Chairman job is acceptable to Hannegan
Internal Revenue Commissioner will take over if Walker resigns
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Washington –
Commissioner of Internal Revenue Robert E. Hannegan has agreed to accept chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee if that position is vacated Saturday by Postmaster General Frank C. Walker.
The National Committee meets here then. Mr. Walker is prepared to present his resignation. Mr. Hannegan, a Missourian, named to the commissionership last year, is being touted here as “a second Jim Farley.” His job, apparently, will be to manage a fourth-term campaign for President Roosevelt.
Mr. Hannegan will have tougher going than did Mr. Farley in the 1932 and 1936 campaigns, when Mr. Roosevelt won with lopsided popular and electoral vote majorities.
Qualify Senate claims
Republican National Committee statisticians have been analyzing 1940-43 elections returns from Northern and border states and they come up with some figures upon which the GOP bases its claim that it will win the White House and the House of Representatives in November. Republican spokesmen are inclined to qualify their claims about winning Senate control this time, but not so with the Presidency and the House.
An RNC report says:
In 1940, in the 38 Northern states, which represent a majority of 150 votes in the electoral college, we lost the Presidency by 2.7% of the vote.
In the 1942 Congressional elections, our party in the same Northern states in the aggregate vote for Republican candidates for Congress had 53.9% of the total. If Mr. Roosevelt had been running in that election and had maintained the same three-percent advantage over his party which he had in 1940, he would have been defeated in the electoral college.
Six vacancies in House
Republicans may come close to House control even before the general election. There are now six vacancies in the House. Five of the seats were formerly held by Democrats, including one in Alabama, which is certain to remain Democratic. But the GOP seems to be confident in keeping the seat which had been Republican and of winning four of the five Democratic seats in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Oklahoma and Illinois.
If they are able to do so, the House standing will be:
| Democrats | 219 |
| Republicans | 212 |
| Minor parties | 4 |