U.S. ELECTIONS END OF A “WHACKY, WEIRD, AND TOPSY TURVY” CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31210, 7 November 1966, Page 16

U.S. ELECTIONS END OF A “WHACKY, WEIRD, AND TOPSY TURVY” CAMPAIGN

(By a special correspondent of the Sydney “Sun Herald” in New York) (Reprinted from the “Sun Herald” by arrangement! Millions of weary, “ear-bashed” Americans are eagerly waiting to flock to the polls on Tuesday (November 8) and get it over with. For if ever there was a “whacky, weird and topsy-turvy” election campaign this must be it.

Imagine, if you can, a con-tinent-wide 50-ring circus with a full complement of clowns, tricks, political animals and tons of popcorn, and you get a fair idea of what it has been like to be at the receiving end of democracy these last few weeks.

But before things got better (after Tuesday) they were bound to get worse as the raucous coast-to-coast travesty of a campaign rounded into the homestretch last week-end. Typical Recipe From California to Florida and from New York to Alabama, the polluted political winds blew with fierce intensity. Few Americans dared brave them by stepping outside their homes, and fewer still dared turn their television on. If they did either, they were likely to be served with the same tasteless “campaign cocktail” that varied only according to local colouring. Here is the typical recipe with which most office-seekers were by now adept. You can take a generous dose of eye-gouging cheap personal epithets and eye-catching expensive television commercials. Add as many timeless smears and odorous slogans as you like. Remove all serious national and international issues and above all forget “that war.” And for good measure spice with Hollywood’s greatest extravaganza that will leave behind a bonanza of life-long poison hatreds among the great lovers of the silver screen.

This is the panoramic nationwide picture of a campaign for the election of countless local offices ranging from county sheriff to dog catcher, more than 6800 State legislative posts, 35 State Governorships, 35 United State Senate seats and all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives. Since by tacit agreement the burning issues of the day are virtually taboo, the campaign is being waged on a personality level. There are catchy phrases and blaring bands, television makeup men and lighting engineers, and there are leggy playmate-type cheer leaders, scores of public relation specialists, and millions upon millions of dollars. These last two ingredients

are most evident in California, where the race for Governor in the most populous state has attracted nation-wide attention. Star of the show there is political newcomer and movie oldtimer Ronald Reagan. Stan-dard-bearer for the Goldwater wing of the Republican Party, he is running head of Democratic Governor, Pat Brown, himself backed by Senator Robert Kennedy. Reagan is the epitome of the “non-candidate.” As columnist Joseph Alsop described him this week, he “resembles a carefully designed, elaborately ‘customerised’ super-market package, complete with the glossiest wrappings and the slickest sort of eye appeal.” A local advertising firm, the columnist added, “has brilliantly provided everything that can make their package sell.”

The California battle is being fought with, among other things, automobile bumper stickers. Californians say Reagan stickers outnumber Brown stickers three to one. One of the least offensive reads “Drown Brown.” Governor Brown retaliates with the question, “Do you want a Governor or an actor?" And on a television commercial, he adds. “You know, an actor shot Abraham Lincoln." Both candidates, in a lastminute radio and television blitz last week-end, were pouring an additional one million dollars each for commercials. Rockefeller’s Millions Money is also apparently no object in New York, where that multi-multi-millionaire Republican Governor, Nelson Rockefeller, is running for his third four-year term—and with the support of most unionists. Rockefeller admits to spending four million dollars in this campaign. Practised politicians believe a more accurate figure is somewhere over ten million, including five million dollars for television and radio commercials alone. He has a staff of 500 managing his campaign. Opposing Mr Rockefeller is Frank O’Connor, the Democratic candidate, “a poor Irish Catholic boy from Queens,” backed by President Johnson and Senator Robert Kennedy and claiming he is running his campaign on “a shoestring.” Another candidate is Franklin D. Roosevelt, jun., son of the wartime Democratic president, who bolted his father’s

party to run under the Liberal party banner. There was no lack of contrasts in many other races. In Massachusetts, the first Negro to run for the United States Senate in over 100 years. Edward Brooke, a Republican, is likely to be defeated by Negroes because of the growing “white backlash" sentiment in the State. In Illinois, it is youth and sympathy versus age and experience. Millionaire Republican Charles H. Percy, 42. whose daughter was murdered last month, has the Kennedygeneration image. He is running against the “patriarch." 74 - year - old Senator Paul Douglas supported by Robert Kennedy and the Vice-Presi-dent, Mr Humphrey. Candidate’s Epithets In Maryland, a blackslapping building contractor and segregationalist. George Mahoney, is running as the Democratic candidate for Governor against a moderate Republican, S. T. Agnew. Mahoney refers to his opponent as “that big slob” and speaks of reporters as “nothing but scum.” He is likely to win. Another Rockefeller, Winthrop, is running for the Governorship of Arkansas under the Republican banner. The Democrats chose a strident racist, Jim Johnson, who has been rousing everybody against the Negro “menace.” Rockefeller campaign buttons simply proclaim “Win with Win." But Jim Johnson calls him a “jet-set cowboy” and “a prissy sissy” and describes him contemptuously as “integrationist.” Alabama is the only state where a man is running behind a woman. Lurleen Wallace, wife of Governor George Wallace, who cannot succeed himself, is herself running for the high office. She is expected to win by a good majority. Though the Wallaces are staunch segregationists, the irony is that Negro voters are expected to support Mrs Wallace rather than vote for the Goldwater Republican candidate, James Martin. George Wallace himself wants to run for the White House in 1968. Another State with no choice is Georgia. There the next Governor will be either Democrat Lester Maddox, a tub-thumping racist, or Republican Howard Callaway, also a segregationist Listen to Mr Maddox, (a former restaurant owner) campaigning: “We’ve had it with socialists, like Rockefeller, Johnson, Humpty-dumpty and Give - the - Commies - blood Bobby. We want God and Liberty.”