The Ely miner., 1932-06-03
By G.. B. WOLLAN.

st. Paul, May 81, 1932-Three weeks
from today will be held primary elec-
ton that will go down in Minnesota
political history as certainly one of the
| biggest" if not the widest and a few
other superlatives that might be re-
sorted to by way of description. There's
never been one like it in the past and
probably never will again, due to the
knocking out of the reapportionment
act and the consequent nomination of
representatives in congress at large in
stead of by districts.
AS a consequence, it seems that the
voters are generally more keenly in
terested than usual, partly due to their
curiosity being piqued by the big array
of congressional candidates. The fact
that there are primary contests for
state offices in all three parties also
adds to the voter interest, despite the
fact that Truman Pierson, erstwhile
Republican, has withdrawn as candi-
date for the Farmer-Labor nomina-
ton for governor against Gov. Olosn.
Why he got into the race in the
first place has been a mystery to me
unless it was because he became peeved
when Tom Davis brought out Franklin
Ellsworth against Earle Brown for the
G. o. P. nomination.
Anyway, his withdrawal leaves Gov.
Olson the only gubernatorial candidate
without opposition at the primaries.
Not that he was at all worried about
Pierson, might perhaps have preferred
to have this bit of opposition, but there's
always some satisfaction to candidate
to be nominated "by acclamation," so
to speak. 1t looks good in the records
for future peruSal.
For the first time in many years the
three parties on June 20, are ex-
pected to poll relatively normal vote
that is, the voters will generally vote
their own party ballot and not jump
over into another party primary to mess
things up.
The congressional contests are
credited with bringing this expected
result about.
As consequence, the vote on June 20
ought to give fairly good idea as to
the actual relative strength of the
three parties and enable them to enter
the fall campaign with a better under
standing of the situation that has been
possible in recent campaigns.
A big field of candidates at the pri-
maries always brings out bigger vote.
For example, with six candidates for
governor in 1880 the Republicans cast
nearly 100000 votes while with only
two candidates in 1928 the total was
only 275,000.
Likewise, with primary contests for
both senator and governor in 1928 the
Farmer-Labor vote was nearly 100000
as compared with about 72,000 in 1890,
when Carl Taylor, an unknown, op-
posed Floyd Olson for the nomination
for governor, virtually no contest.
Indications are that the congressional
free-for-an this year will bring out the
biggest primary vote in the states his
tory. The Democratic "cat and dog"
fight between the regulars and the
jumpers is also going to bring out that
party's full vote on its own side of the
fence.
One old-time politician ventured the
prediction the other day that on June
20 the Republican vote will be between
100000 and 100000, while the Demo-
Gratis and Farmer-Laborites will poll
between 10000 and 100000 each. If
his top guess. should hold, it would
mean a total primary vote of 100000,
which seems to me somewhat too high
There might be some question, too, as to
the relative strength estimated by this
prognosticator, that is, whether he
hasn't placed the Republican figure a
little too high in comparison with the
other two parties. Past performances
at the primaries however, appear to
bear him out.
Guessing the names of the nine con-
gressional nominees of each of the
three parties is getting to be a favorite
indoor game these days.
I've seen quite a number of such
gueSses already. The strange thing
about them is that they are so varied