VIRGINIA: Battle for Richmond

After weeks of lurching about and tooting its horn in alarm, Harry Flood Byrd’s sleek, well-oiled political machine rolled to victory last week in Virginia.

More than 315,000 poll-taxed Virginians—a record number, though still only a tenth of the state’s population—turned out on Primary Day to choose the Democrat who will be the state’s next governor. Their choice: plodding, poker-faced John S. Battle, the man U.S. Senator Byrd picked to keep his 25-year-old organization in the Richmond State House.

Candidate Battle, a state senator from Charlottesville, won by a comfortable 23,000 votes over his only serious competitor, wellborn, New-Dealing Francis Pickens Miller, who had the help of Virginia’s growing Negro vote and its labor unions:

“I don’t feel elated,” said Winner Battle, “but I do feel it’s a great victory for Virginia.” Replied Loser Miller: “This is but the first round.”