On November 7, voters of the second Middlesex district, which includes the University, will go to the polls along with the rest of the nation. With the campaign issues mainly local, they will be voting for one congressman, three state representatives, a state senator, and a state administration.
Although student votes are not expected to be as numerous, and therefore not as important as in 1948, the University community is still involved. Beside the presence of a graduate in this district's state senate race, there is also the fact that Plan E, always strongly backed by many members of the community, is an important campaign issue.
The College's political organizations have named the slates they will support, staked out the territories they will canvass, and planned their methods. Results in some of the districts are so clear cut because of voting habits in those places that the parties plan scarcely any fight.
In the second Middlesex district, for example, incumbent congressman Kennedy's re-election will probably not be strongly contested. This district is considered almost completely Democratic, even by the Republicans. While Celeste will formally oppose him, Kennedy should win.
Fight Localizes
It is around the state offices that this district's political struggle will center, members of both parties agree. For state representative, Democrats Sullivan, Watson and Goode oppose Republicans Lindstrom, Serino and Swan. Amory will try to oust the incumbent state senator, O'Brien.
So far, the most important issues are "gerrymandering" and Plan E. Rue to the character of the population, both parties are also charging each other, as usual, with discrimination. On this last issue, politicians admit, the charges are at least partly true on both sides.
Thus, the Democrats, who count heavily on urban votes, have a ticket top heavy with Irish Catholics. The Republican slate, on the other hand, has a great many Protestants with English names--who live largely in surburban and rural districts.
Gerrymandering Squabble
As for gerrymandering, the Democrats charge that Republicans mapped out extremely abnormal districts when they were in power after the last census, and that a Democratic General Court--the legislature in Massachusetts--will straighten them out. The Republicans do not try to deny this charge; they merely state that the Democrats will surely gerrymander the state their way.
The Democrats now hold a majority in the lower chamber of the General Court, but the upper house is deadlocked, 20-20. So, unless there are a great many upsets, expected at present by neither side, the question of which party will gerrymander and the fate of Plan E (the city manager system combined with proportional representation) will probably be decided by the senate race.
And, unless a great many voters have changed their minds since 1948, O'Brien, one of Plan E's strongest opponents, will still be representing the second Middlesex district November 8. He won 38,000 to 10,000, in the last election, and Democratic registration is higher now than then.
O'Brien introduced a bill during this term to make it impossible for any city to install the Plan, a system under which Cambridge itself operates. He has sworn to continue the fight against the Plan, a battle that has been going on since the legislature added the Plan in 1938 to its list of governmental systems from which Massachusetts' cities can choose.
Many Republicans had hoped for a strong state administration ticket to bolster the party in outlying districts, and were disappointed when Coolidge and Ayer gained the nomination for governor and attorney general respectively. Ayer won over Fingold, famous for smashing the Revere rackets four years ago; even staunch Republicans admit, off the record, that Fingold would have strengthened the ticket immeasurably. Democrats, incidentally, are pointing to this case as an example of discrimination on the part of Republican primary voters.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are trying to answer charges of graft and waste in the Dever administration. Republicans are pointing to the enormous construction program in a time of inflation, closed bidding on state contracts, and incumbent Attorney General Kelly's "improper" handling of damage suits against the M.T.A.
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