Elections: On to November

Contrary to most predictions, the 1966 primary elections were little affected by the obvious emotional issues of the hour. Huff and puff as they might, no candidates were able to whip up any meaningful support for antiwar protests. Nor was there any evidence of reaction against the Johnson Administration’s Great Society legislation. There were no measurable swings toward either liberal or conservative sentiment; there was not even any contest between Kennedy Democrats and Humphrey loyalists. Nor did the new black-power militancy of the American Negro influence the voting to any great extent.

Last week’s primaries—in which a substantial sampling of 5,000,000 voters in a dozen states cast ballots for some 400 party candidates for statewide and congressional offices—marked the year’s largest single week of voting before the general elections seven weeks away. Thus the results suggest that, as usual in off-year elections, local issues and individual personalities will have the greatest effect on the outcome.