Inching Up

Despite fast-paced campaigning, which has kept him at the head of the Democratic pack, Massachusetts' Jack Kennedy is losing ground in the pollsters' estimate of the race that counts: the presidential sweepstakes. Vice President Nixon has run ahead of Kennedy since July (TIME, Nov. 30), and last week's Gallup polls showed Republican Hopeful Nelson Rockefeller still far behind but inching up:

July September November

Kennedy 63% 57% 55%

Rockefeller 37% 43% 45%

Kennedy was running 55 to 45 ahead of Rockefeller in the East and Midwest, and led comfortably, 59 to 41, in the traditionally Democratic South. But in the Far West, scene of Candidate Rockefeller's recent coming-out foray, the race was a 50-50 tossup. While Democrat Kennedy was attracting a few more Republicans (21%) than Republican Rockefeller was luring Democrats (18%), they were close together in their appeal to independents: Nelson Rockefeller 49%, Jack Kennedy 51%.

Among "hundreds" of voters in heavily Democratic New York City, Pollster Sam Lubell last week discerned a split between Kennedy and Stevenson supporters. One Stevenson supporter in five, reported Lubell, would cross the party line to vote for Republican Rockefeller over Democrat Kennedy if that were the choice available. Kennedy followers, for their part, "almost invariably" picked Vice President Nixon as their second choice if they could not have their man.

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