Close contest in presidential race foreseen
Both parties feel trend is favorable
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington (UP) –
The best bet as the political campaign accelerates today is that the presidential election will be a close contest for popular votes.
Political events in Maine, Texas and Ohio variously comforted Democrats and Republicans but without producing conclusive evidence of a national trend either way.
Maine’s jump-the-gun state election yesterday gave the Republican gubernatorial candidate 73 percent of the vote and a plurality of 80,000, the largest in recent state records. Democrats will find some offset in the fact that only 185,000 or so voters of approximately 350,000 registrants went to the polls. But the returns seem to make the state safe for Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the GOP presidential candidate.
If these indications of a close contest are accurate, Mr. Dewey should run better this year than Wendell L. Willkie ran in 1940. Mr. Roosevelt beat Mr. Willkie by 27,243,000 votes to 22,304,000. In 1936, he took GOP candidate Alf M. Landon, 27,576,000 to 16,679,000 votes. Mr. Hoover lost to Mr. Roosevelt in 1932 by 15,761,000 to 22,821,000.
Plan seeks end to Texas revolt
Dallas, Texas (UP) –
Pro-Roosevelt forces turned today to the legal aspects of a plan under which normally Democratic Texas would be assured that presidential electors on the November ballot will cast the state’s 23 votes for President Roosevelt and his vice-presidential running mate, Harry S. Truman.
A three-point plan, advanced by Democratic National Committeeman Myron Blalock of Marshall, was still in the committee rooms as fourth-term backers called to order the Texas State Convention over which they had gained complete control in a stormy session last night.
The Blalock plan, drawn up in anticipation of a lawsuit to be filed by anti-Roosevelt forces within the party, called for:
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The resolutions committee to have the convention revoke the instructions of the May 23 Texas Convention and instruct party electors to vote for the Democratic nominees for President and Vice President.
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Place the names of Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Truman on the ballot instead of the names of electors. This is permissible under Texas law.
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Prepare an amended list of electors for filing in case it is needed.
Overton wins easily in Louisiana election
New Orleans, Louisiana (UP) –
U.S. Senator John H. Overton of Alexandria won renomination in yesterday’s Louisiana Democratic primary election, unofficial returns showed today.
Mr. Overton was conceded election when New Orleans radio station owner E. A. Stephens, who had been Mr. Overton’s chief opponent, admitted defeat.
Latest figures gave Mr. Overton a total of 134,953 votes, Mr. Stephens 57,427, Lake Charles attorney Griffin T. Hawkins 14,836, and New Orleans businessman Charles S. Gerth 6,582.
Holding a clear majority of more than 56,000, Mr. Overton won his renomination without a runoff.