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Show Political Science Magazine Studies Demo Victory "The 'Democrats-elect would make a mistake 1 if they interpreted inter-preted their recent (1958) successes suc-cesses at the polls solely as a repudiation of the Republicans and the endorsement of their own. They now will have to demonstrate dem-onstrate their own leadership, lest they, too, meet with a similar simi-lar fate at the hands of a frustrated frus-trated and resentful electorate." This was an interpretation of the 1958 elections in the western states as reported in the "Western "West-ern Political Quarterly," a publication pub-lication of the University of Utah Institute of Government and official journal of the Western West-ern Political-Science Association, Pacific Northwest Political Science Sci-ence Assn., and Southern California Cali-fornia Political Science Assn. The analysis was written by Dr. Frank H. Jonas, professor of political science at the U. of U. He wrote in the March issue of the Quarterly an overall article about the 1958 election in the West and a separate article on the Utah election. Other writers wrote separate articles on the election in the other eleven western west-ern states including Alaska. Dr. Jonas believes, "What characterized western politics in this election campaign was the inefficacy and failure of the large public relations firms that had successfully served Republican Repub-lican clients in past campaigns. Direct contact with individual voters through organizations and by door to door handshaking semed far more effective than the skillful use of mass media of "were talking about direct economic eco-nomic benefits." As for the Utah campaign, Dr. Jonas felt that the nationwide Democratic trend could not be ignored, but added, "The entire Democratic party simply out-campaigned out-campaigned the whole Republican Republi-can party in this election a fact which should cause those who give so much credit to the so-called so-called 'trend' for Democratic succeses at the polls to find some food for thought." The professor noted the presence pres-ence of a protest vote. "The protest pro-test was against the Republican administration and J. Bracken Lee and Frank E. Moss were the alternatives to this administration administra-tion which had not come to grips with realities." According to Dr. Jonas, "The Republicans would make a mistake mis-take if they thought that Lee's 77,000 votes represent solely defectors de-fectors from the regular ranks. If Lee had not been in the race these votes would probably have gone to Moss. This suggestion, and the fact of David S. King's astonishing victory, would give credence to the idea that if the senatorial race had been only a two man affair, Moss would have won." In conclusion the writer claims the Democrats would be making a mistake "if they assumed that the resutls of the polls were exclusively an endorsement of their party or of their victorious candidates." communication. Role of labor unions was examined ex-amined by the political scientist, who decided that in "education of their members and getting them out to the polls," the unions "did the best piece of work in 1958 that they have done in the history of the labor movement in the western states." Dr. Jonas pointed out in his articles that the Republicans seemed to push a "philosophical I point of view" during the campaign cam-paign whereas the Democrats |
