DEMOCRATS: Rolling Bandwagon

The day before he announced his candidacy, Massachusetts' Senator John Kennedy got an important telephone call from Columbus, Ohio. On the other end of the line, Ohio Governor Michael V. Di Salle had good news: he was committing himself and Ohio's 64 Democratic Convention delegates to Kennedy as their choice for the presidential nomination. Kennedy thanked him, cautiously called back later to ask if this was an all-out pledge. "All the way," promised Di Salle, "until you're nominated or you release us."*

After making it official at a press conference last week, rotund Mike Di Salle admitted that Kennedy "wasn't exactly disturbed by the announcement. He almost traveled over the telephone." For Jack Kennedy the news was cause for jubilation. It finally answered the long-dangling 64-vote question: with Ohio, Kennedy could count the convention's fifth largest delegate bloc in his preconvention muster. It regained momentum for the Kennedy bandwagon—which had slowed perceptibly since the birth-control issue (TIME, Dec. 7). And it marked Roman Catholic Kennedy's first major breach of the line that Catholic bosses of big states have thus far held against him.

Rule or Ruin. Mike Di Salle, like such other notable Catholic leaders as Pennsylvania's Governor Dave Lawrence, California's Governor Edmund ("Pat") Brown, Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, New York's Carmine De Sapio, is especially sensitive to the fact that a fellow Catholic will come under heavy fire both at the Los Angeles convention and in the general election. But Di Salle is also a political realist. In a series of meetings and telephone calls over the past seven months, Kennedy made it quite clear to Di Salle that 1) Kennedy's best chance of winning the nomination lies in making a strong showing in the primaries; and 2) he regarded Ohio as a must state on his list. Kennedy threatened to challenge Di Salle and any other comers, if necessary, to get Ohio's vote (TIME, July 13).

A personal swing through the state convinced Di Salle that Kennedy has a huge following in Ohio; a private poll showed Kennedy well ahead with 60% of the vote. To be defeated in his own home ground by an outsider would mean political ruin for Di Salle and the Democratic machine he has so carefully been building.