The Hungry Eye

With the help of his smooth-running national organization, Presidential Aspirant John Fitzgerald Kennedy keeps a hungry eye on every likely delegate to the Democratic National Convention, strikes the pose of a man picking up entire state delegations in a dead-sure grip. But last week Jack Kennedy settled for a half-loaf of delegates in California (81 votes) and a half-grip on Kansas (21 votes), while his hungry-eyed associates insisted that this was all he ever wanted.

Kennedy men had long hinted that Kennedy might enter California's June Democratic primary against Governor Edmund Brown, if "Pat" Brown did not give their candidate a huge helping of the 162 half-vote delegates picked for his favorite-son slate. They waved private polls indicating that Kennedy could defeat Brown right in front of his own Golden Gate. When Brown's state selection committee met last fortnight to make up a tentative list of delegates, Kennedy Aide Lawrence O'Brien took up a post at a nearby motel. In the final selection, about 25% of tue delegates seemed certain to be Kennedy's once released by Favorite Son

Brown, another 25% if the Kennedy bandwagon got rolling fast; Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington and Hubert Humphrey were reckoned at about 10% apiece, with no known support for Lyndon Johnson. After studying the results, Kennedy finally bowed out of the California primary last week--taking his half-loaf instead of stirring the wrath of California Democratic leaders, who want to avoid an expensive, party-splitting fight.

In Kansas, Kennedy forces claimed to have control of the delegation through one man: Governor George Docking. But Favorite Son Docking did nothing to squelch the recent upsurge of party sentiment for Senator Stuart Symington, whose Missouri support spills across the state line. In the 42-man delegation, guessed Governor Docking, Kennedy and Symington are running about even in a delegation that votes under a unit rule. Kennedyites explained that they had taken off the pressure so as not to hurt Governor Docking in his unprecedented campaign for a third term.

At week's end Docking made it clear that his Kansas delegation, like much of Pat Brown's California vote, would stay very iffy until the Wisconsin primary next April 5.* Said he: "If he wins there, he's going to be so far ahead they'll have a long way to go to catch up with him before the convention. If he doesn't, we're right back where we are now--we just won't know where."

* Last week Pollster George Gallup showed Kennedy catching up with Vice President Richard Nixon in a national poll, coming from behind in January (47% Kennedy, 53% Nixon) to an even fifty-fifty split.

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