Evening star., 1947-12-25
The Political Mil
California Party Lineup
Changed by PouIeyMove
Will Ease Way of James Roosevelt,
Democratic State Chairman

Will Ease Way of James Roosevelt,
Democratic State Chairman
By Gould Lincoln
The resignation of Edwin w. pauley as
Democratic national committeeman for Cali
fornia will have at least two important effects.
First, 1t will relieve the Democratic national
organization Of considerable embarrassment,
growing out OF the wide publicity given Mr..
Pauleys large tradings in the grain market
at a time when prices were being pushed
higher and higher and President Truman was
nveighing against the commodity market
gamblers Second, it will ease the way of
James Roosevelt, son of the late President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and chairman of the
Democratic State Committee of California.
Mr.. Roosevelt is ambitious to head UP the
Democratic Party in his adopted State
Further, he is suspected of having ambitions
for a vice presidential nomination next year.
to run with President Truman He and Mr..
Pauley have been at serious odds over party
matters for many months. The elimination of
Mr.. Pauley from the political picture, therefore,
should be gain for Mr.. Roosevelt. Unfor-
tunately for Mr.. Roosevelt, the campaign OF
l946-the first he managed as State CHAIR
man-resulted dsastrously for the Democrats.
There were many who sought to place the
blame on jimmy resulting in wide cleav-
ages in the party.
Among Disaffected.
Among the dsaffected was Bob" Kenny,
former attorney general, who was defeated in
the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial
nomination last year by Republican Gov.
Warren-an unprecedented thing. Mr.. Kenny
was unable to see Chairman Roosevelt as a
1pa6 hot A1cn
Rogers-son of the famous Will-who ran for
the Senate as the Democratic candidate and
was defeated by htor Knowland, Republic
can, split with M (osevelt. With Mr.. Pauley
another irrtaht, Chairman Roosevelts
position has been uncomfortable, to say the
least Mr.. Roosevelt has been seeking to frame
a Truman slate of delegates satisfactory to
the President-and also slate that will go
along with Mr.. Roosevelt.
Mr.. Kenny is prime mover in the effort,
first to get Wallace pledged delegation to the
coming Democratic National Convention, and
barring that, to have Mr.. Wallace head third
party ticket. Indeed, it is Mr.. Kenny who is the
main factor in the PEA. drive for a Wallace
for-President independent progressive party.
Mr. Kenny insists that Mr.. Wallace has a
strong following among the workers in Cali
fornia, and that he will run up big vote for
the former Vice President there.
Members of the Democratic high command
admit that California is troubled spot. Four
times Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to roll
up large ma ajoritieS there. But things have been
going badly for the party since his death. The
Republicans, with Gov. Warren as spearhead
have turned the State upside down. Recogniz-
ing that loss of the California electoral vote
might easily spell defeat for Mr.. Truman next
fu,o of tLa Yfxc%
are going to the State the latter part of jan
uary-Democratic National Chairman McGrath
and Gael Sullivan, the committees executive
director.
Need Well Rounded Slate.
Their principal task will be to get we'll
seasoned, well-rounded slate of Truman dele
gates. representative of both Northern and
Southern California and of all the factions If
they can accomplish this. and get all the Dem
ocratic factions into one big family again, they
won't leave much for Bob Kenny and his
Wallace supporters to work on. They will con-
suit with Chairman Roosevelt of course But,
what they want most of all is party harmony.
Some decision must be made too, on a new
national committeeman to succeed Mr. Pauley.
This is matter which the California Demo-
Gratis will, naturally, decide for themselves The
name Of Senator Downey, however, has been
mentioned as satisfactory to the various fac
tions. He was last elected to the Senate in
1914 and has three more years to serve of his
present term. Mr.. Downey has always been
prominent in the progressive wing of the party
The Democrats also have the Job of building
up President Truman in California His pres
tige and popularity in California had reached
new low in 1916 The CIO was "off him" in
the State and other labor organizations had
followed suit. It is on this dislike of Mr. Trr-
man that Mr.. Kenny is basing many of his
hopes for Henry Wallace, when the primaries
roll around next year. In the elections last
year, the Republicans won IA congressional dis
tricts and the Democrats only nine, while Gov
Warren romped into office and Republican
Senator Knowland was handily elected.