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Running behind, Hoegh is running hard. He is running on his own record, not anyone's coattails, and pushing one central point: "We have achieved progress for better schools, better roads and better mental health." Then he drops in a request that the people go to the polls and "vote for Eisenhower, vote for Hickenlooper, and while you're in there, you might also remember to vote for Leo."
Down the Drain? Going into the 1956 elections, Republicans hold every top political position in Iowa, and Leo Hoegh does not aim to be the one who is knocked out. Of the 32 governors since Iowa became a state, only five have been Democrats. When reporters point this out to Governor Hoegh and ask him about the polls that show him running behind, he replies with a characteristic, "Haw!" and then asks: "What are you boys trying to do, ruin my morale?"
As a result of hard campaigning and growing support from the whole Republican organization, Hoegh seems to be gaining. Some of his supporters have been pressuring him to take two steps that they think might sew up the election: 1) reverse his position on the union shop to thaw out the Iowa Manufacturers Association, and 2s) promise that he will reduce taxes in his next administration to please everyone. Much like a man named Benson, whose adamant attitude he does not like, Leo Hoegh has refused to turn his coat. Says he: "I'd rather go down the drain with my program than try to weasel out now. And I don't think I'm going down any drains."
Actually there is no dramatic solution to the troubles that beset Leo Hoegh. His principal problem is that he has caught the spirit of an era that is beginning to recognize the need for a resurgence of good local and state government—and. in doing so. he has perhaps stirred his quiet state too much. But if he has gone too far too fast, he can take a governor's small comfort from the conviction that one year—if not this year—his state will forget the anthills and look with satisfaction on the considerable movements of home-grown progressive government.