Word: finneganisms
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...control of Congress switched back and forth by the narrowest of margins over the last decade, political managers turned increasingly to the study of state and district elections as a possible key to national hopes. One of those who pored over the state election ledgers was James Finnegan of Pennsylvania, onetime accounting student, now Adlai Stevenson's campaign manager. The result of Finnegan's studies: a Democratic campaign strategy that has been dubbed "Operation Reverse Coattails...
...elections, Finnegan found some statistics that especially fascinated him. In state after state, Stevenson had run behind the Democratic candidates for the Senate and House. Ten Democratic Senators were elected in states carried by Ike. In 32 Northern states, Stevenson carried 61 congressional districts while the Democratic House candidates carried 92. In six border states, Adlai won 18 districts, and the House candidates took 30. The ratio in ten Southern states was 59 to 92. To Jim Finnegan's close-calculating mind, the 1956 answer was obvious: Stevenson must associate his campaign more closely with those of the state...
Help for a Turncoat. Finnegan therefore insisted that Stevenson invite Florida's smooth George Smathers, chairman of the Senate Democratic* Campaign Committee, and Ohio's rough ex-Coal Miner Mike Kirwan, chairman of the House Campaign Committee, along on last week's conference tour (see below), which was the opening phase of Operation Reverse Coattails. In that operation, Smathers and Kirwan figure to play a key role...
Help from an Old Coat. While most of the top Democrats were out on the road, some organizational problems were still unsettled. Open in Washington were separate offices for Paul Butler's national committee, Jim Finnegan's campaign headquarters and Archibald Alexander's Volunteers for Stevenson-Kefauver. Jurisdictional boundaries among the three had not been decided, and Paul Butler did not help by claiming that his organization would handle "about nine-tenths of the campaign work." Finnegan's role, said Butler, would be simply that of "personal aide to Governor Stevenson in handling the traveling activities...
Regional Readings. Came the weekend, and so, too, came Estes Kefauver, fresh from a triumphant homecoming in Madisonville, Tenn. (where he expressed his homespun concern that "bigness is encroaching on Main Street"). The Keef's arrival in Libertyville prompted a new decree by Jim Finnegan: henceforth, Estes will be welded to Adlai with a hyphen, thereby assuring the proper identity of the Stevenson-Kefauver "team." This week teammates and staff climbed aboard a chartered DC-7, headed out on a week-long trip. Purpose: 1) to take regional readings from politicos in the Southwest, Northwest, Middle West...