Playing It Cool

The skies seemed to be clearing for New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

After his abortive attempt to cop the Republican presidential nomination last year, many Republicans blamed Rocky for Dick Nixon's landslide loss of New York State in November. As far as the national party was concerned, Rockefeller stood under a large cloud of disapproval. But last winter he turned his back on national politics, retreated to his Albany fastness, and earnestly attempted to improve his record as Governor.

Green Stamps. There was room for improvement. In 1959 and 1960, his first two years as Governor, Rockefeller had skylarked around the country with an acute case of presidential fever, had paid little attention to New York affairs and had incurred the hostility of many state Republican legislators, including State Senate G.O.P. Leader Walter Mahoney.

This year it was different. Rocky stuck to his guns in Albany, worked out a modus vivendi, if not a marriage, with Mahoney--and the G.O.P. majority quick-stepped behind his program. Happily fingering the more than 1,200 bills that the legislature had passed before adjourning, Rockefeller could see many green stamps that can presumably be turned in for votes next year when he runs for re-election as Governor. There was a juicy 10% state income tax rebate guaranteed to please nearly every voter. The first state law to end discrimination in some types of private housing had been passed. There were $33,700,000 in raises for state employees, not forgetting the legislators themselves, who will get salary and expense-account increases of $4,000 a year. There was a bill to subsidize and steam up the foundering commuter railroads. Most pleasing to Governor Rockefeller was the widespread program of aid to education: increasing state scholarships from 7,100 to 17,000, raising the maximum loans available to college students from $5,000 to $7,500, creating a consolidated University of the City of New York that will offer college educations to all eligible resident students.

Deep Freeze. Last week Rocky took off to fulfill a crowded itinerary of speech-making around the state. He had just one immediate political objective: winning his second gubernatorial term in 1962. Rockefeller was determined to stay aloof from any premature national skirmishes with Barry Goldwater or Dick Nixon. He prudently refused an invitation to share the stage with Nixon and Goldwater at a National Young Republican conference this summer--a rally where every hemidemisemiquaver of applause will be carefully measured.

There will, however, be glimpses of Rocky on the national proscenium from time to time--he will, for example, campaign for his friend, Jim Mitchell, in New Jersey next fall. But for the present, Rocky will play it cool. His gubernatorial prospects seem bright. The Democrats in New York are split in a savage intraparty fight, and no candidate of any note has appeared to challenge Rockefeller. If he can better his 1958 plurality of 573,000 votes, he will be sitting pretty for 1964. Says his good friend, New York Senator Kenneth Keating: "I don't know whether he will be a candidate for President or not. But if he wants to be one and if he wins re-election in New York by as much as he did in 1958, he'll be extremely difficult to stop."

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