Back in the Race

New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller got back in the Republican presidential race this week.

Faced with Vice President Nixon's overwhelming claim on the nomination, Rocky had withdrawn last December as an active challenger. Republicans of every hue, including Dick Nixon, immediately and persistently began to woo him as the most promising vice-presidential candidate around, but Rocky straight-armed every proposal. Last week Rockefeller announced that, to avoid any possible vice-presidential stampede, he would stay away from the Republican convention in Chicago.

This was the signal for New York's Republican state chairman, L. Judson Morhouse, to issue what amounted to a stinging challenge to Nixon. Urging the 96-vote New York delegation to go to Chicago uncommitted, Morhouse said: "We must recognize that the place for Rockefeller's broad appeal, reaching beyond party lines, is at the head of the ticket. Unless our national ticket this fall is headed by a candidate capable of the appeal that thrusts across and beyond Republican Party lines, we stand in serious danger of losing not only the presidency, but also the state legislature and many of our local offices.

"I believe that Governor Rockefeller should not be ruled out of consideration for the presidency--and that he should not rule himself out. He is not an active candidate and he will not seek the nomination: he has made this plain. The fact remains that he--alone with the Vice President--is one of the truly forceful and distinguished leaders on the national scene. The Republican Party as a whole therefore must look to one or the other of these men as its best hope in 1960, and it must designate the wisest choice in the July convention."

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