National Affairs: Historical Repetition?

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Two months ago Maryland Democrats went to the polls to pick the man who would run against Republican Governor Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin this fall. Not until last week did they learn whom they had nominated. The winner: Harry Clifton ("Curly") Byrd, the University of Maryland's onetime football coach (1913-34) and longtime president (1936-53).

The long delay in settling the outcome of the Democratic primary was due to a close vote and Maryland's county-unit system. Initial returns gave Byrd 80 unit votes to 72 for his opponent, Paving Contractor George P. Mahoney, who contested the election, concentrating on two counties whose seven units would have brought him victory. Last week, when the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the validity of the contested Byrd ballots in the two counties, Mahoney conceded.

But the bitter dispute would not help Curly Byrd's long-shot chances of unseating McKeldin. In 1950 McKeldin's victory was attributed to the votes of Mahoney backers who crossed over into the Republican column.