Eye for an Aye

Arkansas' Democratic Representative Dale Alford is an ophthalmologist--and he knows how to interpret political eye-charts. Alford's Fifth District and Democrat Wilbur Mills's neighboring Second have been merged by congressional redistricting; running against Mills, a twelve-term veteran and chairman of the key House Ways and Means Committee, Alford's rating would be about 20/200. Until a few weeks ago, Alford showed signs of trying instead for Foreign Relations Chairman J. William Fulbright's Senate seat. But after Fulbright returned to Arkansas last fall and hit the hustings in preparation for 1962, Alford's chances seemed about 20/100. Last week Alford took a long look in another direction. He announced that he would run for Governor --a move that might bring him eye to eye with Governor Orval Faubus.

Segregationist Alford was elected to Congress in 1958 with the hefty help of Segregationist Faubus. Angry at moderate Democratic Representative Brooks Hays for opposing him in the 1957 Little Rock school crisis, Faubus put up Alford--a political amateur--as a general election write-in candidate against Hays. The Governor assigned a crony to be Alford's campaign manager, staged a furious eight-day campaign. With segregation fever white-hot in Little Rock, Alford narrowly upset Hays. In Washington he distinguished himself only by compiling the poorest voting record in the Arkansas delegation (he turned up for 78% of the roll-call votes in the last session, compared with Wilbur Mills's 99%). Back home he saw less and less of Orval Faubus. A year and a half ago, when Alford ran success fully for a second term on his same segregation platform, a Faubus lieutenant backed his opponent.

Inevitably Alford's announcement for Governor, coming four months before such notices are legally due and traditionally given in Arkansas, turned all eyes on Orval Faubus. Rumors spread that Faubus would retire after a record-smashing four terms as Governor or would run for Congress from his own Third District. In fact, Faubus had not yet made up his mind what to do, but the chances were strong that, with the challenge thrown down by Dale Alford, he would run again for Governor.

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