a stop-Kennedy ticket. Says Lawrence (who leans toward Adlai Stevenson or Stuart Symington): Kennedy is "a very able young man," but "as far as the Democratic leadership in Pennsylvania is concerned, we're not announcing for any candidate at this time." One leader promptly disagreed: Hiram G. Andrews, speaker of Pennsylvania's state house of representatives, announced that he would vote for Kennedy (he will be a convention delegate-at-large). But nobody believed there would be any serious challenge to Lawrence's control of the Pennsylvanians.

Chicago's Mayor Daley announced last week that he would not, after all, be a candidate for Governor of Illinois. To Kennedymen, this meant only one thing: that Kennedy-leaning Dick Daley would probably throw a sizable number of Illinois' 69 delegates into Jack's pot before the convention. (Had he run for Governor, Daley would not be expected to support another Catholic at the head of the ticket.)

In Maine (15 votes), an endorsement of Kennedy by Governor Clinton Clausen before his death (TIME, Jan. 11) was posthumously made public, warmly seconded by Maine's Democratic congressional delegation, led by U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, a Catholic. In Maryland, Governor J. Millard Tawes (Methodist), under almost as much Kennedy pressure as Mike Di Salle, reluctantly agreed to commit his state delegation (24 votes)--at least for the first ballot--by letting Kennedy run uncontested in the May primary.

At week's end Kennedy forces optimistically counted up some 450 delegates on their growing list of pledged supporters (needed to win the nomination: 761).

They had used considerable muscle to get their bandwagon rolling, and if it should falter, this could conceivably work against them. But nobody could deny that, for the moment at least, it had rolled farther toward Los Angeles than any other on the road.

* Legally, the Ohio delegation cannot be bound by unit rule, but the delegates are honor bound to support the favorite son and the candidate of his choice until released. While there is no law against defections during the convention, in practice the system works as well as unit rule. Explains Di Salle: "It is just a moral commitment."

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