While Democrats from A (for Alabama) to V (for Virgin Islands) last week began translating the national convention into terms of Chicago timetables and hotel reservations, eleventh-hour state conventions and committee meetings assayed candidates and took preconvention stands.
NEW JERSEY. Delegates heard appeals by Candidates Averell Harriman and Estes Kefauver and by Adlai Stevenson's campaign manager, Jim Finnegan, but elected to go to the convention uncommitted. Though the group is heavily pro-Stevenson, leaders will plump for the delegation's chairman, Governor Robert B. Meyner, as a first-ballot favorite son.
OHIO. The 58-vote delegation...