Where the Gold Is

Smiling, relaxed and seemingly confident, Ohio's Democratic Senator Stephen Young flew into Columbus for a pleasant formality--endorsement for re-election by his party's state convention. Young, 74, visited a few longtime friends, got a good night's sleep, and next day delivered a convention keynote speech larded with catch phrases about "the united Democratic Party of Ohio." Without even waiting for the convention vote, he returned to Washington.

What happened after that in Columbus did not leave Ohio's Democratic Party very united. In a convention floor brawl, supporters of Astronaut John Glenn Jr., who had announced only three days before as a Democratic candidate for Young's seat, managed to withhold the endorsement from Young, or anyone else, and turn the state's May 5 Democratic senatorial primary into a bitter scramble.

"Playing It by Ear." "We had no battle plan, no set procedure for working the convention," said a Glenn backer. "What happened was mostly playing it by ear." That's mainly how Space Hero Glenn himself played it. While Incumbent Young relaxed, Glenn telephoned at least 70 convention delegates. Because Glenn is still a Government employee (his resignation from the Marine Corps will be effective March 1), the Hatch Act precluded active convention politicking. But he received a stream of delegates in his hotel suite, where he signed autographs, flashed his famous grin and made his pitch.

Fearing that they might permanently alienate Young loyalists, the Glenn men never pushed for an outright endorsement for their candidate. Instead, Richard Christiansen, Democratic minority whip in the Ohio House, rose on the convention floor to challenge a committee report calling for endorsement of a single candidate. "When we have two great Americans seeking election as Senator, we should not endorse one to the exclusion of the other," he cried. In a roll call taken amid tumultuous shouting, the convention voted 343 to 328 against endorsing any candidate. That amounted to a victory for Glenn, and his backers swiftly moved for adjournment. Again they won.

TV & Women. Some voices were raised in doubt. The Toledo Blade, for one, editorialized that Glenn has about as much right to run for the Senate as Young does to become an astronaut. But, judged one Ohio Republican worriedly, "He's where the gold is. With television and women today and with a guy looking like a young Eisenhower, you've got to say he's strong."

Certainly Glenn will need strength. Young has served notice that he intends to fight. Whoever wins that encounter will probably face Robert Taft Jr. in the general election. And Taft, who possesses a politically potent name and who has served his political apprenticeship in both the Ohio legislature and the U.S. Congress, may be even tougher to beat than outer space.

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