The Price Is Right

In New Mexico the cleavage between the Spanish-American descendants of the original Spanish settlers and the "Anglos," the newcomers from other states, was once so sharp that Democratic Senator Dennis Chavez was certain to be re-elected on his Spanish name alone. But since World War II, the huge inpouring of outsiders to man atomic-energy laboratories, air bases, rocket test stations and other defense installations and industries has greatly watered down the Spanish influence -so much so that six years ago fiery Major General Patrick Hurley, an Anglo, and a Republican to boot, missed defeating Chavez by only 5,000 votes.

Last December old (70) Dennis Chavez' stock had sunk so low that many a county Democratic chairman was looking for a bright new face to replace him. Supporters of former Democratic Governor John Simms Jr. blamed Chavez for Simms's 1956 defeat, distributed cards: "Give Dennis the Gate in '58." In his hour of grimmest need wily Dennis Chavez turned to an issue that many a Congressman before him has exploited, but never quite so blatantly.

Pointing out that he is the fifth U.S. Senator in seniority, Four-Termer Chavez (first appointed in 1935) argued that New Mexico had to send him to Washington again to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Public Works Committee and of the potent Military Appropriations Subcommittee. Latching on to the recession, Chavez let no week go by without a claim for some new highway, irrigation project or defense installation attributable to his efforts, linked the profits of New Mexico businessmen and the jobs of New Mexico workmen to his Senate politicking. Last week, as New Mexicans went to the polls to hold their primaries, Chavez let loose a final claim that New Mexico will get $261 million from the Defense Department in fiscal 1959,* twice the annual level when Chavez took over the Appropriations Subcommittee in 1955. "This increase," said Senator Chavez meaningfully, "didn't just happen."

Next morning New Mexico surveyed the results of Chavez' "I'll get it for you wholesale" campaign. Democratic primary votes for Chavez: 65,000; for Elzer S. ("Johnny") Walker, his Democratic opponent: 35,000. Along the way, Chavez' 1952 foe, Pat Hurley, decided not to run, leaving it virtually a certainty that the Republican nominee, Rancher Forrest Atchley of Clayton, will lose to Dennis Chavez in November.

* A claim also made with some justification by New Mexico's junior Senator, Harry Truman's onetime Agriculture Secretary Clinton Anderson, now ranking Senate member of the powerful Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.

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