Primaries: More of the Backlash

This appears to be a great year for losers in U.S. politics. Last week, in Indiana's presidential primary, Barry Goldwater rolled up 260,557 votes, won all the state's 32 Republican Convention delegates. But who got the headlines? Why, none other than GOPerennial Harold Stassen, who got 104,200 of what can only be described as protest votes. On the Democratic side, Governor Matthew Welsh, a favorite-son stand-in for President Johnson, amassed 368,401 votes. But who got the headlines? Why, none other than Alabama's trouble-hunting Governor George Wallace, with 170,146.

Wallace campaigned in Indiana as "a man with a mission," spent about $50,000 on his effort against what he calls the "civil wrongs" bill. In conservative Indiana, he hoped to surpass the 34% of the Democratic vote he received in last month's Wisconsin primary. His 29.8% fell short of the mark, but Wallace took it as a triumph anyway. "This vote," he cried, "is shaking the eyeteeth of the liberals in both parties."

At that, civil rights forces did have cause for concern, for the Indiana voting showed the so-called white "backlash" still in evidence. Wallace actually carried populous Lake County, which includes industrial, heavily unionized Gary, Hammond and East Chicago. He also won in adjacent Porter County, a recently developed steel center that has been afflicted with racial conflict. If the backlash in such areas continues through November, it could cause serious trouble for the national Democratic ticket.

In his own Alabama, Wallace scored the first real victory of his noisy presidential campaign. Alabama's voters overwhelmingly chose a Wallace-backed slate of ten presidential electors over a slate, endorsed by U.S. Senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman, pledged to support the national Democratic ticket. What that means is that Alabamians will probably not be able to vote for Lyndon Johnson in November, since his electors will not be on the ballot. And no matter how Alabamians vote, the Wallace electors will do as Wallace says.