MICHIGAN: Hart's Desire

While Michigan's bow-tied Governor G. (for Gerhard) Mennen Williams flitted around the U.S. adding polish to his presidential sheen, the man who minded the store for him over the last three years was polished, personable Lieutenant Governor Philip A. Hart. Last week 45-year-old Phil Hart allowed that his turn had come to leave Michigan to get a new sheen of his own. Summoning newsmen to his Lansing office, Hart announced that he would be the Williams-backed Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Charles E. Potter.

In Phil Hart, easygoing Charlie Potter will discover a serious threat to second-term ambitions. Pennsylvania-born Hart is, like Potter, a wounded World War II veteran; he was hit by D-day mortar fire on Utah Beach. Lawyer Hart has eight photogenic children and an attractive, politically savvy wife. Jane Briggs Hart pilots her own Beechcraft Bonanza, flies her husband around Michigan at campaign time, has money enough as the daughter of the late Walter 0. Briggs (auto bodies, the Detroit Tigers) to afford the airplane and the campaigns.

Socialite Hart's desire to slide into Charlie Potter's Senate seat was a sure sign not only of his own political ambition but of "Soapy" Williams' state of mind as well. Aware that the U.S. Senate is reputedly a graveyard for presidential hopefuls, Soapy evidently had decided that an unprecedented sixth term as governor of Michigan would make a more promising jumping-off point.