Straws in the Wind

"I'm not financing anyone, any time," insists New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy. "And I am not going to endorse anyone in the primary." In effect, if not in intent, some 1966 Democratic primaries look nonetheless like warm-ups for an eventual trial of strength between the Kennedy forces and the Johnson Administration. Among the most significant contests are those in Wisconsin and Tennessee, where two longtime political friends of the Kennedys' are gubernatorial candidates.

Tie Clasp & Pal. In Wisconsin, the so-called Kennedy candidate is Lieut. Governor Patrick J. Lucey, 48, who as state Democratic chairman was instrumental in Jack Kennedy's victory over Hubert Humphrey in that state's bitter 1960 primary. Lucey, who sports a PT 109 tie clasp, visited the White House often during the New Frontier and in 1963 was recruited by J.F.K.'s brother-in-law Stephen Smith to reorganize Ohio's Democrats. In return, Bobby Kennedy last August topped the bill at a dinner that netted $60,000 for Lucey's current campaign. Since then, however, Kennedy has carefully stayed clear of Wisconsin's politics.

Lucey, an astute campaigner who knows state politics like his own back yard, will be opposed in the Sept. 13 primary by Democratic National Committeeman David Carley, 37. A protege of Hubert Humphrey's political intimate, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, Carley supported Humphrey in 1960 and has been tagged the Humphrey candidate, though in fact Humphrey opposed Carley's entering the race against Lucey. Whichever candidate wins, he faces an uphill fight against able Republican Incumbent Warren P. Knowles.

Tractors & Bulls. Bidding for Tennessee's top job is John Jay Hooker Jr., 35, a stylish, well-heeled Nashville attorney and longtime friend of Bobby Kennedy's who headed the abortive 1961 tractors-for-freedom committee to bail out Castro's Bay of Pigs prisoners. Along with a Southern drawl, Hooker manages a touch of Boston brogue, has a handsome wife who expects to have a baby, Kennedy-style, around the August primary.

Hooker's opponent for the Democratic nomination is Buford Ellington, 58, who resigned in January as President Johnson's Office of Emergency Planning chief. During an earlier term as Governor, Ellington backed Johnson for President at the 1960 Democratic Convention, and the two have often exchanged visits and swapped breeding bulls. In his political views, however, Hooker is closer to Johnson, supports medicare, a Tennessee state minimum wage law and repeal of 14(b)--none of which especially appeal to Ellington. Hooker last week accepted the Tennessee co-chairmanship of the National Lawyers Committee for the President, a group organized to act as liaison between the legal profession and the White House.

All four candidates deny any commitment to outsiders, while Kennedy, Johnson and Humphrey as vehemently discount involvement in either race. Kennedy plans to concentrate on New York, where he has been jousting for the spotlight with the state's senior Senator, Republican Jacob Javits. As for L.B.J., a White House aide says that "the President wouldn't get caught within 25 feet" of any of the candidates. Even so, both races will inevitably be interpreted as straws in the wind for 1968 and 1972.

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