National Affairs: THE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS In 1960 Their Big Year

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Michigan's G. Mennen Williams, at 48 an eleven-year veteran in office, still has a bow-tie manner and a considerable list of achievements (e.g., expanded state universities, reformed mental hospitals) to his credit, but his longstanding political alliance with U.A.W. President Walter Reuther has become an albatross that worries even liberal Democrats. Moreover, Williams' prestige has been damaged by Michigan's failure to meet some of its payrolls (TIME, May 4), even though an uncompromising bloc of G.O.P. state senators is just as much to blame as Soapy.

New Jersey's Robert Meyner, a trim 51, made tight-fisted administration and somewhat bipartisan clean government "his formula for two successful terms. He surprised this year's legislature with a balanced budget that called for no new taxes, fought to keep it from being unbalanced by a bill on scholarships for students at private colleges, took a damaging defeat when his veto was overridden. He has not abandoned dark-horse presidential hopes, but the hopes all but abandoned him after he failed to get across to audiences on a Midwestern tour last August.

Pennsylvania's David Leo Lawrence, 70, who as four-term (1946-1958) mayor of Pittsburgh teamed with Republican business leaders on the rebuilding of Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle, finds his bipartisan citizens' commission system failing to work on the state level. His first budget, which asks no new spending programs but proposed special taxes to wipe out a deficit inherited from the preceding Democratic administration, has been blocked in the legislature for four months by shrewd G.O.P. opposition, for once unified on an issue, Lawrence, Pennsylvania's first Roman Catholic Governor, found so much upstate anti-Catholic opposition during his campaign that he is likely to put the third largest delegation (more than 70) behind a safe Protestant candidate.

Ohio's Michael Vincent DiSalle, 51, onetime Toledo mayor (1948-50) and later federal price boss (1950-52), moved so decisively in many directions the minute he took the State House last January that he raised howls from utilities, unions, the N.A.M., Catholic leaders (he is Catholic), Cleveland's powerful Democratic bloc in the state senate, Republicans all around the state. But he got results, by last week had won $206 million of his requested $237 million tax boost, would soon set off on a stump tour across the state to restore his damaged popularity and bolster his stock as a favorite son.

A powerful Governor from a lesser state is a pivot man, who still has the chance to turn a trend or hope for nomination because of some special qualification. The pivot men:

Florida's LeRoy Collins, 50, six years in office, took his worst blasting—for moderation on race issues—from this year's angry legislature. But when the smoke cleared, he had won an impressive half of a 73-point program, held the line against racist bills and school-locking laws. Chairman of the National Governors' Conference, Episcopalian Collins is the Southern Governor who has the most appeal for both Northern moderates and liberals.