Massachusetts: Bad Sign for Nixon

Normally, off-year congressional elections turn on little more than local issues and personalities. These are not normal times, however, and the results of last week’s contest for a vacant seat from Massachusetts’ Sixth District carried implications far beyond the gritty shoe factories at Lynn or the fishing boats off the gray Gloucester coast.

Both candidates took strong, contrasting stands on national issues, turning the contest into a virtual mini-referendum on the Nixon Administration. The Republican, State Senator William Saltonstall, 42, campaigned almost down the line with the Administration on Viet Nam, the ABM and tax reform. In contrast, Democrat Michael J. Harrington, 33, a state representative, opposed Administration policies, attacking the ABM, calling for total withdrawal from Viet Nam by 1970 and criticizing high military spending.

Although the district had not had a Democratic Congressman since 1877, recent shifts have put power in the hands of independents. Aware of this, both parties poured in major out-of-state support. The Democrats sent in Hubert Humphrey, Edmund Muskie, George McGovern and Allard Lowenstein. The G.O.P. countered with staff men and professional advice from the national party headquarters in Washington. Senator Edward Brooke returned home to plump for Saltonstall, and Edward Kennedy made radio spots for Harrington.

Other Factors. Harrington won by a margin of 6,500 out of 137,000 votes cast. This was a major defeat for the Nixon Administration, indicating dissatisfaction with its policies, particularly Viet Nam. It was the third G.O.P. House seat lost to the Democrats in special elections since Nixon took office, and was particularly galling as the seat had been held for 19 years by William H. Bates, ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee and backer of military intervention in Viet Nam.

Saltonstall, son of former Senator and Governor Leverett Saltonstall, had a clear advantage with his famous name, although he was a less engaging campaigner than the somewhat wooden Harrington. But Saltonstall carried his fealty to Nixonian policies to extremes. He also engaged Harrington in two televised debates. This contrasted the Democrat’s rapid-fire manner of speech with Saltonstall’s inarticulateness.

Harrington, whose father was mayor of Salem, is an outspoken maverick whose independence is equaled by his ambition. Before the election was won, he was already talking of his next target: taking on the popular Ed Brooke for Senator in 1972.