The shock waves ran through the streets from Ocean Parkway to the Brooklyn College campus. Emmanuel Celler, 84, dean of the House of Representatives and uncrowned king of Brooklyn's Flatbush section, a battle-hardened old pro who was first elected to Congress during the Warren Harding Administration, had apparently been defeated in the Democratic primary by a bright, brisk young woman 54 years his junior. She is Elizabeth Holtzman, a Harvard Law School graduate who mounted one of the most persistent campaigns against Celler in the history of the highly political area. With 35,000 voting, Miss Holtzman edged out the venerable chairman of the House Judiciary Committee by an unofficial margin of 562 votes.
Of course, Liz, as she likes to be called, still has a way to go to get to Washington. The vote was so close that both candidates asked that the ballot boxes be impounded before the official tally is announced this week. Even if his opponent is declared the winner, Celler has the option of running on the Liberal Party ticket in November. That makes Miss Holtzman's victory no less dramatic. She beat Celler at what was once his own game: an oldfashioned, hand-pumping, doorbell-ringing street campaign, aided by a determined group of volunteers. What is more, she beat him in a district that has a high index of elderly voters.
Liz's support came from both sexes. Though she has allied herself with various women's movements, she remains Miss, not Ms., and none of the Women's Caucus "flying squads" appeared in Flatbush to stump for her. The campaign was almost purely one of issues —and age. Says Miss Holtzman: "I was a constituent of his, and I never saw him. He never seemed to attend any of the local meetings." With two years as a state committeewoman behind her, Liz Holtzman sailed into Celler, buttonholing anyone who would listen at supermarkets and subway stops. She attacked him on the basis of absenteeism, and pointed out that he did not even keep an office in Brooklyn. She also blanketed the area with copies of a Jack Anderson column that accused Celler of supporting legislation that benefited an electrical-contracting company represented by his Manhattan law firm.
Candidate Holtzman was probably helped by the fact that she is a McGovern supporter and by an undeniable complacence on the part of Celler backers. The Congressman ruefully noted: "My problem was that I didn't have any problems." But Liz was an attractive candidate in her own right. Born and raised in Brooklyn, she earned a Phi Beta Kappa key at Radcliffe. While a student at law school she went to the South to give legal aid to the civil rights movement, then joined a small New York law firm after graduation. She later worked for Mayor John Lindsay as his liaison to the city's parks, recreation and cultural affairs administration. Now Liz must likely face up to another bout next fall with the crafty old lion she has so severely wounded.