National Affairs: Organization in Kansas

• Share

Republicans from 26 counties held a convention at Hays, Kans. last week to name the Sixth Congressional District's delegates to the national convention. The Sixth is the home territory of Senator Frank Carlson, executive director of the Eisenhower-for-President campaign (he represented the district in Congress for twelve years). But 75 of the 157 delegates to the district convention came to Hays pledged to vote for Taft men. Carlson's home county, Cloud, sent two delegations. Disgruntled Taft men had stalked out of the county convention, which was pro-Eisenhower, and named their own rump delegation.

Without the nine delegates from Cloud, the Taft men had a 75-73 majority. Result : the convention quickly voted to seat the Taft delegation. That gave the Taft supporters a working majority for the rest of the day's business. Result: two Taft men were elected as the district's delegates to the national convention, and a third was recommended to the state convention, for delegate-at-large.

Taft men had been expected to win some of the 22 seats in the national convention delation from Kansas, Ike's home state. Their victory at Hays, in Ikeman Carlson's own bailiwick, did not portend a Taft sweep of the Kansas delegation, but it was a sharp illustration of what politicians mean when they say the Taft campaign is "organized."