Big Labor, Big Assist

The Democrats, who received less than fervent cooperation from Big Labor in the 1966 elections, owed last week's big-city victories in some degree to the union vote. Whatever the reasons--unprecedented wage levels, blue-collar support for the war, or resentment of Republican cutbacks in spending for the cities--labor voted with a cohesion unsurpassed since the Kennedy-Nixon, election of 1960. Key fronts:

Baltimore: Double Exposure Baltimore's mayoral race ended not in a photo finish but a double exposure. Democrat Thomas D'Alesandro III, 38, a five-year president of the city council, succeeded to the mayor's office that his father, Tommy D'Alesandro Jr., had occupied from 1947 to 1959. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5 to 1, young D'Alesandro defeated G.O.P. Moderate Arthur W. Sherwood, 138,938 to 28,528.

Actually, the election was more like a ritual slaughter. Outgoing Mayor Theodore McKeldin, a former Maryland Governor and another moderate Republican, made a last-minute decision last spring not to seek re-election--likely because he saw he would lose. Lawyer Sherwood stepped into the breach, then quarreled with McKeldin during the campaign. Backed by the Baltimore Council of A.F.L.-C.l.O. Unions, D'Alesandro rolled easily into his father's office and, behind him, the Democrats won every elective municipal post.

San Francisco: No to P San Franciscans seemed most concerned with an issue without a candidate or any direct bearing on their city. Called Proposition P, it asked: "Shall it be the policy of the people of San Francisco that there be an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of U.S. troops from Viet Nam so that the Vietnamese people can settle their own problems?" The proposition was defeated by a vote of 136,516 (63%) to 78,806 (37%)--and a new Gallup poll shows that, nationwide, Americans are split on the issue by roughly the same ratio. Still, the fact that more than a third of the voters supported a more or less instant-withdrawal position suggests that a more carefully phrased or more moderate de-escalating proposition might have carried.

Though efforts were made in several cities this year to get Viet Nam on the ballot, only in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass.,* were they successful. The controversial proposition was supported by jalopy cavaleades featuring psychedelic paint jobs and antiwar posters, in newspaper and radio ads and at numerous Proposition P parties.

Among its opponents: Attorney-Businessman Joseph Alioto, 51, a self-made millionaire, who handily won the city's mayoral race with 109,982 votes over Attorney-Restaurant Owner Harold Dobbs (94,089). A moderate Democrat and political newcomer who had the support of both Big Labor and retiring Mayor Jack Shelley, Alioto promised that his first action would be to reduce the tax burden on homeowners.

Philadelphia: The Crusher A lackluster machine politician before the 1967 campaign began, Philadelphia's Mayor James Tate had both luck and organized labor on his side when election day rolled around. By chance, he had been in Tel Aviv during the six-day Arab-Israeli war last June; later he appeared in Rome when Philadelphia's Archbishop John Joseph Krol was installed as cardinal, thereby gaining overnight a statesmanlike image. At home, Big Jim threw his wholehearted support behind Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo's tough antiriot policies, thus winning the support of Philadelphia's working-class Italian population. Since the city suffered no riots last summer, Tate also kept a grip on the predominantly Democratic Negro voting bloc, 226,000 strong. Many of Philly's Negroes are city employees who appreciate Tate's generous salary boosts and pensions.

Republican Candidate Arlen Specter, 37, district attorney and onetime liberal Democrat, ran a cautious campaign. Heeding Pollster E. John Bucci, who gave him a 2-to-1 edge at the outset of the campaign, he fought a defensive battle to keep Tate from eroding that margin. Specter, who is Jewish, refused to take a stand on a bill that would divert $26 million in state cigarette taxes to Catholic schools, and Tate--tirelessly proclaiming his card-carrying membership in the city's 400,000-strong Catholic voting bloc--blew sanctified smoke rings around him.

Organized labor provided the crusher. Armed with some $200,000 from the A.F.L.-C.l.O., the mayor's machine turned out the workingman's vote in automated order. Workers thus repaid Tate's past deference to Philadelphia's big maritime unions (he recently rejected a bill to expand docking facilities to Camden, N.J., and Chester, Pa.) and his approval of a $40 million wage-and-retirement bill. Tate won, 350,040 to 339,148.

* The Cambridge vote will not be counted until after Nov. 28, when all absentee ballots are due.

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