Last spring this did not seem to be the case. Governor Furcolo had been roundly defeated by his own party on an attempt to initiate a state sales tax, and certain scandals in his administration were revealed. A floor fight for the Democratic Attorney General nomination had raised the issue of bossism and threatened to turn the Convention into a free-for-all. The Republicans were convinced that they had the issues and the candidate--George Fingold, the only man to survive the 1956 Democratic sweep.

Suddenly all this changed on September 1, when, as the Boston Globe headlined, "Fingold Drops Dead." With the primary eight days away, the GOP found itself without a candidate to head the ticket, and, moreover, without a single incumbent on the entire state-wide slate.

Christian A. Herter, Jr. '41 and Charles Gibbons--both of whom had originally sought the nomination for Governor--unselfishly stepped forward to offer their services. After a hasty exchange of telegrams and three ballots, the State Committee picked Gibbons, who had received only 42 votes at the Convention.

Rather than ease the situation, this only brought new problems. The ballots had already been printed, and the Committe had the option of printing and distributing hundreds of thousands of stickers or relying on a write-in vote to nominate Gibbons in the primary. Even with a feverish effort, they could not prevent the mismarking of thousands of ballots.

Just as the Gibbons forces were getting organized for the campaign, more trouble developed. Charles B. Rugg, a Republican State Committee Counsel, warned that there was some question as to the nominee's legal eligibility, since he had run for State Senator as well as Governor in the primary. It took a favorable ruling from the Democratic Attorney General to clear up the matter.

Starting with a hastily-formed organization. Gibbons had the additional difficulty of raising campaign funds. Only recently has he begun to receive the necessary money from the badly deflated Republican war chest.

Although Gibbons served in the state legislature for over 10 years--including two as Speaker of the House--he has not held an elective office for close to two years. Coupled with his late start, this has presented him with a real obstacle--getting himself and his position known to the electorate. In a year characterized by public indifference, this is an almost impossible task.

The Republican nominee is hitting on three main issues: waste, 'wild spending' by the Administration, and an excess of poor political appointments.

Gibbons is quick to point out that Massachusetts, for the first time in its history, failed to have a balanced budget this year. He claims that the Governor is planning to call a special session of the lgislature after the elections to impose new taxes in order to change this situation.

He himself, rather than increase taxes, would cut down on costs.

The usual charge of corruption has come up during the campaign, especially in regard to the Department of Public Works. Specifically, the charge is that large sums of money were spent on rented power lawn-mowers--money that went to "dummy corporations" and other dubious sources.

A legislative committee headed by Sen. Phillip G. Bowker (R-Brookline) recently exonerated the Administration of any wrongdoing in this case, but Gibbons has termed this a "whitewash."

For his part, Gov. Furcolo has been running on his record, emphasizing the positive achievements of his administration. He is especially proud of his educational program, which will provide for the establishment of nine junior colleges and large amounts of state and private scholarship funds.

A key issue in the campaign, the Democrats say, is unemployment. The recession hit the state hard and Furcolo points out that his administration extended unemployment insurance benefits from 26 to 39 weeks and liberalized the vocational retraining program during the crisis. Furcolo mentions that his bill to float a $50 million bond issue to finance state projects and create jobs was killed by the Republican controlled Senate.

This battle between the Governor and the Senate is another issue which should help the Democrats. Last spring, Furcolo proposed withholding state income tax; this, he said, would cut down the large number of tax delinquents in the state and bring in the millions of dollars needed to balance the budget without putting any additional burden on the people. The Senate killed it on three separate occasions after it had passed the House.