The Governors

Ever since 1954, Democrats have been tenants in a solid majority of the nation's statehouses. Last week, with 27 U.S. governorships--14 held by Democrats--at stake, the Democratic trend continued. With some races still in doubt. Democratic challengers replaced Republicans in six states, lost only three of their own Statehouses (Massachusetts, Iowa, Kansas) to the G.O.P.

Bitterest of the Republican defeats was Michigan, where articulate Michigan State Professor Paul Bagwell (TIME cover, Oct. 24) made his second try at ending twelve years of labor-dominated Democratic rule. Across his state. Bagwell did better than Dick Nixon--but not well enough to overcome the Wayne County (Detroit) lead of U.A.W.-backed Lieutenant Governor John Swainson, a personable and legless war veteran, who ardently defended the record of outgoing Governor G. Mennen Williams.

Among the other winners:

P: Cook County Judge Otto Kerner, handpicked to run for Governor by Mayor Richard Daley's Democratic machine, won a smashing Illinois-wide victory. Many normally Republican newspapers endorsed him instead of plodding, scandal-splattered G.O.P. Incumbent William Stratton, trying for a third term against his own party's wishes.

P: In his campaign, persistent, oratorical Democrat William Guy, 41, an agricultural economist and sugar-beet grower, argued that after 16 years of Republican Governors, North Dakota was due for a change. The voters agreed. Crew-cut Billy Guy, who wants a state income tax to finance needed school expansion, was an easy winner over Lieutenant Governor Clarence P. Dahl, 68, a spry, folksy campaigner with an undistinguished record.

P: The Kennedy sweep in Rhode Island pulled along in its wake lackluster Democrat John Anthony Notte Jr., 51, lieutenant governor in the regime of his predecessor and campaign opponent. Republican Governor Christopher Del Sesto. Said Del Sesto: "You can't fight a tidal wave."

P: West Virginia Republicans tried hard to prove that homespun Democratic Attorney General Wallace Barron had bribed a rival to withdraw from this year's primary. They also ripped into Barren's record as liquor commissioner in the scandal-strewn regime (1953-57) of Democratic Governor William Marland. It was wasted effort; in a Democratic landslide. Barron easily whipped game G.O.P. Challenger Harold Neely, who had been in politics less than three years.

P: Getting plenty of campaign help from the idol of Arizona conservatives, Senator Barry Goldwater, the state's cautious Republican Governor Paul Fannin overwhelmed energetic Phoenix Real Estate Millionaire Lee Ackerman to win his second term.

P: Mild-mannered Republican Attorney General John Anderson Jr. campaigned through all but two of Kansas' 105 counties this year to blast away at the tight budgets and free-and-easy prison paroles of ailing (bronchial condition) Democratic Governor George Docking, trying for his third term. Anderson's round-the-clock plugging paid off: he ran behind Richard Nixon, but well enough to toss Docking, a conservative banker from Lawrence, out of office.

P: Husky (6 ft. 6 in., 251 Ibs.) Conservative Elbert Nostrand Carvel, 50, a glad-handing raconteur and an uncommonly shrewd politician, led the Democratic ticket in Delaware, won a second term as Governor (his first: 1949-53) from Republican John William Rollins, a wealthy Georgia-born wheeler-dealer (auto sales and rentals, TV stations).

P: In Vermont, youthful (33) Republican Frank Ray Keyser Jr., speaker of the state house of representatives and a firm believer in tightly budgeted government, sailed to an easy victory over his Democratic opponent, State Senator Russell Niquette, 53.

P: Liberal, reform-minded Democrat Matthew Welsh, a lawyer and veteran state legislator, bucked Indiana's strong Republican trend, won a stunning but ever-so-narrow personal victory over G.O.P. Lieutenant Governor Crawford Parker, a conservative small-town storekeeper.

P: Across Maine, short-time Republican Incumbent (by virtue of his predecessor's death ten months ago) John Reed was not nearly so well known as his Democratic opponent, able Congressman Frank Coffin. Coffin had been the architect of his party's recent statewide revival. But Coffin lost in the Republican sweep. Said Surprise Victor Reed: "I can't believe it."

P: The polls guessed that Incumbent Gaylord Anton Nelson, 44, a social-reforming liberal with an impressive first-term record, would clobber Milwaukee Republican Reactionary Philip Kuehn, 40, by at least 300.000 votes. In his state's unexpected Nixon tide, Nelson had to settle for far, far less, yet became Wisconsin's first Democrat in this century to win two terms as Governor.

P: In Iowa. Republican Attorney General Norman Erbe, a Lutheran and a conservative, handily defeated Democratic Lieutenant Governor Edward McManus, a Catholic and a liberal, thus succeeds Democratic, Protestant, conservative Governor Herschel Loveless.

P: Washington's Democratic Incumbent Albert ("The Rose") Rosellini had the kind of rocky first-term record that would send many a Governor down to jolting defeat. But Old Pol Rosellini also has a slick-running machine. He trounced conservative Spokane Republican Lloyd Andrews, former superintendent of public instruction, headed for a scarcely warranted second term.

P: A sizable bloc of Montana Democrats were privately (and some even publicly) rooting for conscientious Republican Donald Nutter in his campaign against pompous, erratic Democratic Lieutenant Governor Paul Cannon. Nutter won in a breeze.

P: In the Deep South, where gubernatorial races are decided in the primaries, a quartet of Democrats rambled to predictably easy victories over Republican sacrificial lambs. Arkansas Segregationist Orval Faubus won an unprecedented (for his state) fourth term; North Carolina's brainy, boyish-looking Terry Sanford, who irritated many old-line Democrats by supporting John Kennedy before the party's national convention, won easily but got surprisingly strong opposition from lightly regarded Republican Challenger Robert T. Gavin. Florida's Farris Bryant, bright but segregationist, had no trouble in winning 5 to 3. In Texas, Conservative Price Daniel gave lukecold support to the Kennedy-Johnson ticket but had blazing hot support from the voters, who gave him a runaway third-term victory over Dallas Republican William Steger.

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