POLITICAL NOTES: California Battle Lines

As expected, California’s Senator William Fife Knowland last week said: “I shall be a candidate for governor of California in 1958.” He pledged himself to serve out his “term or terms,” but when asked if he might still be a presidential candidate in 1960, he replied: “No one has a crystal ball for 1960—or 1964.” Vice President Richard Nixon’s supporters immediately prepared to throw support to Knowland in his fight for the G.O.P. nomination against Governor Goodwin J. Knight, and the influential, conservative Los Angeles Times, already committed to Nixon for President in 1960, hinted that it liked Bill Knowland for governor.

Knowland’s high standing among California’s Republican regulars gives him a leg up in the June primary over Goodie Knight. But Knowland might well have a tougher time against his likely Democratic opponent, Attorney General Edmund G. (“Pat”) Brown, who has the advantage of California’s larger Democratic registration, is running ahead of Knowland in informal polls, and would doubtless get help from some unhappy Knight Republicans.