Evening star., 1936-04-17
ILLINOIS RESULTS
!. PROVIDE RIDDLE
Size of Knox-Borah and
Roosevelt Vote May
Alter Strategy.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

If Illinois were a radically minded
State or if it had been sending to
Congress Republicans of the Norris or
LaEollette type instead of being re-
gar6ed for generations as stronghold
of Republican conservatism, the pri-
mary election this week would not be
the occasion for more than passing
comment.
But the Illinois results. while favor
able to the Knox candidacy, revealed
strong Borah trend down State. This
by itself would not be indicative Of
anything more than the usual con-
servative and radical split in the Re-
publican Party in Western States. The
riddle of the Illinois primary. however,
is what was in the minds of the
100000 Republican voters who par
ticipated in the gubernatorial primary.
but who refrained from voting in the
Borah-Knox contest.
THUS the combined Borah and
Knox vote was about 729,000 with
most of the districts accounted for by
Friday. This means that nearly 100000
Republicans we're sufficiently inter-
ested in the gubernatorial primary
but did not take enough interest
to choose as between Knox and Borah.
Conversely in the Democratic pri-
mary, Mr. Roosevelt, who was unop-
posed, got about 1892 900 votes, where
as the Democratic guhernatorial race
attracted 1,348,000 votes.
s, Maybe Others Preferred.
Seemingly Mr.. Roosevelt received
100000 votes more than the Knox
Borah totals. This need not be con-
strued as meaning that no Republican
other than Messrs. Borah or Knox
would have received the full Repub-
hean vote. 1t could be argued that
more than 100000 Republican voters
did not care for either the Borah or
Knox candidacy, but did care for Gov.
Landon or Senator Vandenberg or
some other Republican.
The larger significance, of course, is
that the Democratic gubernatorial
candidates had larger vote than the
Republicans, though the latter realS
had no such bitter contest as was
staged in the Democratic primary.
Mr.. Roosevelt's complimentary vote
may have been related to the fact that
the voter ordinarily in party primary
does have to consider all the names
on the ballot irrespective of whether
there is a contest. The fact that Mr..
Roosevelt did poll not many votes less
than the two gubernatorial candidates
must mean that he is stronger than
the State ticket. For if the result of
the Bundeson- -Horner contest for Gov
ernor is to drive away some Democratic
votes from Gov. Horner, the fact re-
mains that partisans of both candi-
dates voted almost unanimously for
Mr.. Roosevelt.
Situation May Change.
In other words, the Roosevelt
strength in Illinois-for many years a
staunch Republican State-is phe-
uamenal for a primary showing. The
Republican point of view here, how
ever, is that when presidential nomi-
nee Is chosen there will be much more
concentrated opposition to the Roose-
velt policies than has been manifested
thus far. 1t cannot be overlooked,
however, that both Senator Borah
and Col. Knox have been campaign
ing against the New Deal and it would
seem logical that the effect of their
argument would be to draw converts to
their side.
%. %. The failure of the combined Knox
Borah effort to pull bigger vote may
have some explanation in the way the
Illinois vote was handled by the big
organizations in Cook County, but
until some explanation OF convincing
character is offered, the Illinois pri-
mary would seem to indicate that
neither Col. Knox nor Senator Borah
has as yet hit upon formula for at
tracing votes and that may be Gov.
Laucon and Senator Vandenberg can
learn lesson from the negative cam
paiens that have been waged thus far
on national issues. Certainly Repub-
lican strategy will have to undergo
considerable revision if the Illinois pri-
maries are to be taken as the trend
In State normally counted as over
whehningly Republican, both for Gov
ernor and for the presidency.
(Copyright. 1850