Slam-Bang in New York

New York's political campaign began suddenly and fiercely last week, the day after the nominating conventions. Tom Dewey, renominated for Governor by the G.O.P., came out swinging at the Democratic ticket, linking it with the red-rimmed American Labor Party and the C.I.O.'s Political Action Committee. Cried Prosecutor Tom: the A.L.P. is "dominated by the left-wing line of a foreign power." A slambang, right-v.-left battle was on, and both parties welcomed it.

At their cut-&-dried convention in Albany, the Democratic bosses brayed that their party holds the sole patent on liberalism. The delegates, most of whom went to Albany in a nervous chill of defeatism, were warmed by the appearance of Eleanor Roosevelt as keynoter, gave her an affectionate ovation, cheered her as she struck another campaign chord: the G.O.P. is the party of "backward conservatives."

There was never any doubt that tall, toothy Senator Jim Mead would be nominated for Governor and 68-year-old Herbert H. Lehman, ex-Governor and ex-director of UNRRA, for Senator. That had been settled long ago. The problems facing the bosses were 1) how to sew up A.L.P. support and 2) add at least one fresh face to the ticket.

So the bosses and Mrs. Roosevelt got together in a traditionally smoke-heavy private dining room of Albany's Hotel DeWitt Clinton the night before the convention. To satisfy the A.L.P. and P.A.C. they picked slender, sharp-faced Henry Epstein, onetime State Solicitor General and a member of P.A.C.'s national executive committee, for a 14-year State Court of Appeals judgeship. To add a bit of luster to the slate, they drafted Albany's 36-year-old Mayor Erastus Corning II, an ex-G.I. and Yaleman, for Lieutenant Governor.

"Rastus" Corning is a captive of Albany's notorious O'Connell machine, but the convention stage managers built a whoop-it-up show around him, paraded him, Jim Mead and dignified Herbert Lehman around the hall in red jeeps, got set to make a drive for the veterans' vote.

Down: Two Generals. Thirty-eight miles to the north, at the same time, in the decaying grandeur of Saratoga Springs' rambling Grand Union Hotel, Republican straw bosses went through their well-trained paces. But they had only one problem: who for Senator?

Tom Dewey's trial balloon for Lieut. General Hugh A. Drum had been punctured, largely by the Republican press, which pointed out that General Drum was old (67), virtually unknown, without experience, and had only registered as a Republican a year ago.

Soon the managers got word from Governor Tom in Albany. His man for the Senate now was 50-year-old Irving M. Ives, a veteran of World War I, majority leader of the State Assembly, dean of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Dewey's nod to Ives put a fatal chill on the boosters for Major General "Wild Bill" Donovan (TIME, Sept. 2). A respected legislator, with a good record on labor relations, Mr. Ives grasped his opportunity gratefully.

Politicians of both parties agreed that Jim Mead would have to put on a whale of a show, with help from Mr. Truman, to beat Dewey. They also agreed the Lehman-Ives race would be close.

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