A Shaken Senator

A transplanted Yankee from Waterville, Me., Edward John Gurney was mayor of Winter Park, Fla., when he was elected to Congress in 1962. Six years later he became the first Republican Senator from Florida since Reconstruction. As the staunchest supporter of President Nixon throughout last summer's hearings of the Senate Watergate Committee, of which he was a member, the telegenic Senator earned national attention and conservative acclaim. Last week Gurney, 60, garnered a less lustrous distinction: he was the first U.S. Senator in 50 years to be indicted while in office by a federal grand jury.

For months two federal grand juries and a posse of Internal Revenue and other federal agents have been on the trail of a massive influence-peddling and extortion racket conducted in Gurney's behalf. Last week's indictment charges that Florida real estate developers and contractors who had business pending before the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development paid $233,160 into a secret slush fund from January 1971 through mid-1973. The money was used for Gurney's "personal, political and travel expenses" and for operating his offices in Washington and Florida.

In return Gurney and two of his aides, with the help of two local HUD officials, supposedly channeled mortgage insurance housing-project contracts to those kicking in. The indictment also charges that Gurney "corruptly solicited and accepted" a fifth-floor ocean-front apartment in a Vero Beach condominium in return for pressuring HUD to give the developer mortgage insurance.

Last spring a county grand jury indicted Gurney on a related misdemeanor charge; the indictment was later dismissed by a local judge as "fatally defective." But a federal grand jury got help when Larry E. Williams, a former Gurney aide, pleaded guilty to income tax evasion and agreed to testify against the Senator. The grand jury heard enough evidence to charge Gurney with seven felonies, including one count each of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., bribery and accepting unlawful compensation, and four counts of perjury. His two aides and the two helpful HUD officials were also indicted, as were two former officers of Florida's Republican Party--Earl M. Crittenden, onetime state G.O.P. chairman, and George Anderson, former state party treasurer. If convicted, Gurney faces up to 42 years in prison and fines of at least $80,000.

Too Trusting. Gurney denies the charges. Blaming Williams for illegal fund raising, Gurney says he was "careless and unobservant and too trusting." The day before the indictments were handed down, he mailed off his qualifying papers for September's primary, but he may well withdraw. His trial is not expected to begin--and will not be completed--before the primary.

Paula Hawkins, 47, the only woman on the state's public service commission, is being urged by fellow Republicans to file for the primary. Another probable candidate is Gurney's former law partner Louis Frey Jr., 40, now a Representative from Orlando. In largely Democratic Florida, any Republican will face a tough fight in November against the winner of the Democratic primary, for which nine candidates have filed. In any case, Gurney seems politically finished.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.