Junior to Teddy
It was the most watched U.S. Senate race of 1964, and he surely will be the most observed junior Senator in many a term. Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, 38, put an end to the 18-year congressional career of New York Republican Liberal Kenneth Keating, 64, and joined his brother, Teddy, in the Senate.
From the day Bobby began his campaign two months ago, the Kennedy name worked its magic. The carpet bagger issue faded. In towns where Keating drew only 25 people, the former U.S. Attorney General pulled 2,000. In Buffalo, 100,000 turned out. Many were squealing teen-agers--but there were also throngs of voting-age women. In the background, a smooth, tough Kennedy machine worked like a greased piston. And the Johnson coattail helped. In upstate New York, where Republicans normally outvote Democrats two-to-one, Kennedy won half the votes and robbed Keating of a crucial 700,000-vote cushion he had counted on. Then in metropolitan Manhattan, Kennedy drop-hammered Keating with a 500,000 vote margin that Keating could never erase. His statewide margin: reaching for 600,000.
It was, said Senator-elect Kennedy, "an overwhelming mandate" for the policies of John F. Kennedy, "and, of course, Lyndon Johnson." In other key Senate races: --
>Robert Taft Jr. has a name that is magic in Ohio, but it took more than magic to buck the Johnson tide, which peaked at better than 700,000. For Republican Representative Taft, 47, the problem was not just incumbent Senator Stephen M. Young, an aging (75) me too echo of Lyndon Johnson. A greater obstacle was the all-too-likely possibility that voters might not be able to distinguish between conservative Re- publicanism Taft-style, and Goldwater-style. Taft was honest enough to admit that he agreed with Goldwater in some areas, particularly fiscal. But he went on to insist that he was a "middle-of-the-roader on education, health and welfare, and a liberal on civil rights." Whether Taft had got the point across depended on the outcome of a cliff-hanging vote count. --
>George Murphy, 62, the old Holly wood song-and-dance man, left Pierre Salinger, 39, California's incumbent Democratic Senator of three months, a step behind. The early odds--and polls --had been with former Presidential Press Secretary Salinqer. Among Cali fornia's 8,000,000 registered voters, the Democrats hold a 1,500,000-vote edge. But Murphy built up an early lead in populous Los Ange'es County, and Pierre's upstate strength proved too little too late. A onetime promoter of right-win'? causes, Campaigner Murphy sud- den y became the soul of moderation-- around moderates--yet kept the Goldwaterites happy. Then when Pierre came out against a proposed amendment which, in effect, would repeal most state and local anti-discrimination housing laws, Murphy kept his lip buttoned. The proposition won. Then there was the carpetbag issue, and a TV debate that only proved what late-night TV viewers knew all along--Murph was still the good guy. >.
> Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Hugh Scott, 64, may have been mildly amused--at first. Running against him was a 51-year-old spinster named Genevieve Blatt, the state's secretary of internal affairs and a liberal Democrat addicted to flowery hats. She had won the Democratic Senate primary by a mere 491 votes. But Scott had some unlaujhing moments as he tried to hold on to his seat. A moderate Republican, he was slow to embrace Goldwater and never appeared on the same platform with him, but the Goldwater candidacy hounded him. The lead seesawed for hours, until Scott finally eked out a slight lead in a race that still might be decided by the absentee ballots.
Wisconsin's Senator William Proxmire made a series of speeches back in 1959 and 1960 castigating Lyndon Johnson's "dictatorial" tactics as Senate majority leader. In the 1964 campaign, he made it clear that he was eager to let bygones be bygones, but Proxmire's differences with the President persisted --at the polls. During anxious early hours, in which L.B.J. began rolling up a huge majority in Wisconsin, Bill Proxmire, 49, trailed his moderate Republican opponent, Wilbur Renk, 55. Proxmire finally won, but his victory was less a reflection of his own popularity than of rural distaste for Goldwater's farm policies. --
>Joseph D. Tydings, 36, will follow in the path of his stepfather, Maryland's longtime Democratic Senator Millard Tydings (1927-50). A self-styled "Ken- nedy Democrat," Joe Tydings was a J.F.K. crony and appointee (U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland), had Marylander Eunice Kennedy Shriver as chairman of his "Citizens for Tydings" organization. For Incumbent Republican Senator James Glenn Beall, 70, a lackluster moderate who spent ten years in the House and another twelve in the Senate, the defeat was his first ever.
>Fred Harris was less of a name than Bud Wilkinson, the former Oklahoma University coach. But Democrat Harris, 33, had "my friend" Lyndon Johnson's 100,000-vote margin blocking for him downfield. And that, plus a good record as a state senator, was enough to stop Republican Wilkinson. Harris won with a margin of 14,000 of the state's 900,000 senatorial votes, will complete the last two years of the term of the late U.S. Senator Robert Kerr.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.