Evening star., 1960-08-28
BY HUGH A. MULLIGAN
Associated Press Writer

EtcoS WEIteI
BARRYTOWN, N. Y. - Gore
Vidal. a playwright in search of
a seat in Congress, is bored to
violence with people, particularly
reporters. who keep asking what
ever possessed him to run.
Mr.. Vidal is author of Broad
ways "The Best Man." superb
and not too subtle satire on big
time politicians who mayor may
not-resemble Adlai Stevenson,
Harry Truman and Richard Nixon.
He can't understand the general
amazement at his entering politics
after saying all those witty and
frequently nasty things about poll
ticians in his hit play.
In the presence Of Eleanor
Roosevelt and at a tea given in
his honor at her Hyde Park cot
tage. he personally threatened bod
lily harm to anyone making further
inquiries along these lines.
MY motives" he insisted with
menacing urbanity, must be per-
fectly self-evident by this time.
I have been campaigning steadily
since last November. I must want
to do it and must feel it worth
while in order to have gone about
it so strenuouSly. I may have once
looked upon this as a lark. but I
assure you I don't any more"
Mr.. Vidal, a handsome, 34-year-
old bachelor, is running as an In
dependent Democrat"-hiS phrase
in New York's 29th congress
sional district, rock-ribbed Re-
publican stronghold that embraces
five counties in the mid Hudson
River Valley. 1t is an area rich in
history, dairy farms, apple or
chards, monasteries, light indus
tries. and affiuent exurbaniteS like
Thomas E. Dewey. James Cagney,
Lowell Thomas and Mr.. Vidal
himself.
Hyde Park District
Geographically, if not emotion
ally. the district includes Hyde
Park, the ancestral seat Of the
Roosevelts. But it prides itself on
never having gone for Franklin D.
or any other Democratic preSi-
dental aspirant since 1860, when
the good burghers for some reason
rejected an upStart Republican
named Abraham Lincoln.
Mr.. Vidal's chances Of denying
the incumbent J. Ernest Wharton,
an upstate lawyer and dairy
farmer, a fifth term on the Repub-
lican side of the House are some
thing less than encouraging, but
he sees no reason for pessimism.
After all, Democrat did manage
to slip into Congress from the
district for term back in 1911.
To friends who ask why he
didn't take on Representative
John V. Lindsay in Manhattan's
silk stocking Republican district
where he maintains an apartment,
Mi. Vidal smiles his boyish smile
and cites Cores law: Never run
against a good man."
Good man, in this context, con-
notes bright, young articulate
liberal not so unlike himself as to
give voters real choice.
up here, Mr.. Vidal explains,
I'm running against a habit, not
an opponent, and habits can be
broken, even among these ardent
devoteeS of William Mckinley"
Toward that end he has for
almost year been dashing off in
all directions in a dust -streaked
station wagon to campaign in
areas so remote that they have
never seen a congressional candi-
date before, much less a Demo-
cratic one.
As q Compoiener
In rumpled suit, button-d down
collar and horn-rimmed glasses.
he has slipped buckets of tea milk
in dairy areas) with clubwomen,
chatted with farmers in COW pas
lures and laborers at their lathes,
doWned untold f1ocks of chickens