Revolution in Wisconsin

The state that sent the La Follettes to the U.S. Senate--and then sent Joe McCarthy--last week changed its political direction again. In a startling and significant upset, voters of Wisconsin elected Liberal Democrat Edward William Proxmire (see box) to complete the unexpired term of Neanderthal Republican McCarthy. Proxmire beat Eisenhower Republican and former six-year Governor Walter Jodok Kohler Jr. by an overwhelming 435,000 votes to 313,000. He swept 56 of the state's 71 counties, every single ward in the city of Milwaukee, ten out of 18 Milwaukee suburbs, and he got 56.5% of the total vote. He was the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate from Wisconsin since 1932 when F. Ryan Duffy made it.

In Wisconsin and in Washington, Republicans made no effort to disguise their shock. "There's no hiding the fact," said Dwight Eisenhower, via press secretary James C. Hagerty, "that we took a bad licking." Said Vice President Richard M. Nixon: "It was the old story of a united, vigorous minority party with a hard-fighting, resourceful candidate defeating a divided, bickering, over-confident majority." Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler called it "a smashing repudiation of the Eisenhower Administration and Modern Republicanism."

It was indeed a smashing blow, and it ended all Republican hopes that, by the election of Kohler and the death of one or another of several aging Democrats, they might get control of the Senate before the 1958 elections. It also made the G.O.P. election prospects look steeper.

What had happened? How had Bill Proxmire, resident of Wisconsin for less than a decade, beaten the man who had handily defeated him in two races for governor? An analysis of the campaign and the results gave the answers:

P: Reason No. 1 was a rocking farm revolt that, in 16 predominantly farming counties, cut Republican strength 14% below the Kohler vote against Proxmire for governor in 1954. In dairy-rich Richland County, dogged Candidate Proxmire increased his percentage of the vote from 23% in 1952 to 40% in 1954 to 50% last week--to carry the county by 90 votes. The Wisconsin State Journal's farm editor reported that farmers were for Proxmire because their costs are up and their prices down and because the Democrats were promising more relief.

P:Reason No. 2 was a smaller city revolt --small businessmen angry about tight money; housewives disturbed about higher food prices and inflation--expressed in terms of time for a change. Proxmire increased his vote over 1954 in Milwaukee County by 7%, breached G.O.P. strongholds in the suburbs. Smallest Democrat gains: in Milwaukee's two predominantly Negro wards.

P:Reason No. 3 was that tens of thousands of McCarthy-style Republicans, licking their wounds after Ikeman Kohler beat the right-wingers in the recent, seven-man Republican primary (TIME, Aug. 12), simply chose not to vote. In Outagamie County, Joe McCarthy's county, Proxmire got 35% of the vote in 1954, 25% in 1956, almost 50% last week. A bright Democratic-Farmer-Labor machine, amply financed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, supported by such visiting stars as Massachusetts' Senator John Kennedy and the farmers' friend Estes Kefauver, put on a vigorous doorbell-ringing drive and got out the Democratic vote.

P:Reason No. 4 was that Kohler rested upon his good record as governor and upon Eisenhower's thread-thin coattails. Proxmire shook hands--a million by his own smiling summary--and hit hard at his issues in such vote-catching phrases as "big-business price fixing . . . big steel, big oil, big food . . . big processors hammering down the farmers' income."

As his lead was piling up on election night, Senator-elect Proxmire, already packing his bag, telephoned Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, who was celebrating his 49th birthday, and made a statement that no Democrat or Republican in Washington would challenge. "Senator Johnson." he said, "I've got the biggest birthday present of 'em all for you: me."

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