The Road North of Stanton

In 1960 Nebraska gave Republican Richard Nixon 62.1% of its vote--a larger share than any other state. With that in mind, Democratic Governor Frank Morrison is now spending more of his time running away from the Kennedy Administration than against his Republican opponent, Fred Seaton.

When Republicans try to link him with the Administration in Washington, Morrison makes jokes. "President Kennedy has the most responsible position in the world, what with crises in Cuba, Berlin, Southeast Asia," he says. "But just before he goes into a Cabinet meeting or a private session with Secretary Rusk, he picks up the phone and calls me. He says, 'Hello, Frank, this is Jack. Say, how's that road north of Stanton coming? Are the farmers really concerned about the hole? And how about those empty beds in the tubercular hospital at Kearney--what are we going to do about them?' "

More seriously, Morrison has made it clear that he does not want Jack Kennedy's help in Nebraska. When Vice President Lyndon Johnson spoke for a Democratic congressional candidate in Omaha, Morrison pointedly stayed some 400 miles away in Scottsbluff. Morrison also persuaded Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman to cancel a scheduled talk at the National Corn Picking Contest in Grand Island; Freeman offered to send a substitute, but the Alpine Yodelers of Monroe, Wis. were scheduled instead.

Seaton, who served as Eisenhower's Secretary of Interior, is determined to keep Morrison on the national Democratic hook. "Governor Morrison denies outside influences, but still gets the post office patronage and testifies in Washington for New Frontier programs," Seaton argues. A Morrison victory, he says, would mean "a Kennedy bridgehead in the heartland of the Midwest." Happy to get outside help, Seaton was benefited by a spirited Eisenhower appearance in Omaha.

Nebraska is fairly prosperous, and other issues come down to a conflict of personal political image. Morrison recently looked up at a big Seaton billboard and quipped: "Looks like a Hart Schaffner & Marx ad to me." Seaton, a publisher of ten newspapers, is indeed a well-dressed, well-pressed businessman, who cannot quite bring himself to match Morrison's sloppy suits and exposed suspenders. He has, however, taken to sports shirts in the cattle country.

The folksy touch can make a difference in Nebraska. People grin when Morrison hoists his 6 ft. 3 in. hulk to the rostrum and begins: "I hope you came out not just to see if I'm as homely as I appear on television, but out of a desire to know more about government." Where Seaton, with his national reputation, once seemed a cinch, the race now seems close. Both candidates agree that it will be settled by the vote in the populous Omaha and Lincoln areas, where Morrison won his entire victory margin in 1960. That was before Jack Kennedy became a problem.

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