Dewey predicts Congress control
New York (UP) –
Republican hopes of capturing a majority of House seats appeared brighter today than at any time since the GOP lost control of the House after the 1930 election as then-President Herbert Hoover was starting his last two years in office.
Neither party has an absolute majority as of today.
Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell has predicted that tomorrow’s young will swell the GOP’s present total of 210 to a majority of the 435 seats.
In that event, Republicans would organize the House, heading up the committees and electing Rep. Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R-MA), now Minority Leader, as Speaker to succeed Sam Rayburn (D-TX).
During last week’s campaign swing through Massachusetts, Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey repeatedly referred to Mr. Martin as “the next Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
Democrats confident
Democrats, however, have insisted not only that they will not lose any of their 214 present members but will add to their total.
A bare majority requires 218 seats.
The voters will elect 432 representatives tomorrow, Maine having picked three Republican members in September. With these three, the GOP has eight sure House members for the next two years before the polls open, five of the party’s candidates being unopposed
Similarly, the Democrats are sure of 51, including Speaker Rayburn, four seats in California, Louisiana’s eight, one in New York and others scattered through the Southern states.
Dies, aides out
Prominent members certain not to be among those present in the new House include Chairman Martin Dies (D-TX) of the House Committee Investigating Un-American Activities, and Reps. John Costello (D-CA) and Joe Starnes (D-AL), members of the Dies Committee.
They were strongly opposed in pre-primary campaigns by the CIO Political Action Committee. Mr. Dies did not seek renomination, the selection going to J. M. Combs. Mr. Costello and Mr. Starnes were defeated. The latter will be succeeded by Albert Rains (D-AL), Hal Styles, who defeated Mr. Costello in the California primary, is opposed for election by Republican Gordon L. McDonough.
Two races in which more than passing general interest has been manifest involved two prominent pre-war isolationists, Rep. Hamilton Fish (R-NY) and Rep. Stephen A. Day (R-IL).
Glamor in race
Each party is running a “Glamor Girl.” Rep. Clare Boothe Luce, (R-CT), ending her first term, is seeking reelection against the opposition of Democrat Margaret E. Connors and Socialist Stanley W. Mayhew.
Helen Gahagan Douglas (D-CA) is running against William D. Campbell. Mrs. Douglas, a former actress, is the wife of screen actor Melvyn Douglas.