National Affairs: George’s Day in Maryland

In Maryland’s Democratic senatorial primary last May, former four-term U.S. Senator Millard Tydings, 66, beat Perennial Candidate George Mahoney by 6,000 votes and won the right to seek revenge on John Marshall Butler, who had toppled him from the Senate in 1950. But Tydings was laid low by a serious attack of shingles, and had to withdraw from the race (TIME, Aug. 27). Gathered last week to select a new candidate, the Democratic State Central Committee turned aside a bid by Tydings’ wife Eleanor, 52, and chose the man her husband had defeated in the primary—Pavement Contractor Mahoney.

Although he has never won in two tries for the Senate and two for governor, the jubilant Mahoney figured that this is his year. Other Democrats were considerably less optimistic. Crumped National Committee Chairman Paul Butler, who had expected Millard Tydings to win in November: “With George Mahoney, there is a question.”