As control of Congress switched back and forth by the narrowest of margins over the last decade, political managers turned increasingly to the study of state and district elections as a possible key to national hopes. One of those who pored over the state election ledgers was James Finnegan of Pennsylvania, onetime accounting student, now Adlai Stevenson's campaign manager. The result of Finnegan's studies: a Democratic campaign strategy that has been dubbed "Operation Reverse Coattails."
In the 1952 elections, Finnegan found some statistics that especially fascinated him. In state after state, Stevenson had run behind the Democratic candidates for the Senate and House. Ten Democratic Senators were elected in states carried by Ike. In 32 Northern states, Stevenson carried 61 congressional districts while the Democratic House candidates carried 92. In six border states, Adlai won 18 districts, and the House candidates took 30. The ratio in ten Southern states was 59 to 92. To Jim Finnegan's close-calculating mind, the 1956 answer was obvious: Stevenson must associate his campaign more closely with those of the state candidates and attract voters to himself through their local popularity.
Help for a Turncoat. Finnegan therefore insisted that Stevenson invite Florida's smooth George Smathers, chairman of the Senate Democratic* Campaign Committee, and Ohio's rough ex-Coal Miner Mike Kirwan, chairman of the House Campaign Committee, along on last week's conference tour (see below), which was the opening phase of Operation Reverse Coattails. In that operation, Smathers and Kirwan figure to play a key role.
As put into action by Smathers and Kirwan, the operation is by no means one-sided. They think that Stevenson can give help to the state candidates as well as receive it from them. In Oregon, ex-Republican Senator Wayne Morse is in trouble against former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay. Said Smathers: "Six years ago the Democrats were fighting Morse in Oregon. Now he's trying to get their vote, and some think he's just a turncoat. What better way to get them with him than to identify himself with the national ticket?"
As between themselves, Nominees Stevenson and Estes Kefauver planned some mutual coattail-grabbing. Stevenson, for instance, should help make up for Kefauver's lack of popularity among Southern leaders. And, promised George Smathers in a stopover in Sioux City, "we'll keep Kefauver in the farm areas. Take here in Iowa, Kefauver has been a lot more in demand than Stevenson. People come up to me all the time and say, 'Just send Kefauver in, and we can carry the state for Kefauver and Stevenson.' Get that?
They put Kefauver first."