• U.S.

Politics: The Peace Candidates

3 minute read
TIME

Viet Nam may yet emerge as a pivotal issue in November’s elections—but not if most leading candidates can help it. “We’re running for seats in Congress,” protests a Midwestern Republican, “not for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Intraparty Clawing. Some hopefuls figure that opposition to the war may nonetheless prove the open-sesame to office—despite powerful evidence to the contrary in Oregon last month, where Democrat Robert Duncan won a hand some victory in the senatorial primary by strongly supporting the Administration on Viet Nam. Most of the antiwar candidates, however, are underdogs, who have taken heart from the 7% decline (to 47%) since April in nationwide approval of Lyndon Johnson’s execution of the war.

In seizing on Viet Nam as a long-shot bet, these candidates have inverted most of the standard political equations. In some races, Republicans are the soft-liners and Democrats the hardliners; in others, antiwar Democrats are running on anti-Administration platforms against Republicans who go all the way with L.B.J. Bitterest of all are the primaries, in which the war has Democrats clawing at Democrats and Republicans at Republicans,* to wit:

> In Manhattan’s polyglot 19th District, Democrat Leonard Farbstein, a moderate on the war, seeks nomination for a sixth term but faces a rough scrap with City Councilman Theodore Weiss, who demands an end to all bombing in Viet Nam and a U.S. ceasefire.

> In New York’s Nassau County, ex-OSS Officer and onetime Nixon Speechwriter William J. Casey is trying to make headway before the June 28 G.O.P. primary against favored Steven B. Derounian, a hard-lining Goldwater man, by calling for negotiations “at any time.”

> In Kansas, G.O.P. Congressman Bob Ellsworth is trying to strengthen his long-shot bid to wrest the senatorial nomination from Incumbent James Pearson by demanding redoubled efforts for negotiations and a place for the Viet Cong at the bargaining table.

> In Wisconsin, former Democratic National Committeeman David Carley is trying to overtake front-running Lieutenant Governor Patrick Lucey for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination by demanding an immediate cease-fire and a U.S. pullback to coastal enclaves.

Perhaps the most troubled candidates of all are the liberal Democrats, who are under violent attack, not from the right but from the radicals of the New Left. Last week an organization called the National Conference for New Politics set up shop in New York, Washington and Los Angeles under the leadership of a couple of acidulous Viet Nam critics—Julian Bond, 26, the Georgia Negro who was twice denied a seat in the state legislature after voicing his admiration of draft-card burners, and Simon Casady, 57, who was bounced as president of the California Democratic Council after expressing a similar viewpoint. The group hopes to raise $500,000 to support “carefully selected” candidates —meaning those who want a quick pull-out from Viet Nam.

Most such candidates certainly need help. Though at one point there were roughly 50 peacenik contenders for congressional seats, the Pennsylvania and California primaries alone scrubbed 16 of them. Few, if any, of those still in the running have much chance of winning an election.

* They could all take a hint from New York City’s Democratic Controller Mario Procaccino—who is not running for anything. Procaccino was recently stopped by a little old Italian lady who asked: “Mist’ Procaccino, what do you think of Viet Nam?” “I think it’s terrible,” assured Mario, oozing concern. “God bless you,” said the lady, supremely satisfied.

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