Loser's Victory

Grey-haired, baggy-eyed George P.

Mahoney had tried and failed six times since 1950 to win Maryland's governor ship or a U.S. Senate seat. When the wealthy Baltimore contractor once again entered the gubernatorial primary race this year, few Marylanders took him seriously. This time, however, Mahoney, 64, was canny enough to concentrate his campaign on a single issue touching the pocketbooks and emotions of many voters: the possibility of a state law ban ning racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.

Mahoney thus bid unabashedly for the anti-integration elements that gave Alabama's racist Governor George Wal lace an astonishing 42.7% of the popular vote when he ran for Maryland's 1964 presidential nomination. Mahoney exploited white apprehensions stirred by black-power demonstrations in Baltimore last summer, capitalized as well on congressional resistance to the open-housing clause of the President's 1966 civil rights bill. His slogan: "Your Home Is Your Castle--Protect It!"

Even so, Mahoney's biggest assist came from his opponents. Two-term Congressman Carlton Sickles, 45, a liberal with a 100% A.D.A. rating on major issues, was the early favorite to win the nomination. As an ardent advocate of the strongest possible federal open-housing plan, he promised that if Congress failed to pass a tough bill, he would see to it that an unequivocal open-housing code was adopted by the Maryland legislature. State Attorney General Thomas B. Finan, 52, a member of the scandal-tainted administration of outgoing Governor J. Millard Tawes, also supported open-housing legislation.

The election was close and might depend on the counting of absentee ballots for its final outcome. At week's end,

George Mahoney had 146,152 votes, Sickles 145,118 and Finan 133,149; a ragged field of five other candidates had 62,000 among them. If Mahoney wins, it would have to be called a startling upset, but it would by no means be the "backlash victory" that much of the daily press instantly called it. The fact was, Mahoney attracted a bare 31% of all votes cast; his two major opponents, both of whom came out strongly in favor of antidiscriminatory housing laws, pulled nearly twice that much.

Mahoney's win, in the long run, would be a serious loss for his party. The bitterly fought contest so severely splintered Maryland Democrats that even token unity would be hard to reconstruct in the foreseeable future. The real winner in all likelihood would thus be the Republican candidate for Governor, Spiro T. Agnew, 47, an even-tempered moderate who has served ably as Baltimore County Executive. Agnew is now a heavy favorite to win in November.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.