National Affairs: Lee's Defeat

Seeking the G.O.P. nomination for an unprecedented third term as governor, Utah's bumptious J. Bracken Lee was unexpectedly—and unceremoniously—trounced in last week's bitter Republican primary. So weary were Utah's Republicans of Lee that they chose instead—by a vote of 62,294 to 54,282—a newcomer to politics, egg-bald George Dewey Clyde, 58, whose only political recommendation was that, as commissioner of the Utah Water and Power Board, he campaigned hard and successfully for passage of the popular Upper Colorado River bill (TIME, Feb. 12 et ante).

Chief architect of Lee's defeat was Utah's senior Senator, Arthur V. Watkins, who has feuded with Maverick Lee...