New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-10
A SUMMER CANDIDATE
AND HIS WINNING WAY

primaries without any official indorserner, 49, &
take his chances on primary day Or he ma
announce that his business will not nArr
MIN to accept nomination and that while -
thanks his friends for their interest in his h.
half, he must definitely decline TO permit tha
further use Of his name. Even il he does tba
latter, the experience has cost him noth,,os
done him no harm and informed the politics.
leaders that he is in a receptive mood .,a
may have to be rcckoned with in the fu+pre
On the other hand, if the district Chairman.
is convinced that Smith is worth while tsa
obtaining Of the nomination is easv a.
name will be presented at meeting Of t,o
Assembly district committee of his party an5
he will be Endorsed, for whatever the charm,o
says about such things is never disregarded-.
otherwise, he wouldn't be chairman. Thsr
when the time comes, Smith is aided in pit,
culating his primary petitions and obtaining
the necessary signatures, he becomes "the Hon
John Smith, our candidate" and if necessarv
the organization may even give him $50 O,
500 to help finance his campaign.
Up to this point Smith has been under M
expense at all. But he must have his primary
petitions printed and, after the campaign j.
fairly under way, he must buy tickets to noI;s
cal balls, pay for "card" in the program a.
every fair, entertainment and amateur thea,ri
cal production to be held before election tes,-
a box of ten-cent cigars in his Office desk and
order Autographs and a few newspaper cuts
made for billboard and other ADVERTISING II
ne doesn't own car he will also have to snend
something for taxicab hire in reaching tha
political meetings at which he will be called
upon to play small part as the campagn
progresses. But, unless he becomes a yery
liberal spender and is induced to make con-
tribution to his party's general campaon
fund, he ought to be able to keep his total
expenditures under $500.
The evolution Of plain John Smith into the
Hon. John Smith, our candidate for Assembly
has been dealt with at some length because
Smith represents the average type of small
politician in the making. Also, he is the typi
cal summer candidate. Once he has been
elected to the Assembly his political career is
more or less in his own hands Sometimes
there arise political contingencies beyond the
control Of the petty legislator, but usually
he can make or mar his own future AT the
end of a term or two in the State Legislature
he may retire to his own business wiser but
poorer man, or he may be on the road to the
Governorship. He may have legislated himself
into sinecure. He may have weared Of
holding public Office, although that occurs but
seldom; or he may have committed political
suicide.
The summer candidate who does not meet
with a cordial reception from his party's
leaders sometimes concludes that the organiza-
ton is wrong, and that steam roller methods
as they were applied to him, constitute
menace second only to anarchy. In that frame
of mind he will perhaps become an nsurgent
and thereby ruin his chances forever There
is no more pitiful spectacle, politically, than
the "out'' who wants to be "in' and doesn't
care how he gets there. John Smith, if he
sticks to it long enough can convince the
leaders Of his party, if he does his part, that
he is worth noticing. But, if he lets chagrin
or pique get the best of him, he is lost, and
the legislative halls will never resound to
the echoes of his soul-stirring phrases, nor
will even the Board of Alderman be graced
bv his presence. If John aspires to Office he
must be regular" above all else and the
great test of regularity is in playing in a
manner radically different than when he was
five or ten years old, the famous old game Of
follow the leader"