Lesser Lights

While the big spotlights focused on presidential candidates last week, lesser lights followed lesser lights in four state primaries:

Iowa. With no presidential delegates at stake, the leading contest was for the Senate seat occupied and defended by Republican Bourke Blakemore Hickenlooper, 59 ardent supporter of the Benson farm program. Hickenlooper won renomination by a two-to-one margin over Attorney General Dayton Countryman, 38, temperance and high price-support advocate. Hick's November opponent will be R. M. ("Spike"') Evans, 65, landowner, onetime AAA administrator under Henry Wallace and a high price-support man who defeated Jefferson Attorney Lumund Wilcox, 43, for the Democratic nomination. In contrast to the Republican vote (down 22,000 from 255,000 in 1954), the Democratic primary vote (110,000) was the largest in 16 years.

South Dakota. Highlight of the primary: a fight among Democrats for a nominee to oppose unchallenged Republican Senator Francis Case, 59. who won national headlines last February when he reported the bribe attempt that prompted

President Eisenhower to veto the natural-gas bill (TIME, Feb. 20). On the plea that South Dakota needs: 1) a farmer in the Senate, and 2) a return to high supports. Groton Farmer Ken Holum, 40, got the Democratic nomination over Mitchell Municipal Judge Merton Tice, 46, by an almost two-to-one vote. Republicans predicted (probably correctly) that Francis Case would be the winner.

Montana. Bitterest Democratic contest was for the gubernatorial nomination. The winner: Attorney General Arnold Olsen, 39, vigorous, controversial antagonist of Montana's oil. railroad and utility interests, who defeated ex-Governor (1948-53) John W. Bonner and looks forward to a hard fight with Republican Governor J. Hugo Aronson in November.

California. Not a single G.O.P. candidate for Congress won in the Democratic primary under the state's cross-filing system (although three Democrats won both nominations). In the Senate race, bland, middle-of-the-road Republican Thomas Kuchel (rhymes with treacle ), completing Richard Nixon's unexpired term, cross-filed for a second try: he polled 1,274,000 votes on the Republican ticket to win the nomination over cross-filing Democrat Sam W. Yorty, Los Angeles lawyer and ex-Congressman. On the Democratic ticket, State Senator Richard L. Richards, 39, free-swinging, liberal disciple of Representative James Roosevelt, polled 963,000 votes to overwhelm both Yorty (380,000) and Kuchel (592,000) and win the Democratic nomination.

What promises to be the most exotic congressional contest in the U.S. emerged from the primaries in Southern California's lush, richly irrigated Imperial and Coachella Valleys (29th Congressional District). Winner over a field of eight in the Republican primary: Jacqueline Cochran Odium, "about" 47, who rose from a shoeless orphan to become a famous aviatrix (first woman to fly through the sound barrier), wife of Financier Floyd Odium, wealthy in her own right (cosmetics manufacturer) and farmer (600 acres in dates, grapes, citrus). Jackie, with four full-time organizers, hedgehopped from town to town in her Lockheed Lodestar, made wide use of television, radio and newspaper advertising (its gist: "I'm for Americanism") to win the nomination. She will have fitting competition from her Democratic opponent, Dalip S. Saund, 56 (TIME, Jan. 9), who beat out five opponents for the nomination. Saund, born in Amritsar, India, went to the University of California in the 20's, got a Ph.D. in mathematics, decided to stay, became a U.S. citizen by grace of an easement of the 1924 immigration act. for which he fought, is now a U.S. district judge in Westmoreland and a fertilizer manufacturer. With only his family (wife, son. two daughters, a daughter-in-law and son-in-law) for an organization, Saund campaigned in a 1956 blue Buick sedan, made innumerable house calls, gave a barbecue each Sunday. His platform: election of an East Indian will help East-West relations. Said Candidate Saund: "There is a strong Democratic trend running in this district. I believe I can win."

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