It is understood that a new candidate is in the race for the presidency of the Harvard Young Republican Club.

Alec B. Dawson '59, HYRC operations director, is expected to announce his candidacy within a week. Harold Hestnes '58 and David F. Peterson '59 have already entered the race.

A Dawson supporter, A. Chris Meyer, publisher of the Harvard Times, said that if his choice enters he will be the strongest candidate in the race Meyer stated, "If Dawson runs he will probably be supported by every member of the club that last year supported Smith. In his capacity as operations director he has served the club in such an effective fashion that I am sure he would command the support of a majority of the club."

The presence of a third candidate in the contest could lead to an even more wide open race than the heated battle which raged last year between Thomas A. Stalker '58 and the incumbent president of the HYRC, Norman William Smith, Jr. '58. In that election Peterson supported the losing Stalker, while both Dawson and Hestnes supported Smith.

Smith has stated, however, that he is "entirely neutral in regard to the candidates for the HYRC presidency."

Hestnes, on the contrary, claimed that Smith was supporting him. He said further that under present circumstances Dawson's possible entrance into the race would in no way affect his own position.

Peterson also claimed that Dawson's being in the race would not affect his intentions "one iota."