NEW YORK: The Rocky Roll

(7 of 7)

Debts & Disgust. In winning the G.O.P. nomination, Rockefeller hardly worked up a perspiration. But with Averell Harriman as his opponent, the race is all uphill. Not only is the Governor well entrenched in traditionally Democratic

New York City, but Harriman's solicitude for upstate Democrats has paid off. In normally Republican districts the party is newly strong. In 1957, for the first time, New York elected more Democratic mayors than Republican; Democrats also won control of seven more city councils.

But the G.O.P. also has points in its favor. This year the Democrats themselves have unleashed the specter of a Tammany Hall that calls the shots even for the Governor: at the August state convention, Tammany Chief Carmine De Sapio humbled Harriman, rumbled through his own personal choice for the U.S. Senate nomination, New York District Attorney Frank Hogan (TIME, Sept. 8). Harlem's powerful Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., is running on both tickets and, particularly in the wake of Democrat Orval Faubus' antics, could conceivably switch 30,000 Harlem votes to the Republicans. A final special advantage: many a New York bloc, e.g., Negroes, plus liberals, art lovers, medical men and the churches, recognize a longstanding debt to the Rockefeller philanthropies, may be moved to pay it at the polls.

But Nelson Rockefeller's chances depend primarily on Campaigner Rockefeller himself. Polls show that he is making a dent. The gap between candidates, once 20% in Harriman's favor, has narrowed to a hairline's difference. And among voters who made up their minds in the last fortnight, Rockefeller is the choice 8-2 in rural areas and a remarkable even-Stephen in New York City, where the heaviest Democratic vote must come from.

Not until next month will New Yorkers know whether personality, teamwork and determination can carry Rockefeller all the way to Albany. But one thing is already clear. Never has the Empire State seen such a handshaking, hula hooping, beanie wearing, bandleading candidate—named Rockefeller. Never would the old environment be quite the same again.