An Ironic Defeat

"I'll just head for my cabin at Lake Fork to do some fishing," said Governor Robert E. Smylie the morning after, "and chew on the grass, I guess." Bob Smylie, 51, had a lot to chew on. The dean of the nation's Governors, he had given Idaho twelve years of progressive Republican leadership that attracted industry, reorganized the state-parks system, streamlined the state government and, in the process, established himself as something of a national figure, particularly in his post as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Yet Idaho's Republican voters had just dumped him in the Republican gubernatorial primary, giving his nationally unknown opponent 61% of the vote and all but six of the state's 44 counties.

No Record. Despite Bob Smylie's fine record as Governor, he had quite a bit going against him this time around. Smylie had naturally gathered a lot of enemies in his three terms, but many, even among those who admired him, were reluctant to give him a fourth term that would have made his gubernatorial tenure the longest in U.S. history, surpassing the current record of 15 years set by Maryland's Albert C. Ritchie from 1920 through 1934. Smylie had also lost some popularity because of the recent passage of a 3% sales tax, the first such tax in Idaho since the 1930s. And he faced strong opposition from Idaho's well-entrenched conservatives, who resented his lackluster support of Barry Goldwater in 1964 and his leadership of the successful fight to dump Goldwaterite Dean Burch as national committee chairman and install moderate Ray Bliss in his place. Nor did his urging that the G.O.P. repudiate the John Birch Society go over well.

The conservatives, who in 1964 seized control of the state central committee that Smylie had dominated for ten years, picked State Senator Don W. Samuelson, 53, to oppose Smylie in the primary. Samuelson, a stolid, somewhat inarticulate politician who sells fire-fighting equipment and rock drills, campaigned principally on the notion that "the state government must be operated as a business," and promised to hire "a crew of certified public accountants" to make sure that it would be. It was not much, but, considering Smylie's new liabilities and the fact that he has recently become so preoccupied with national politics that he has neglected to tend to his own grass roots, it was enough for victory.

How to Campaign. The irony of Smylie's defeat by Samuelson--who in November will face Democrat Charles Herndon, an unprepossessing protege of North Idaho Democratic Boss Tom Boise--is that one of his duties as chairman of the Republican Governors is to advise other candidates about how to campaign and how to get grassroots support.

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