Firecrackers Popping

Firecrackers popped last week in the heat generated by the bad Republican showing in California's popularity-poll primaries (TIME, June 16). Items: P: Republican Gubernatorial Candidate William F. Knowland announced that he would give his "wholehearted and loyal support" to the state Republican ticket in the November elections. P: Virtually every G.O.P. candidate--including Senatorial Candidate Goodwin J. Knight, the incumbent Governor--indicated polite but firm refusal to accept Big Bill's kindness. They prefer going it alone, since they think that Knowland's unpopular right-to-work program is hurting party chances, and furthermore, that Nominee Knowland cannot beat Democratic Nominee Pat Brown, who led him by 606,000 votes in the cross-filed primary votes. Cf Los Angeles Lawyer Ed Shattuck, Knowland's campaign manager and Republican national committeeman, quit the Knowland campaign. Shattuck was criticized because he ran an ineffectual organization and, as a committeeman, should have been representing the whole party instead of one candidate--but mostly because his candidate did so badly. P: Lest fidgety Republican campaign contributors ditch Knowland as a lost cause, Vice President Richard M. Nixon passed the word that he would help raise money at G.O.P. fund-raising dinners only on the promise that all the money collected would go into a united Republican campaign kitty.

At week's end hapless Bill Knowland flew into San Jose for a two-day meeting with 200 campaign workers, rolled up his sleeves for a detailed rehash of past failures and a grim, fight-to-the-finish discussion aimed at reorganizing scattered elements into a new working team.

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