Governors: In & Out

The scramble for control of 30 statehouses ended with an almost even split between the two parties (including the Democrats' gubernatorial victory in Maine in September). In some states, the out come was baffling enough to send a stream of crystal balls hurtling into the political junkpile--there to be joined by many a bewildered seer. Items:

P: In West Virginia, 34-year-old Republican Cecil Underwood, onetime teacher of biology and now vice president of Salem (W. Va.) College, upset favored Democrat Robert Mollohan. Underwood, a six-term member of the state house of delegates, campaigned hard and sharp against the statehouse machine, the so-called "flower fund" to which state employees allegedly had to contribute 2% of their salaries, and the state road commission, which, he claimed, made "more millionaires of equipment dealers than it has good roads."

P: Rhode Island's three-term Democratic Governor Dennis J. Roberts was surprisingly edged out by Christopher Del Sesto, 49, an Italian-American in a state where voters of Italian descent pack a ballot-box wallop. It was a conditional victory, since Del Sesto, himself a former Democrat and a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, won by a meager 190 votes when the voting-machine score was added up. Still to be counted: 11,000 absentee ballots.

P: In Kansas, a dizzy seesaw battle came to a Democratic victory for Lawrence Banker George Docking, 52, over Topeka Republican Warren W. Shaw, 48, who failed to overcome two severe handicaps: 1) G.O.P. factionalism, and 2) charges that, as Shawnee County chairman, he had received kickbacks on gasoline sales to the state.

P: In a drab campaign, Massachusetts former Democratic Congressman Foster Furcolo, 45, dramatically withstood the Eisenhower landslide, buried a Christian Herter-Eisenhower Republican, Lieutenant Governor Sumner G. Whittier, under a thumping plurality. Furcolo's chief campaign asset: energetic support from popular U.S. Senator Jack Kennedy.

P: Michigan's bow-tied. New-Dealing Governor G. Mennen ("Soapy") Williams won a fifth term after a seemingly easygoing--hut decidedly breathless--campaign against his toughest competition ever: Detroit's capable Republican Mayor Albert E. Cobo, 63. Soapy benefited mightily from Michigan's split-ticket voters was even strong upstate, far from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. machines in the big cities.

P: Iowa's farmers and small townsmen took out their troubles on their Republican Governor Leo Hoegh (TIME, Oct. 22 ), turned the statehouse over to the first Democrat since 1936, Herschel Loveless. Said Hoegh: "This election has been good for Eisenhower, but it has been tough on some of us Ike originals."

P: In Colorado, Democratic Lieutenant Governor Stephen McNichols, 41, a successful lawyer and uranium millionaire, safely beat out Don Brotzman, a young (34) state senator and husky handshaker who was counting on--but never could catch--Ike's coattails.

P: Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General Vernon W. Thomson, 51, had been waiting three long terms for right-wing Governor Walter Kohler to step down, got his chance to run this time, whipped Yaleman ('38) E. (for Edward) William Proxmire, 40.

P: Ohio's pudgy, popular Mike Di Salle, ex-Mayor of Toledo and sometime price-control boss of the Truman Administration, was not popular enough, lost out to Republican C. (for nothing) William O'Neill, 48, a thoroughly experienced little ( 5 ft. 5 in.) Army veteran who served six consecutive terms in the state legislature, three terms as attorney general, if In Democratic-inclined (but pro-Ike) Minnesota, Governor Orville Freeman, 38, an ex-marine with a reputation for being a homey family man (toasted marshmallows in the fireplace) and the administrator of a trouble-free office, knocked off Ancher Nelsen, onetime Rural Electrification Administrator, ardent Ike-man and former lieutenant governor.

P: In New Mexico, Democratic Incumbent John F. Simms Jr., 39, gave up his seat to Edwin L. Mechem. 44, who had served two previous terms as governor (1950-54). Simms' weakness: no support from his powerful old political enemy Senator Dennis Chavez. Mechem's strength: a well-known name, a well-organized Republican caravan.

P: Illinois' Republican Governor Billy Stratton, carrying the deadly weight of the embezzlement scandal in the state auditor's office, got boxed into a corner throughout most of the hours of vote-counting, barely brushed through on late downstate returns to win over Chicago Judge Richard Austin.

P: Democratic State Senator Al ("The Rose") Rosellini, 46, an ambitious and compulsively affable Washingtonian, who handed out artificial roses during his campaign, came out of his fight smelling like one. He defeated aging (66) Lieutenant Governor Emmett Anderson, who was the choice of Governor Art Langlie.

P: In Montana, conscientious Republican Governor J. (for John) Hugo Aronson vanquished Montana's attorney general, Democrat Arnold Olsen, 39, who spent the campaign flogging the state's three standard whipping boys--Anaconda Mining Co., light and power companies, oilmen.

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