National Affairs: One Month After

Nearly a month after the election, the Republicans and Democrats alike were still shaking off the dust of the campaign, picking up new bearings and keeping an eye on the ballot boxes. Items:

¶Oregon’s Senator Wayne Morse, who bolted the Republican Party during the presidential campaign, announced that he would vote with Republicans in the organization of the new Senate, thus assuring the G.O.P. of a bare majority, 49-47. To vote with the Democrats, he said, would give the Eisenhower Administration “a narrowly drawn excuse for legislative irresponsibility.” But Maverick Morse, who made it clear that he would be voting against the Republicans as often as with them, refused to discuss committee assignments with either party. In 1956, he said, he will run for re-election as an Independent.

¶One of the closest races for the House was finally decided, subject to demands for a recount. In Colorado, Democrat Wayne N. Aspinwall was re-elected over Republican State Senator Howard Shults, 39,676 votes to 39,647—a majority of exactly 29. Current breakdown of the new House: Republicans, 221; Democrats, 212; Independent, 1; one seat vacant (since the death, two days after Election Day, of Illinois’ Democrat Adolph J. Sabath—TIME, Nov. 17).

¶The official count in New Mexico put Democratic Senator Dennis Chavez 5,071 votes ahead of Republican Patrick J. Hurley, who was still demanding a recount.

¶To bolster the battered Democratic National Committee, Chairman Stephen A. Mitchell named as his deputy ex-Newsman Clayton A. Fritchey, White House administrative assistant who served as adviser to Stevenson headquarters during the campaign. Fritchey’s main job: to organize Democratic research and publicity for a unified opposition to the new Administration.

A New York Times survey in 48 states estimated the total cost of the 1952 campaign to both parties: at least $32,155,251.