In a 65-47 vote, the national board of Americans for Democratic Action endorsed in Washington Saturday the Presidential candidacy of Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy (D.-Minn.).
John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics and national chairman of ADA, helped frame the final resolution, which Joseph L. Rauh Jr., a Washington lawyer, originally drafted.
Galbraith added a paragraph intended to soften the resolution for pro-Johnson supporters. It noted ADA's disagreement on the McCarthy endorsement but reaffirmed the anti-war sentiment of most ADA members.
John P. Roche, special consultant to President Johnson, announced his resignation from ADA after the meeting, and some labor union representatives also were reportedly threatening to resign. Galbraith said that he hoped the union would stay. There are at present eight unions affiliated with ADA, which was founded in 1948 by then Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D.-Minn.) and other liberals and labor leaders.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies and an ADA board member who supported the resolution, said the possible departure of labor from ADA "may be more of a blow to labor than to ADA." Last year labor contributed about 10 per cent of ADA's $258,000 income.
McCarthy was "delighted" by the endorsement, according to a statement issued by Blair Clark, his campaign manager, immediately after the ADA meeting.
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