Odd Man In

On the platform of Hartford's Bushnell Memorial Hall during the 1958 Connecticut Democratic convention, State Chairman John Bailey snapped over his shoulder to an aide: "Get Kowalski." The aide turned to a man standing alongside him.

"Get Kowalski," he ordered. "John wants him." Replied the bystander plaintively: "But I am Kowalski." A few minutes later Frank Kowalski, with Bailey's blessing, was nominated for Congressman at large. And by last week almost everyone in Connecticut knew who he was--although Bailey, for one, wishes he did not. For Kowalski is stubbornly contesting the U.S. Senate nomination of Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Abraham Ribicoff, and in so doing he is giving both Ribicoff and Bailey plenty of headaches.

Unmistakably Polish. Kowalski, now 54, is an unusual fellow. The son of an immigrant ironworker, he was born in Meriden, quit high school after two years to join the Army as a private. Two of his teachers, impressed by his great flair for mathematics, talked him into taking competitive exams for West Point. He won appointment, graduated 68th in the 260-man class of 1930, later did graduate work at M.I.T. and Columbia. He served in Europe during World War II, after V-E day helped direct the dismantling of Hitler's war machine, later served under MacArthur as military governor for Hiroshima.

By 1958 Kowalski, then a colonel, decided it was time to get out of the Army.

He was interested in politics, and a mutual friend introduced him to Bailey. As it happened, Bailey desperately needed someone to run for Congressman at large on the ticket with Ribicoff, who was seeking re-election as Governor. Kowalski seemed to fit the bill: he had a good record, no political enemies, and an unmistakably Polish name to appeal to the heavy concentration of Poles in Connecticut's industrial areas. Bailey forced Kowalski on the Democratic convention, and Kowalski won in November. In 1960 he was re-elected with 657,680 votes, the biggest total in state history; he ran 625 votes ahead of Jack Kennedy, topped Ribicoff's 1958 record by more than 50,000.

In the House, Kowalski has opposed U.S. atomic testing, criticized U.S. policy toward Castro's Cuba as unduly harsh, and championed organized labor (Jimmy Hoffa recently made a special trip to Connecticut to put the Teamsters' seal on Kowalski's candidacy). He also got ideas about the Senate, and while Ribicoff played cozy (he still has not formally announced, hopes to be drafted at the Democratic state convention next week), Kowalski went to work. His old sponsor, John Bailey, now also Democratic national chairman, has tried every sort of persuasion and pressure to get him out of the race, without success.

Bitter Battle. Kowalski is hardly likely to beat Ribicoff at the convention. But he may well get 20% of the delegate vote--enough by state law to force Ribicoff into a primary election. He is determined to do just that. And if he does, many Democrats fear, the ensuing bitterness may be enough to turn Connecticut over to the Republicans in November.

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