Omens from Oregon

Under a burning sun last week, Oregon's shirtsleeved voters stood in long, slow-moving queues, waited hours for the chance to puzzle through a bewildering maze of primary ballots. Nearly 60% of the registered voters decided it was worth the effort--and in terms of nationally interesting results, it was. Oregon cleared the way for one of this year's roughest Senate election brawls, gave a significant lift to one Democratic presidential candidate, slammed down hard on another, handed a meaningful vote of confidence to Dwight Eisenhower and--for a surprise in the election--to Vice President Richard Nixon.

McKay over Hitchcock. In the Republican Senate primary, former Governor Douglas McKay, recently resigned as Eisenhower's Interior Secretary, won a comfortable 22,000-vote victory over Church Leader and former State Senator Philip Hitchcock. Victory after an unexpectedly hard campaign (TIME, May 14) gave McKay the right to face Democratic Senator Wayne Morse (stung by a 17% primary vote given a non-campaigning service-station operator named Woodrow Wilson Smith) in November. By pitting rough Doug McKay against articulate Wayne Morse, Oregon promised itself an exciting political season.

Adlai over Estes. Neither Adlai Stevenson nor Estes Kefauver had entered his name on the Democratic ballot in Oregon's presidential primary--but both campaigned for a write-in vote that would give the winner the 16-vote convention delegation. Kefauver returned to Oregon on the day before the primary for a whirlwind handshaking tour down the Willamette Valley. He was too late with too little: Stevenson had already covered more ground, drawn bigger crowds, and won more votes. For a write-in, Oregon's response was remarkable, with about 130,000 Democrats naming a candidate. Result: Stevenson, with about 80,000 votes, buried Kefauver 8 to 5.

Oregon was by all odds Stevenson's most impressive showing so far. It helped him recover some of the prestige he had lost through primary defeats in New Hampshire and Minnesota, gave his candidacy a psychological lift that should help him in the vital primaries in Florida (see below) and California.

Ike & Dick. On the Republican ballot Dwight Eisenhower got a whopping vote of nearly 200,000--far more than Stevenson and Kefauver combined. About 35,000 Republicans also took the trouble to write in Richard Nixon's name for Vice President, although there was no campaign for Nixon. Eisenhower's name was the only one on the presidential ballot for either party. But even with allowances made for that advantage, the primary indicated strong support in Oregon for Ike and Dick.

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