Out of the Fight into the Fire

George A. Willmore is a helicopter pilot who has flown 400 assault operations in Viet Nam, has had his craft hit by gunfire 23 times, has twice been shot down and has collected the Bronze Star and eight oakleaf clusters for his Air Medal. Now Captain Willmore, 31, has become the first and only serviceman in the Vietnamese war to declare for public office in the U.S. Willmore is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congressman in Idaho's Second District, has already won the party's official endorsement. Last week he started home to prepare for the August primary. If he wins the primary--and he has only limited opposition--he will face freshman Republican Representative George Hansen, 35, who served 31 years in the Air Force.

Though a member of the armed forces cannot officially campaign, Willmore said last week at his 1st Cavalry Division (Airborne) post in An Khe: "I am already running." His wife and friends have been combing the district to drum up supporters, and Willmore plans to resign his captaincy if he wins the primary. A political science graduate of the University of Idaho who joined the Army five years ago, he then will cover the district's 42,104 square miles in a helicopter, is given a good chance of winning in what has become a swing area. He believes that the Viet Nam war will be "a major issue" in the November congressional elections, may criticize Hansen's generally muted support of U.S. Viet Nam policy. Says he: "I support Johnson's Viet Nam policy 100%."

Other political developments:

> Representative Howard ("Bo") Callaway, 39, who two years ago was elected Georgia's first Republican Congressman since Reconstruction, officially announced his candidacy for the governorship. A states' righter and segregationist of the George Wallace stripe, Callaway promised a "new Declaration of Independence" for Georgians, vowed to resist "the unwarranted onslaught of federal domination" of the state's affairs. With no opposition in his own party, Callaway is given at least an even chance against the disorganized Democrats (TIME, May 7), whose candidate in November will most likely be former Governor Ellis Arnall, 59, an outspoken liberal and a moderate in race relations.

> Frank O'Connor, 56, New York City Council president, became the fourth Democrat to seek his party's blessing to oppose Governor Nelson Rockefeller's bid for a third term in November. An unofficial favorite for the nomination last winter, O'Connor has since lost ground but still has strong organization support. His chances for the nomination, like those of the other three Democrats (Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Industrialist Howard Samuels, County Official Eugene Nickerson), depend heavily on Senator Robert Kennedy, whose muscle in the party power structure is now such that he can pick the candidate at the September nominating convention. Though ostensibly neutral, Kennedy has contributed funds to Roosevelt's campaign, is believed to favor either Roosevelt or Nickerson.

J.F.K. Aide Kenneth O'Donnell, 42, who failed to win official Democratic endorsement for Massachusetts' Governor last month, announced that he has collected 30,000 to 40,000 signatures --well over the 10,000 needed--to put his name on the September primary ballot alongside the convention's nominee, former State Attorney General Edward McCormack, 42. To charge his candidacy still further with the Kennedy aura, O'Donnell named as his campaign manager Benjamin Smith, 50, the late President's Harvard roommate and his choice to fill his unexpired Senate term after the 1960 election.

-- Minnesota's Governor Karl Rolvaag, 52, whose bid for a second-term nomination was rejected by the convention of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Par ty last month (TIME, July 1), announced that he will try to reverse the convention's decision in the September primary. Rolvaag will seek to win the sympathy of the voters with the claim that he was dumped by a "small political clique" working for the convention's more glamorous choice, Lieut. Governor A. M. Keith, 37.

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