National Affairs: Straws in Maine

In the nation’s earliest general election, Maine voters will toss their traditional straws into the political wind Sept. 10. Holding the attention of most of the weather-vane watchers is the race between Maine’s first Democratic governor in 20 years, Edmund S. Muskie, 42, and his Republican challenger, Willis A. Trafton Jr., a wealthy, 37-year-old attorney from Auburn. Muskie has campaigned hard on a record that some of Maine’s most influential newspapers, e.g., the independent Gannett chain, have found good, while Trafton has appealed largely to Maine’s Republicanism. By campaigning with U.S. Senators Margaret Chase Smith and Frederick G. Payne at his side. Trafton has appealed for the election of a state administration that will support Dwight Eisenhower in November.

Also being eyed by political sign seekers are the contests for Maine’s three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, all now held by Republicans. As the campaign neared its end, neither side could find much real assurance in the outlook.

Muskie and Trafton were running neck and neck, the First and Third Congressional Districts looked safely Republican, but in the Second (Lewiston-Augusta) District, Frank M. Coffin, 36, Democratic state chairman, was given an even chance to become the first Democratic Congressman from Maine in 22 years.