What Upset Ev

For once, Ev Dirksen was speechless. Leaving the first powwow of Illinois' Republican Convention delegates in suburban Chicago last week, he plowed head down through a crowd of newsmen, got into a car and drove off without saying a word.

What so visibly upset Ev was a crude power play, aimed at G.O.P. Gubernatorial Nominee Chuck Percy, by Goldwater forces at the meeting. During his successful primary campaign, Percy pledged himself to vote in San Francisco for the presidential candidate favored by a majority of the Illinois delegation. As of now, Goldwater holds that majority, and Percy has every intention of keeping his word. But he is suspect to the Goldwaterites because of his well-known belief that putting the Arizona Senator at the top of the ticket would seriously hurt the chances of all Illinois Republican state candidates, including Percy's own.

As the gubernatorial nominee, Percy could have expected to be chairman of the Illinois delegation to the national convention. But he knew he faced opposition from the Goldwater camp, and he didn't particularly want the chairmanship anyway; as chairman, he would be required to announce the convention vote of the heavily Goldwater delegation, thereby apparently identifying himself with Goldwater in the flood lights of national television.

Percy therefore proposed that Dirksen be chairman, that he himself take second place as cochairman, and that the third top delegation post, that of secretary, go to an all-out Goldwater man. Dirksen agreed, and so did U.S. Representative Ed Derwinski, the Goldwater leader in Illinois. Said Derwinski later: "I agree to Dirksen's taking over as chairman because I think Chuck should be absolved from the line of fire at the convention. He needs to be out of it for his campaign."

But the rank-and-file Goldwater followers emphatically did not agree. And it quickly became clear that they had the votes to require that two of the three top national delegation officers be signed-in-blood Barry backers, thereby eliminating either Dirksen or, preferably, Percy. Dirksen was furious. "This is awful," he told Percy. "I'm going to make a fight of this."

For the sake of party harmony, Percy urged Ev against this course. "I can't afford to fight these Goldwater people," he said. Percy therefore withdrew as prospective cochairman, a Goldwater-leaner was named vice chairman, Dirksen left town mad, and Illinois Republicans were treated to the sight of their gubernatorial nominee, chosen overwhelmingly in a statewide primary, being reduced io the status of just another common delegate at the national convention.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.