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Show GOP Leaders Intrigue Press With Election Prospects By DAUKIIAGE Nws Analyst and Commentator. "MI Service, 1G1G Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON, D. C. This -weather in Washington and elsewhere else-where develops more heat than light. That's a trite phrase, I know, but it's apropos because heat, ' rather than light, S Is always the ' keyword at this season, politi--cally speaking. s Congress accom- i plished its fade- f out rather grace- fully, I thought, -even if they must have prayed for forgiveness for "the things we have left undone" E t were debating selective service, and I hasten to explain that former Senator (now Supreme court justice) just-ice) Burton and I had the unpopular unpopu-lar side. Anyhow, Brown (may-the-best-man-win) won. Reece and Brown didn't talk on-the-record at the luncheon but 'I have a good idea of how things looked to the Republicans at that congenial gathering of radio folk. If the elections were held as of that moment, they claimed, the Republicans Re-publicans would win a majority of seats in the house of representatives and would make very heavy inroads on the Democratic majority in thei senate. Since then many of the pri- mary battles have been fought and, I'll report the reactions later. j Gallup Poll Heartens GOP In the first place I understand that the Republicans took considerable satisfaction in the Gallup poll which showed that, excluding the one-party one-party Democratic states, 46 per cent of the persons interviewed showed a Democratic preference and 54 per cent a Republican preference. pref-erence. The GOP leaders believed they had a good, fighting chance to win 15 to 17 senatorial seats from their opponents. In New York, they say J3overnor Dewey's good record and the campaign he is planning ought to pull in a Republican senator (they won't say, whom). They believe be-lieve Democratic Senator Mead will have to run for the governorship. They felt they had a chance in Delaware and West Virginia and that If the ballots were cast at that mo. ment they would win in. Mis souri (I'm still talking about the as fervently as ior the things they did which didn't sit too well with their consciences. And now the voice of the vote-better vote-better is heard in the land. Radio and newspaper correspond-ents correspond-ents are being courted by both political parties. For example, recently, re-cently, a crowd of radio folk was given a luncheon-table look at the vote-getting machinery behind the Republican lines. Our hosts were Republican Chairman Carroll B. Reece at one end of the table, and Eepublican Campaign Manager Clarence Brown at the other. (A similar jaunt into Democratic territory ter-ritory will be reported in a future column.) Reece Quiet, Popular Chief Reece is a slight, greying, quiet-voiced quiet-voiced man whose Tennessee accent ac-cent reminds one occasionally of Claude Pepper in one of Claude's unoratorical moments if you can catch him in one. (Personal confession: confes-sion: I like Pepper and Reece both and so do a lot of people who would be the first to say, "the views of these notables do not NECESSARILY NECES-SARILY agree with those of the undersigned.") It is a little presumptuous of me to refer to Reece as "greying" because be-cause the year 1889 had to stretch - itself from January to December to fill the time-gap between my birthday birth-day and his. He has taught in almost as many academic institutions as I have casually attended. He was a battalion commander in World War I whereas I never rose above the exalted station of shavetail, and Carroll B. Reece and Rep. Brown senatorial race). Thev called Mon- among nis five decorations are tne Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal and the Purple Heart. He was cited for bravery by a marshal, three generals gen-erals and a colonel. Perhaps the same qualities which won Reece his decorations qualified him for his present job. He certainly cer-tainly doesn't lack assurance even If he doesn't rattle sabers in expressing ex-pressing it. But we are not talking about Reece. We are talking about his job. He is out on the hustings, although al-though his trip, which will take him as far west as Seattle and as far south as Georgia, is mildly camouflaged camou-flaged as a Vacation. Anyhow Mrs. and Miss Reece are going along, and a part of the time will be spent at a resort in the Rockies. Backstopping Reece here in the capital where nobody votes, but where a lot of writers and talkers iremain, will be Clarence Brown, representative from the Seventh district dis-trict of Ohio, a state which might be called . a latter-day mother of presidents and which right now is 'looking hopefully over the patterns of maternity gowns. Brown and Reece complement each other very well. Reece is slight, dignified, soft-spoken. Brown .is large, loud enough to be heard .in the back row without using the PA system, and hail-fellow-well-met. As "campaign manager" he is going to sweat it out (that is literal lit-eral ) with the rest of the Washing-"tonians Washing-"tonians who don't vacate in the .summer. 1 have a fellow feeling for Representative Rep-resentative Brown, tinged perhaps with the natural deference a reporter re-porter always has for a publisher. Brown publishes several country newspapers (that's the way he put tana and Washington probabilities rather than mere possibilities. Q'Mahoney knows he has a fight, they say, and they believe the Republican Re-publican candidate, John Henderson, Hender-son, has a chance against the popular popu-lar gentleman from Wyoming. I heard a lot of talk, too, about the interesting possibility in Connecticut Con-necticut where Repr. Clare Luce was expected to oppose former OPA Administrator Chester Bowles, which would be a colorful affair with all the technical skill of her publisher husband, and all the skill ; of an advertising man, Mr. Bowles, pitted against each other. As to the house of representatives, Republican machinery has been grinding in at least 75 districts. OV Kentuck Bloody Battleground Kentucky was catalogued as still a dark and bloody battleground. At the time of the luncheon, Representative Repre-sentative May's followers seemed to feel, according to press reports, that he was a martyr. If something should come out to change their minds on that score, he might go down to defeat. And we are reminded re-minded that, as one Republican put it: "every 20 years or so Kentucky Ken-tucky changes its mind." Other debatable districts were listed in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Delaware, Del-aware, Maryland, West Virginia and New York. What the Republicans seem to count on most is the natural reaction, re-action, "throw the rascals out" theory which Americans always have reverted to after so long a period pe-riod of any party's incumbency. In addition, say the GOPundits, there are the usual mistakes of the party in power which result in the well known attitude of one of Clar- it himself in the congressional directory) di-rectory) whereas I merely write for "several" besides this one. Also he has three more children tluin I have. He and I once met on the debating platform, and while I would naturally never admit that I didn't present the best argument, I will concede somewhat grudgingly grudging-ly that Brown's resounding oratory won him the most applause. We ence Brown's constituents who told him: "I don't know who I'm FUR, but I know durned well who I'm AGIN." The Republicans think they have discovered a trend away from centralized cen-tralized government which may turn the voters against the administration admin-istration and into Republican pastures. |