A Run for Their Money

As the elected head of the most populous state in the Union, the Governor of New York is traditionally a figure of considerable influence in national politics. Four men made the jump from Albany to the White House, while four other Governors were unsuccessful Presidential candidates. This fall, with a Senate seat also up for election, the campaign in the Empire State has once again assumed national prominence.

Senatorial nominations remained in doubt until the conventions themselves. Williams was the only avowed candidate for the Republican nomination, but he was ignored. After considerable pressure and a personal plea from President Eisenhower (with, the Democrats charge, the promise of a Federal job in case he lost), Representative Kenneth Keating of Rochester accepted the nomination.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, with too many candidates, were having their own problems. Jim Farley and state commerce commissioner Edward Dickinson were eliminated early. Carmine DeSapio, boss of Tammany Hall, supported New York City District Attorney Frank Hogan, while Harriman and Mayor Wagner held out for a "more liberal" man, either former Air Force Secretary Thomas Finletter or former AEC Commissioner Thomas Murray. In the ensuing power struggle, DeSapio won, with the aid of Buffalo Democratic leader Peter Crotty; Crotty was promptly rewarded with the nomination for Attorney General.

In the first few days after the convention, it appeared that DeSapio had won the battle, but might very well have lost the election. Keating and Rockefeller immediately assailed Hogan as the tool of Tammany; the liberal wing of the Democratic Party expressed resentment; the Liberal Party (whose 200,000 votes had been decisive in electing Harriman in 1954) endorsed Hogan only reluctantly and refused to support Crotty.

The attacks on Hogan were worn down, however, by a steady dose of facts. He was an effective and popular District Attorney, receiving the support of all parties in his campaign for the office; therefore, it was rather difficult for the Republicans suddenly to condemn him. These considerations would have made him a very strong candidate, had his nomination taken place under different circumstances.

The Republicans have dropped the Tammany issue, for they probably discovered that the ogre of Tammany Hall was a real menace only to convinced Republicans and that harping on the issue would just alienate independent voters. At the same time, they have failed to hit hard at Hogan's chief weakness as a Senatorial candidate--his inexperience in national affairs.

After the early excitement, the campaign rapidly settled down into a dull, listless affair, and it has remained so ever since. The candidates rarely seem to speak the same language. Hogan discusses crime and maintains his "liberalism;" Keating defends Eisenhower's Formosa policy and makes a pointless offer to investigate the Atlanta temple bombing (before a Jewish audience, of course). Harriman attacks the Eisenhower administration and accuses Rockefeller of "posing as a liberal;" Rockefeller says Harriman is "boss dominated" and claims he will "anticipate problems instead of waiting for them to occur."

The issue that has aroused the most heat is the question of what issues to discuss. Rockefeller wants to debate only state issues; Harriman calls this a new form of isolationism; so the candidates debate nothing. The one concrete issue that Rockefeller has raised is that of the so-called "economic drift" of the state under the Harriman administration. To this point Harriman has an apparently convincing answer: under Republican Dewey New York dropped from second to seventh in per-capita in come, but in the past three years the state has moved back up to third place.

New York City is heavily Democratic and the upstate area is largely Republican; the determining factor in any state election is the difference between the Democrats' city majority and the Republicans' upstate margin. The edge this year, the polls would indicate, belongs to the Democrats; Harriman has the additional advantage of being an incumbent, for New York likes to keep Governors for more than one term. Rockefeller and Keating need to wage a much more effective campaign than they have carried on to date if they hope to carry the state.