The Brooklyn Eagle (June 4, 1944)
By Joseph H. Schmalacker
An all-out fight with the fourth term, the New Deal and so-called “communistic tie-ups” as the principal issues, developed in the special election in Brooklyn’s 4th Congressional district last night as the campaign approached a climax and political party organizations and organized labor groups mobilized to bring their supporters to the polls Tuesday.
The importance rival forces have attached to the special election as a political laboratory test in advance of the November campaign became clear from the eleventh-hour activities of the opposing camps.
The Republican campaign headquarters, backing William G. Nolan, GOP nominee, and gunning for a political upset in a district long controlled by the Democrats, flooded the mails with 25,000 letters to the voters, began the distribution of 15,000 cards by hand and prepared to throw a force of 250 workers into the district for direct calls to the homes of voters.
Nolan said in the letter to the voters:
I am opposed to communistic tie-ups, to the New Deal, to the fourth term and to the government’s “kicking” of labor and small business around to suit its political convenience.
Rooney backers announced
The headquarters for John J. Rooney, Democratic nominee (also endorsed by the American Labor Party), struck back by announcing Rooney’s endorsement by the Central and Labor Council of the American Federation of Labor acting through its Brooklyn Nonpartisan Committee.
Meanwhile, the Greater New York CIO Council, headed by Councilman Michael J. Quill, reiterated its support of Rooney and called on CIO members to vote for him.
Mr. Quill, declaring Rooney had pledged himself without qualification to support President Roosevelt and his war and peace policies, asserted the special election was important, not only to help determine the makeup of Congress, “but also as demonstrating labor and the people’s support for President Roosevelt’s Victory program.”
Nolan restates position
Nolan’s letter reiterated his platform of the freedoms of enterprise on which he has been campaigning.
His letter told the voters:
It is imperative that every voter go to the polls and vote, not only to elect a new Congressman, due to the untimely death of our friend and neighbor, Congressman Thomas Cullen, but to oppose the New Deal and a fourth term. I believe in the democratic principles of Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Murtha, president of Central Trades and Labor Council, and James C. Quinn, secretary, told Rooney in a letter that the council after an analysis of the records of the candidates had reported favorably on Rooney’s candidacy.
Other Rooney supporters
Rooney’s headquarters said he had also received expressions of support from Vincent Kane, president of the Uniformed Firemen’s Association; Vincent J. Ferris, former secretary of the Allied Printing Trades Council; James Barry of the Plasterers Council; Jacob Rosenberg, president of the Musicians Union, Local 802, and John Owens, secretary and treasurer of the International Longshoremen’s Union. Nolan, a superintendent of stevedores, is a member of this union. The Rooney headquarters listed about ten other union locals said to have endorsed him.
Meanwhile, William A. Root, chairman of the Nolan campaign committee, and Raymond Schmidt, vice chairman, said they believed the election would be close. The voting on Tuesday will be from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET.