Evening star., 1952-05-20
The Political Mill
The Political Mill
Kefuuver Off for Bottle
In California Campaign
6S Delegate Seots at Stoke;
Complete Slate Entered

6S Delegate Scots at Stoke;
Complete Slate Entered
By Gould Lincoln
Senator Kefauver. the tall Tennessean
who has bagged organization scalps with
singular ease In his campaign for the
Democratic presidential nomination, is
OH today to another battle, this time in
California. The stakes are large. Cali
fornia will have 68 delegate seats in the
Democratic National Convention. A
complete slate of delegate candidates
has been entered, pledged to Kefauver.
for the primary which will be held
June 3.
The Senator will spend q week in
California, campaigning up and down
the length of the State. There, as in
New Hampshire, Nebraska, Ohio and
other States, where delegates to the
national conventions are elected in pri-
maries, Senator Kefauver Is facing the
determined opposition of the organi-
zation. The organization slate is
pledged to Attorney General Pat Brown,
with Ed Pauley and other organization
leaders giving it support. It is to
Kefauver's advantage, however, that
the Democratic organization in Cali
fornia has for long time been more or
less shot to pieces, and factionally
divided.
Nobody With Him But People.
1t begins to look almost as though
the Tennessee Senator has nobody with
him but the people. Certainly the
party organization in State after State
has turned it's back on Senator
Kefauver. Partly this may be due to
the early enmity of President Truman
to the Kefauver candidacy. Partly it
is due to the feeling of the organiza-
tions that the Senator would be a diff
cult man to handle. He might start
a fire under any one of them at any
time-Just as he started fires painful to
some Democratic politicians when he
was chairman of the Senate Crime Com
mittee.
Long ago the politicians learned not
to write Senator Kefauver off in any
OF these tests of popular support. They
got their first rude shock when he de-
feated President Truman himself in the
New Hampshire primary last March.
Nor will they write him off in this Cali
fornia race. It's 10-to-1 bet that
Senator Kefauver is known by name
and reputation to far more California
voters than is Pat Brown, the favorite-
son candidate. The Kefauver opposition
will do its best to injure the Senator
when he votes to uphold the Presidents
veto of the oil tidelands bill. Neverthe-
less, Mr.. Kefauver will be no easy man
RI iv1 Nnli L..
come up with a majority of the Cali
fornia delegates. He has just made an
impressive showing in CaliforniA's neigh
Dor to the north, Oregon. where he ran
away with the presidential primary and
all the States delegates. There the
Kefauver opposition did Ns best to get
out big vote for Gov. Stevenson Of
Illinois, although Mr.. Stevenson has de-
clared himself unable to accept a nomi-
nation. Senator Kefauver's vote was
almost 10 times the size Of the Steven
son vote.
Will Have Big Pledged Vote.
Democratic National Convention meets.
Senator Kefauver will enter that assem-
bly, with larger number of pledged
votes than any of the other candidates.
There are. however. large number Of
unpledged. uninstructed delegates al
ready chosen. In addition, there will
be many favorite-son candidates, in
cluding Senator Humphrey Of Minnesota.
Gov. Williams of Michigan, Senator
Mcmahon of Connecticut. former Sena-
tor Bulkley Of Ohio, Gov. Dever Of
Massachusetts, and Averell Hartman Of
New York, all of whom will help to
divide the total vote of the convention.
President Truman himself, although he
is out of the race, has dozen or more
delegates pledged to him.
Senator Russell Of Georgia is expected
to 60 to the convention with the great
bulk of the delegates from the Southern
States in his grip. Nevertheless. Sen
ator Kefauver will have some support
from the South. including the whole
Tennessee delegation, half dozen from
Florida-and perhaps more-Some from
Alabama and from North Carolina.
Fast footwork in Florida since the pres
idential preference primary there May
has made it possible to get Mr.. Russell's
choices for delegates on the ballot for
delegates as pledged to Senator Russell.
Originally tIlcTc were % rtuSScu uclcs
gate candidates, and it looked as though
this large number would make it easy
for more Kefauver delegates to slip
through.
These organization Democrats do not
relish being mauled. They will do the
best they can to head off Senator Ke-
fauver when the national convention
meets in Chicago. They must. however.
find and center upon candidate or Mr..
Kefauver may run away with the nom.
ination. He may win anyway. The Ken
lucky Democrats are insisting now that
Vice President Barkley get into the
presidential race, and if he does. he
may be serious threat to the Ten
nesseean. Mr.. Barkley is both widely
known and greatly liked. Senator Ke-
fauvers other danger would be an effort.
if it is made, to draft Gov. Stevenson
of Illinois. Gov. Stevenson has never
said he would not accept nomination
if it came to him.