Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-11-12
is GOVERNOR
ELIGIBLE +?
Question Raised As to His Right
to be Considered a Gandi-
dale for Senator.

to bar out Stokes as a candidate at
this juncture, for 1t says:
Nor shall he (the gevernor) be
elected by the LEGISLATURE to any Office
under the government of this state,
or Of the United States. during the
term for which, he shall have been
elected governor"
Governor Stokes oath of office re-
quires him to support the constitu-
ton. asa
AS Stokes term as governor does
not expire until January, 1908, 1t is
claimed by some that Stokes is in
eligible to the United States senator
ship until after the close of his CUB
%ernatorial term. s'ci
On the other hand it is claimed
that there is no insurmountable bar
against the election of a governor as
United States senator, and that the
United States senate has on at least
one other occasion received into that
body as United States senator a gov
ernor who was elected in the face of
a prohibition of this kind. The Unit
ed States senate is judge of its own
elections, and if Stokes were elected
by joint ballot in Trenton it is quite
certain that he would be received as
a United States senate in Washing
ton.
This is the case because there is
nothing in the United States consti-
tuition to the contrary, and the senate
would not go behind the returns from
the state in such a case. but the one
consideration which might prove fa-
tai to the candidacy of Stokes is that
he stands not before the constitution
of the United States, but before the
constitution Of New Jersey, which he
swore to uphold when he was inauG-
urated. 1t is not within the POSSIBLE
tiles of politics that the executive OF
state would consent to the violation
of the constitution for his personal
advancement = Exceptionally great
powers are vested in the chief execu-
tive and it is tradition that this pro-
vision of the constitution 4 was put
there to prevent thesexercise of these
powers for personal advantage. II
is true that the constitution of New
Jersey does not control the United
States senate In passing upon the
eligibility of It's members, but it Is
assumed that it does control the leg
islature of New Jersey in its acts at
tending the election of a senator.
The result in Essex has upset all
calculations..sMr Dryden pis natur.
ally much disappointed over the re
t i'm of the eleven democratic assem-
blymen. Not the least. difficult fea'
ture OF the situation confronting thu
Dryden forces is the fact that the Es.
sex republican platform declared fol-
him, and the democrats are nov
claiming thattheir success means tht
peoples reputation of that plank as
well as the rest of the platform.
The democrats r not yet united
on a campaign for United States sen
ator. In Essex they are talking oil
President Woodrow Wilson, oil
Princeton university, who doesn'
want to be Considered "a candidate al
all. In Hudson the democrats arc
out for Colonel ID. A.sStevens for the
United States senatorship. Ex-Sen-
ator Jim" Smith hasn't been heard
from yet, but he is a Mighty factor
to be reckoned with; shnd II he made
up his mind he wanted to go back tc
Washington, and believed, after siz-
ing up the situation at Trenton, nc
could get away with It, he would be
heard from in no uIrnfistakable man
ner.
There is already Grover Cleveland
talk in many quarters. Democrats
claim that his recently into public
life would influence democratic party
affairs from n end of the land to
the other. They argue that it would
put the democratic party in a posi-
tion to carry this state for the presl-
dency in 1908, and that it's moral eff
feet on the party would go farther
than anything else to crush out the
remaining poison of Hearstism and
Organism. They say that a hot fight
over the senatorship at Trenton be-
tween several republican favorites
would never offer a chance to Stevens
or Smith or anyone else; that how
ever bitter republican feeling, II
might never result in the turning OF
republican votes to a democratic can
didate; but If Cleveland were the
man. in the face of a republican dead
lock, no one could safely predict that
his election was impossible.