A New Way of Operating

Claude Kirk, 41, a Florida businessman and political tenderfoot, got himself elected last November as the state's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction. Last week, in a special legislative election necessitated by redistricting, Kirk led the G.O.P. to a position of power unprecedented anywhere in the modern South.

While the Democrats retained control of both houses, they lost the two-thirds margins needed to override a gubernatorial veto. The previous senate line-up favored the Democrats 37-11; the new ratio will be 28-20. In the Florida house, which was expanded by two seats, the balance shifted from 91-26 to 80-39.

The shift was all the more surprising in that Kirk has had little opportunity to build a positive public record--though he has certainly attracted plenty of attention. Upon being elected, he vanished on vacation, reappearing with an eye-popping blonde fiancee named Erika Mattfeld. They were married Feb. 18 under guard of state troopers armed with tommy guns. His most flamboyant gesture came in his oft-declared war on crime. Kirk recruited a big private-detective agency to spearhead his offensive, and although its accomplishments so far have been nil, Floridians can talk of little else--some officials have charged that their phones are being bugged and their footsteps dogged. Says Orange County Democratic Chairman William Turnbull: "Kirk captured the imagination of the people. He lives a little. He's attractive. It's a whole new way of operating."

But to dismiss Kirk as merely a swinger who got lucky may be underestimating the Governor. He has shown himself to be an effective political organizer. Immediately after his victory last November, he rudely shook Florida's somnolent Republican Party into wide-eyed activity. He installed an effective state chairman, began a successful fund-raising campaign, and provided his largely inexperienced slate of legislative candidates with local organizational support and professional opinion-sampling services. The polls reported that the voters were unhappy about crime, taxes and Lyndon Johnson; Republican candidates denounced all three in energetic unison. The Democrats, by contrast, were leaderless and spiritless.

On the eve of last week's election, Kirk declared: "We're going to clean out the old crowd and bring in a new crowd. It's bad from bottom to top, and

I want to start all over." He succeeded at least in providing the closest thing to a two-party state that the South has today. Now he must make it work in Tallahassee.

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