CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27496, 2 November 1954, Page 13

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION

Democrat Victory Predicted (NZ. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, October .Slit The fight for control of the United States Congress,,' today moved towards the election climax with political® forecasters favouring the Opposition .Democrats in spite® of President Eisenhower’s last-hour intervention on be-|i half of his hard-pressed Republicans. On polling day (November 2) the voters will determine | which party for the next two years will command majorities | in the Senate and the House of Representatives—now thinly | held by the Republicans. At issue are all 435 seats in the House and 37 of thej Senate’s 96 seats. House members are elected for two-year terms and Senate members for six years. Thus at least a third of the Senate, or 32 seats, comes up for election every two years. This year ! deaths and resignations have raised the Senate total to 37; seats under contest. The party division in Congress is so close now that the; Democrats need only to gain a few new seats in the Senate < and House to take over control.

In the Senate the Republicans hold 49 seats to the Democrats' 46, with one anti-Eisenhower Independent. The political composition in the House, allotting the four vacancies to the party representatives who occupied them, is 219 Republicans, 215 Democrats, and 1 Independent.

The Democrats are confident the voters will give the party a substantial margin in the House. A week ago they felt certain of a three-seat majority in the Senate, but the eleventh-hour. “get-out-the-vote” offensive by the Republicans, led personally by the President, has brought a note of caution into many Senate predictions. Of the 37 Senate seats under contest, 19 are regarded as safe, leaving the issue to the remaining 18, of which 10 are now held by Republicans and eight by Democrats. Control of the Senate is the prize in the election, which is a mid-term campaign not involving the Presidency. Mounting signs that it might be captured by the Democrats made Mr Eisenhower change his mind about staying aloof from the campaign. Advance polls, showed that the Democrats were making headway 'in crucial States with substantial industrial unemployment or falling farm incomes. Republicans Change Tactics The Republicans, in the early, stages of the fight, were emphasising peace and prosperity and the legislative record of the Republican-controlled Congress, suggested by the President. But when it became apparent that this platform was not arousing the requited voter enthusiasm, many politicians swung behind the campaign of the Vice-President (Mr Richard Nixon) and quickly exhumed charges of corruption and communism against the last Democratic regime. Although national attention Is focused on the Congressional fight, the election also involves governorships in 33 of the 48 States and thousands of local contests for 1 State legislatures, judgeships, and municipal offices, ranging from mayor to dog-catcher. Political analysts estimate that of the 98,000.000 Americans of voting age, only between 40,000,000 and 45.000.000 will go to the polls. About 62,000,000 voters cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential and Congressional elections which put Mr Eisenhower into the White House and gave the country a Republican-controlled Congress. A mid-term election always generates less interest than that fchown in a Presidential race. Mechanical Voting In casting their ballots, voters in most States will use a machine in a curtain-enclosed booth to record their preferences for Congressional as well as for various State and municipal offices. On this machine the Republican and Democrat candidates’ names and the offices they seek are set out iff lines under sepnr«<-*- levers. The voter merely pulls •' ' the lever over the name of the '.c-an candidate and the , machine registers the vote. The Republicans claimed today their “10 times 10” telephone camnaign “is sweeping the country,” while the Democrats said their doorbell ringing drive ‘ seems to be going fine.” Neither had specific figures to back up their claims to success for their last-minute special efforts to get out the voters. Mr Eisenhower set off the Republican telephone campaign on Saturday with calls to 10 “representative” citizens m nine States. The idea was that each would be asked to call 10 friends, each of whom would call 10 more, and so on, to urge the casting of ballots in the election.

In a prompt counter-move the Democratic Party’s national chairman (Mr Stephen ..litchell) urged Democrats to walk—not telephone—to their neighbours homes to promote a similar chain-reaction idea.