Nation: Verdict on the Florida Judge

• Share

After the Senate rejected Judge G. Harrold Carswell for the Supreme Court, Carswell decided to run for the Florida Republican Senate nomination with the motto: "This time the people will decide." Last week they did so—resoundingly. They gave 62.7% of the primary vote to Carswell's opponent, Representative William Cramer.

The result was unsurprising because Carswell early in the campaign had made a strategic blunder: he banked on forcing Cramer out of the race because of his own sudden prominence and because of Southern indignation over the Senate's Supreme Court decision. President Nixon as much as said that the Senate had sullied the South's honor by turning Carswell down; Carswell's election would represent vindication.

In league with Republican Governor aude Kirk and Republican Senator Edward Gurney, Carswell reasoned that ramer would wither in the face of such obvious firepower. But Cramer retorted that Nixon had originally urged him to get into the race. The President, by ' his silence and neutrality, lent credence to Cramer's cry. White House Political Aide Harry Dent, who had ventured prematurely into the fight on Carswell's side, beat a hasty retreat; he has yet to regain Nixon's full favor. Deflated but still determined, Carswell plodded on, displaying a propensity for maladroitness on the stump that made his prior performance on the bench glitter by comparison. Once he observed: "When I'm Senator from Florida, the present level of mediocrity in the Senate, whatever it is, will be raised." His speeches came out sounding like legal opinions. His collars seemed too big; his glasses tended to slide )down his nose. He was impatient with questioners. Instead of sighting on Cramer, he often seemed to be running against those he termed "ultra-liberals," particularly Senators Birch Bayh, who led the forces that denied him Senate confirmation, and Ted Kennedy. A Carswell sign read: BYE-BYE LYH; HEAH COMES THE JUDGE, and he told Florida matrons at kaffeeklatsches: "When I walk down that [Senate] aisle on January 3 to take the oath of office and I meet Senator Bayh, I know you'll be standing there with me."

Cramer is a far cry from an ultraliberal. After helping to organize the modern G.O.P. in Florida and serving eight terms in the House, his claim to the state's "Mr. Republican" title is valid. The worst Carswell could say about him was that Cramer served on the

House committee that writes civil rights legislation with "that notorious liberal" Emanuel Celler.

Feud with Kirk. Cramer said worse things about Carswell, not all of them true. Labeling his opponent a "busing judge," Cramer falsely implied that Carswell decisions as a federal appeals court judge called for busing pupils outside their neighborhoods. "A no-busing congressman can be elected to the United States Senate," Cramer shouted from the stump. "A busing judge cannot be elected. On the record, Bill Cramer is a no-busing congressman; on the record, his opponent is a busing judge."