Purging Primaries

Of the 32 Senators up for re-election this year, 29 are Democrats. Of these 29 Democrats, nine are out of favor with Franklin Roosevelt, chiefly for opposing last year's Supreme Court bill. Nonconforming Democrats loudly accuse the President of planning to purge them from the Party. The Roosevelt reasoning is supposed to be that, since some Senate seats must probably be lost anyway, he would be wise to pick even losing nominees, in order to retain control of State machinery for the more important political year of 1540. Best evidence for this accusation was the primary in Iowa (see p. 16), but by last week there was considerably more evidence that other purging primaries were in prospect.

States where seven nonconformist Democrats now face New Deal opposition:

Maryland. Inheritor of the late Governor Ritchie's conservative mantle is dapper, jut-jawed Senator Millard Tydings. Sincerely New-Dealish, and distinguished in his own right by long public service, is rumpled, self-educated little Representative David J. Lewis, 69. Last week Mr. Lewis announced that he would fight Mr. Tydings for the Senate nomination. A former member of the Tariff Commission (1917-25), a "father" of the parcel-post service and of Social Security, David Lewis, called "The Little Giant" because he is just five feet high, has such prestige that he startled upright Senator Tydings into voting last week against the Hatch antipolitics amendment in the Lend-Spend Bill.

Georgia, Senator Walter Franklin George learned last week that the man chosen to combat him is eloquent Lawrence Sabyllia Camp, 39, who advocates 100% Rooseveltism. White House Secretary Marvin Mclntyre was reputed to have drafted Mr. Camp, who was his State's Democratic chairman, now is U. S. district attorney in Atlanta. Two other candidates, one of them wild-eyed Eugene Talmadge, former Governor, will help split Georgia's primary vote.

Missouri. Senator Bennett Champ Clark--with the backing of St. Louis. Boss Pendergast of Kansas City, and many a Republican--thought he had nothing to worry about. Two minor characters, one shouting for the New Deal, were not formidable. Last week, however, out stepped Joseph Thomas Davis, 56, a seasoned politician with a statewide following, one of Franklin Roosevelt's original rooters in 1932. Bennett Clark's position was still strong, but he waited uneasily to see what Franklin Roosevelt & Co. might do to help Mr. Davis.

Colorado. Senator Alva Blanchard Adams steered the President's Lend-Spend Bill through to victory (see p. 11) and partly atoned for his opposition to the Court Bill by voting, like Senator Tydings (see above), to permit WPA to play politics. Barking outside his doghouse is old Judge Benjamin Hilliard of the Colorado Supreme Court, who announced his candidacy after making the customary call at the White House.

Nevada. Judge Hilliard's wisecracking son Albert, a Reno attorney, has entered the race against silver-tipped Senator Pat McCarran. Stronger opposition will come from Dr. John Worden. State health officer, onetime Socialist, now 100% New Deal.

Indiana names its candidates in party conventions instead of primaries. The political beheading of Senator Frederick Van Nuys for turning against the New Deal was to be signalized this week by Governor M. Clifford Townsend at a Democratic rally at Bass Lake. The machine's obedient choice to succeed Mr. Van Nuys was to be Lieut. Governor Henry F. Schricker.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.