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One candidate who did not know what to do was New Jersey's Hague-owned Senator William H. Smathers. Hearing of the sober, dead-serious campaign waged by Republican Albert W. Hawkes (industrialist and onetime president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), he hurried home, only to find Hawkes effectively belaboring him for previous absences from the Senate when important measures were at stake (Selective Service Act and its extension, declaration of war against Germany). Bill Smathers hightailed it back to Washington, then nervously returned to New Jersey for another look.
In New York, Democrats were asking for more help from Franklin Roosevelt for their candidate for Governor, John J. Bennett. The New York Daily News's poll showed Republican Thomas E. Dewey leading even in usually Democratic New York City, gave Dewey a 59%-to-36% lead in the State. (A semifinal Gallup poll gave Dewey the advantage, 51%-to-41%, but showed a Bennett comeback.) In Massachusetts, Republicans now felt certain that their handsome Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. would beat off the threat of determined Congressman Joseph E. Casey (still waiting for a Roosevelt blessing).
These were some of the chief hot spots. There were many others, especially in Congressional races. One forecast predicted Republican victories in seven out of ten Congressional contests outside the Solid South. This would give Republicans control of the House. Sober Democratic estimates agreed on a Republican gain of 20 to 25 in the House; many Republicans felt that would be enough. They did not want control of the House now, with a Democratic President and Senate. But anything might happen.