The Lamb Who Won

By any practical, predictive standard, New York Democrats could only hope to find a sacrificial lamb to run against Incumbent Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Yet during one of the bleat-ingest, bloodiest party conventions in the state's recent history, four lambs battled each other all the way to the altar. The one who made it: Robert M. Morgenthau, 43, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and son of Franklin Roosevelt's longtime Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr.

Morgenthau had been hand-picked for the nomination by the high priest of Democratic pollsters, Lou Harris, who conducted a survey purporting to prove that Morgenthau stood a better chance against Rockefeller than any other available Democrat (TIME, Sept. 7). President Kennedy approved of Morgenthau's candidacy. So did New York City's Mayor Robert Wagner.

A Bit of Embarrassment. But as the Democrats convened in Syracuse, it became painfully evident that Morgenthau still needed a large vote bloc to win the nomination on an early ballot. And the most swingable bloc belonged to U.S. Representative Charles Buckley, the boss of The Bronx. This was downright embarrassing : after all, Bob Wagner had won reelection in 1961 on his promise to oust all of New York City's borough bosses, and of these Buckley was the sole survivor.

But first things first. Now, Wagner badly needed Buckley--and Buckley was happy to satisfy that need. Just a few hours before the convention balloting began, Buckley announced that he was throwing all but a few of The Bronx's no delegate votes to Morgenthau.

That should have been that. But it wasn't. Inevitably, Buckley's move gave Morgenthau's three active opponents a chance to raise a cry of "bossism." At the same time, it enraged some delegates who had supposed that Wagner really meant it when he vowed to fight to the death against Buckley's brand of political feudalism.

Anger & Apathy. On the convention floor, things got out of control. Heedless of the pro-Morgenthau chairman's efforts to gavel them into silence, bands thumped away, and a milling crowd of angry delegates shouted up at the platform: "We want a free vote!" "Down with the bosses!" "Morgenthau withdraw!" The lights were dimmed repeatedly as the chairman tried to restore order. Finally the voting began, and after two ballots and another near-riot, Bob Morgenthau was the convention's choice. Through all the hubbub, Buckley sat impassively under The Bronx's placard. Said he later: "I didn't hear a thing." That evening, Morgenthau delivered a listless acceptance speech to a hall half filled with dead-weary delegates. He spoke with all the enthusiasm of a Georgia sixth-grader reciting the Emancipation Proclamation, and even his ritual invocation of New York Democratic heroes--Al Smith, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Lehman, Robert Wagner--won only tepid applause.

To run against Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits, the Democrats chose James B. Donovan, 46, a stocky, pink-faced, balding political newcomer who negotiated the release of U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers, and is currently working for the liberation of prisoners taken by Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion. For attorney general, against the G.O.P.'s Louis Lefkowitz, they put up Manhattan Borough President Edward R. Dudley, 51, the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia from 1948 to 1953, and the first Negro ever nominated for statewide office in New York.

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