Politics: Candidates by Any Name

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Sixteen years ago, John F. (for Francis, not Fitzgerald) Kennedy, a former employee of a Boston stockroom, followed a similarly named Senator into Massachusetts politics. The lesser J.F.K. parlayed his name into election as state treasurer. This year a Cleveland businessman who also happens to be John F. (for Francis) Kennedy is running for Ohio secretary of state. Others have potent patronymics supported by heritage. Adlai Stevenson III, Illinois state treasurer, is after a U.S. Senate seat. Robert Taft Jr. wants to represent Ohio in the Senate.

Leftfielders. Ambitious sons of famous fathers are hardly unique in politics. With personality continuing to outweigh party loyalty as a political asset, an increasing number of candidates are emerging from leftfield to give voters surprising options. Some examples:

> In Massachusetts, which sent the first Roman Catholic to the White House and the first black since Reconstruction to the Senate, a Jesuit priest, Robert Drinan, is seeking a Democratic congressional nomination. Drinan, 49, former vice president and law school dean of Boston College, has the support of a citizens' caucus as he seeks to oust Incumbent Democrat Philip Philbin, 71, a 14-term veteran who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Though Philbin is favored, Drinan's liberalism and antiwar stand are popular with his district's relatively affluent, middle-class voters. These qualities, combined with his age, make Drinan an attractive alternative for an electorate that is rapidly wearying of old-time machine politics.

> New York's senatorial contest will probably pick up another Democratic entry: Morris Abram, 51, who resigned the presidency of Brandeis University last week. An ambitious, Georgia-born lawyer, Abram has been running for political office since 1954, when he sought a House seat from his native state. He won a reputation for coolness in crisis for his handling of the 1969 seizure by students of a Brandeis building. Now he must overcome a challenge to his eligibility to qualify for this year's primary. Among those already in the contest are Theodore Sorensen, John Kennedy's onetime aide and now a partner in Abram's former law firm, Paul O'Dwyer, the unsuccessful 1968 candidate and brother of New York City's late mayor, and Congressman Richard Ottinger, a three-term Westchester liberal. The seat is now held by Republican Charles Goodell, a former Congressman who has been trying to attract a liberal, antiwar constituency. He may now be challenged for his party's nomination.