Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1909-04-17
WONDER WHERE
BAIRD STANDS
State Leaders Specializing
on the Outcome of the
Feud in the Party.
NAME WAS ON LIST

Trenton, April 17:-There is much
speculation among state officials and
political leaders over the refusal of Gov
ernor Fort to rename David Baird for
the State Board of Assessors.
For the moment, at least, Governor
Fort holds the whip hand, after using
the imemnse power of his Office to out
wit the regular" overlords in their de-
termination to effect a reputation Of
the governor in the house on the ques-
tion of primary legislation.
Not even in the hey.dey of the "new
idea" movement, when Everett Colby
and Mark Pagan, with the brains of
George L. Record behind them, were
building pitfalls innumerable for the
regulars was the feeling so intense
between 4 the organization leaders and
their rivals in factional politics as is the
spirit of aninosity that today exists
between Governor Fort and the men
who two years ago accepted him as q
compromise candidate to pull their po-
litical chestnuts out of the FIRE.
Mr.. Baird g name was wiped off the
governors slate at the last moment as
a sequence to the attempt of the, regu-
lalr" in the house, in the waning hours
of the session, to thwart Mr.. Forts de-
termination to secure the enactment of
"a law providing for the extension of the
direct primary system to the election of
city and county committeeman. Whether
the governor will later on relent in his
bitter feeling towards Baird on account
of the attempted coup of the Irregular :"
overlords remains to be seen.
Many astute observers of political af-
fairs about the state house declare that
the governor acted ON the impulse of
the moment in changing his plans with
reference to Mr.. Baird, and that after
awhile he will argue himself into a state
Of mind which will bode only political
good fortune to the Camden leader.
Others declare that by not sending In
Mr.. Baird g nomination yesterday, the
governor has forecasted the ultimate alb
solute turn-down Of the man whom he
had several times acknowledged was re-
sponsible for his being elected governor
two years ago.
For the present, anyway, the situation
is decidedly Gin the air /" The COVER
nor is keeping his own counsel. He re-
peatedly refused yesterday to talk to
newspapermen about the subject. The
regular" bosses who engineered the
scheme to put the governor in the
hole" by ordering the house "regu-
lars'' to repudiate the promise to enact
the chief executives s pet primary re-
form measure, were equally reticent.
Fort Had Listed Baird's Name.
IT WAS an open secret about the state
house that Governor Fort had listed
Mr.. Baird e name among othe appoint
mentH he planned to hand in just before
the senate adjourned Preparing for
some contingency that might develop at
the last minute, in which he figured that
the power OF patronage would be an eff
fettlve leverage to his own advantage,
he kept back the distribution Of jobs
untl the last moment.
Then the sensational hght over the
primary legislation came on. The gov
ernor Immediately discovered that Mr..
Baird IS assemblymen were lined up with
those who were voting to repudiate his
pet measure. Realizing that it would
be useless to try to persuade the Cam
den assemblymen themselves to change
their position, the governor sent for
Frank Paterson, Baird's chief lieuten-
ant, who, in the absence of the latter,
was spending the night in the state
house watching things.
Mr.. Paterson spent some time in the
governors office while the house was
wrangling over the primary legislation.
The governor then and there bluntly
told Paterson that he expected the
Camden assemblymen to break away
from the other "regular'' recalcitrants,
and support him by casting their votes
to revive, and then pass the measure,
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