Taft v. Rhodes in Ohio

None of the principals involved will talk about it and the White House has taken a quietly apprehensive hands-off stand, but a deepening intraparty Republican squabble in Ohio could jeopardize Nixon's re-election chances in November. The trouble is the result of the bitter 1970 primary fight between Ohio Senator Robert Taft Jr. and Former Governor James Rhodes, and a series of G.O.P. financial scandals, all of which has left the party in a shambles. Now Taft is maneuvering to wrest power from the Rhodes-influenced Republican state central committee. He plans to run for the 46-member committee in hopes that growing dissatisfaction with Rhodes' leadership and Taft's own improved power position will enable him to break Rhodes' grip on the party. Since Ohio and its 25 electoral votes are a major election prize, Nixon's men are hoping that the fratricidal fight will be over and the wounds healed by November.

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