Kentucky: The City Slickers

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Wyatt is a high-strung, garrulous fellow who graduated with top honors from Louisville's Jefferson School of Law, at 35 became the youngest mayor in Louisville history, worked as Harry Truman's Federal Housing Administrator, helped found the red-hot liberal Americans for Democratic Action, and served as Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign manager in 1952. He is now Kentucky's lieutenant governor.

Between the two there are no holds barred. To Morton, the issue is simple. "I am convinced," says Morton, "that the people of Kentucky share my views on how best to meet the Communist threat. I am sure they will not send to the Senate a man whose election would give aid and comfort to his old A.D.A. friends who represent the policy of soft talk and concessions." Morton aligns Wyatt with "Leftwing Democrats" who want to "admit Red China to the U.N., do away with F.B.I. investigations and loyalty requirements for federal employees." A vote for Wyatt, says he, "is a vote of approval for those men who gave the President the advice to call off the air cover at the Bay of Pigs."

Liberal Wyatt goes all the way with J.F.K., claims that Morton has a record of "neglect and opposition—opposition to better salaries for teachers, better prices for farmers, decent medical care for all our senior citizens." And Wyatt is promising roads, reservoirs, river projects, federal aid to colleges, claims that Morton so badly needs Democratic votes to win that he avoids advertising himself as a Republican.

"Old Ankleblankets." Working to Wyatt's advantage is a 2-to-1 statewide Democratic registration lead, plus the support of Kentucky's two biggest newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times. Working against him is the longtime enmity of former Governor "Happy" Chandler, who, in charging that Wyatt used to wear spats, likes to call him "Old Ankleblankets." Fellow Democrat Chandler, who plans to run again for Governor next year, remains a Kentucky power, and he has not lifted a hand to help Wyatt.

On Morton's side is his record as an attractive, hard-working Senator who has made a national name for himself. And soon to start actively campaigning on his behalf is the man who is by all odds Kentucky's most popular politician—Republican Senator John Sherman Cooper. Both Wyatt and President Kennedy—in his forays into Kentucky—have been careful to praise Cooper while denouncing Morton.

As the campaign enters its final days, the outcome is anyone's guess—and that, too, is just the way the voters of Kentucky like it.