Design for Daydreaming

The Republican Party's glamorous Governors R--Romney, Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller--bulk big in all talk about 1968. Along with their various assets, however, each of the three has a serious handicap or two: Romney ("hasn't fire," Mormon); Reagan ("too conservative," "too inexperienced"); Rockefeller (party regulars don't like him, divorce). But what if some Republican daydreamer tried to imagine a Republican Governor without blemish: intelligent, telegenic, energetic, young but experienced, "progressive" yet not too progressive. As a matter of fact, the Republicans have three of these too. They are Washington's Daniel Evans, 41, who won an upset victory in 1964; Rhode Island's John Chafee, 44, who captured his third term last November with a 63% majority despite a 3-to-l Democratic registration edge; and Colorado's John Love, 50, now in his second term. Evans, who promoted prosperity by luring new industries and tirelessly plugging the state's products, has managed to boost spending for education and welfare while economizing on administrative expenses. Chafee has steered through a Democratic legislature a dazzling assortment of programs to improve education, health, transit and recreation services. Love has supported increased school appropriations, approved a statewide fair-housing law and signed a major liberalization of abortion practices.

Big Say. But of course these three do have one unfortunate blemish: the modest population of their states. Despite their impressive records and obvious voter appeal at home, they have to work awfully hard for national attention--as do Oregon's Tom McCall and New Mexico's David Cargo, a pair of attractive Republican Governors elected last November.

What undoubtedly frustrates all the small-state Governors is the rise of California's Reagan. He took office at the same time as Cargo and McCall and now has a lifetime total of six months of governmental experience. Without any visible effort, he has become a major factor in 1968--conceivably the candidate, at the least a man with a big say at the convention.

California will command 86 delegates at next summer's Republican convention and 40 electoral votes. Washington will have 24 convention delegates and nine electoral votes; Colorado 18 and six; Rhode Island 14 and four. Such a disadvantage, says Chafee, "is hard to overcome."

Though not absolutely impossible.

Barry Goldwater of Arizona (five electoral votes) won a presidential nomination, and so did Alf Landon of Kansas (nine electoral votes in 1936). Goldwater, of course, had some special things going for him. He had been a Senator with a national platform, and for eleven years he used it to expound a distinctive philosophy that became totally identified with his name and appealed powerfully to the conservative wing of the G.O.P. His chairmanship of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee for six years gave him virtually unlimited access to the banquets and bankrolls of party members all over the country.

Aware of the value of a similar podium, both Love and Chafee last December coveted the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association. Rather than cut one another up in a tough campaign for the post, they compromised--giving it to Love this year, Chafee next year, so that both could harvest a few headlines.

Besides the shortage of delegates and electoral votes, small-staters suffer from other handicaps that do not afflict the Governors of New York, California and Michigan. With their modest personnel budgets, they cannot readily afford the large staffs necessary to put a politician in the spotlight and keep him there. There are fewer big moneymen in the back yard willing to finance political spadework, fewer political professionals available to give counsel and serve as delegate hunters.

Going East? Being realists, the likes of Evans, Love and Chafee rarely allow themselves to think in terms of a presidential nomination. Chafee, however, has been making some passes at the vice-presidential nomination, and both Evans and Love sound as if they might be willing. By supporting Midwesterner Romney for the top spot, Chafee presumably is hoping that Michigan's Governor will have to go East for a running mate, and that his gaze perhaps will fall on Rhode Island. But even where the vice-presidency is concerned, being from a small state can hurt. The man in the second spot is supposed to strengthen the ticket by assuring victory in his state, as Texan Lyndon Johnson did in 1960, and thus the bigger the state, the more statesmanlike the vice-presidential candidate.

Still, who knows? "One of the things you can say about Barry Goldwater," observes John Chafee, "is that he showed it can be done."

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