THE CONGRESS: New Faces of 1956

In U.S. politics, the thundering cannonade of the presidential campaign often drowns out the staccato rattle of small-arms fire along the front lines. Yet it is in the outcome of small, deadly skirmishes in the 435 U.S. congressional districts that control of the House of Representatives lies-and control of the House can make or break a presidential administration. In 1956, with both parties struggling desperately to control the House (the Democrats now have a 29-vote margin), Republicans and Democrats have come up with fresh, fascinating faces to run for congressional office -and to an astonishing degree the newcomers are involved in the closest House contests.

In district after district, rosy-cheeked freshmen are giving oldtimers the closest shaves of their lives. California’s Eleventh District is a case in point. There, seven-term Republican Representative Leroy Johnson, 68, is hard pressed by 38-year-old Democratic State Assemblyman John J. McFall. Incum bent Johnson, World War I combat pilot, is running mostly on his House seniority and is reliving his long past (“I don’t think they should have killed the League of Nations”). Challenger McFall is running on his own energies and ambitions, and, like many another Demo cratic House candidate, is not depending on the national ticket’s coattails. Says he :”I’ll let Stevenson take care of Ike. I’m just talking about Johnson.”; Similarly, Minnesota’s scholarly, seven-term Republican Representative Walter Judd, 58, has been scared stiff by Democrat Joseph Robbie, a 40-year-old Hubert H. Humphrey type (right down to being, like Humphrey, an import from South Dakota). Although he still has the edge in the state’s Fifth District, Walter Judd may nave been hurt by the fact that many of his constituents were thrown out of work by a shutdown of the Minneapolis-Moline Co. farm-implement plant. In Missouri’s Sixth District, Democratic In cumbent William Hull Jr., 50, is threatened by Republican Stanley I. Dale Jr., 35, who scored a remarkable upset when elected mayor of Democratic St. Joseph in 1950 and another impressive victory when re-elected in 1954.

Even in the Democratic South, some relatively young Republicans are giving Democratic incumbents a rough go. In Georgia’s Fifth District, Atlanta Lawyer Randolph William Thrower, 43, former filling-station attendant, FBI agent and Marine captain, is close on the heels of arch-segregationist Representative James C. Davis, 61, who was Georgia’s presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention, and has since held carefully stacked House subcommittee hearings on integration in the District of Columbia’s schools (TIME, Oct.1). In Kentucky’s Sixth District, Fayette County’s Republican Sheriff Wallace (“Wah Wah”) Jones, 30, is making headway against Democratic Incumbent John Watts, 54-Reason: Wah Wah’s reputation as a star on Kentucky’s famously infamous 1948-49 basketball team.*In Virginia’s hot “Fighting Ninth” District, Republican William Wampler, a Representative in 1952 at 26, defeated in 1954, is a strong challenger against Incumbent Democrat William Pat Jennings, 37.

In other bitterly fought battles, both parties have placed a premium on military-hero types. Michigan Republican Charles Ernest (“Chuck”) Chamberlain, 39, skippered a subchaser in the Atlantic during World War II, is favored over scholarly Democratic Incumbent Don Hayworth, 58, in the state’s Sixth District. Running for the seat vacated in Michigan’s Seventh District by Republican Veteran Jesse Wolcott, retiring at 63, is is G.O.P. Candidate Robert J. Mclntosh, 34, Air Force fighter pilot, who flew 31 missions over Europe during World War II, was shot down four days after Dday, spent the summer of 1944 working with the French underground. Mclntosh is rated neck and neck with Democrat Ira Dean McCoy, 67. Holding a narrow margin over Texas only Republican incumbent, Bruce Alger, 38, onetime Princeton football center, is Dallas County District Attorney Henry M. (for Menasco) Wade, 41, who enlisted in the Navy as an apprentice seaman, rose to lieutenant j.g., served two years in the Pacific aboard the carrier Hornet. After one defeat (by 314 votes in 1954) by Republican Frederic Coudert Jr., 58, in Manhattan’s17th District, Democrat Anthony Akers, 41, is counting on help from a fellow PT-boat skipper in the Pacific: Massachusetts’ Senator John Kennedy.

The hero records were not all made in military service. Perhaps the most heroic image of all is that of towering (6 ft. 4½ in., 240 Ibs.) Paul Sutton, 46, running against Republican William Broomfield, 34, in Michigan’s 18th District. For ten years Sutton starred on the radio program Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Even so, he is losing.

The most attractive new faces of 1956 belong to the ladies. In Florida’s Sixth District, Mrs. Dorothy Smith, 39, is a 98-lb. dynamo in her race against Democratic Incumbent Paul Rogers, 35. She is conducting a Kefauver-type handshaking campaign, but says: “I hope I don’t mumble like Kefauver.” In Idaho’s First District, Republican Louise Shadduck, 39, is just beginning to make progress against 50-year-old Incumbent Democrat Grade Pfost (pronounced, as in her 1952 campaign slogan, “Tie Your Vote to a Solid Post”). In the populous Sixth District of New Jersey, Republican Assemblywoman Florence Dwyer is a real threat to hardworking, young (36) Democratic Representative Harrison (“Pete”) Williams Jr. And in West Virginia, Republican Mary Elkins, 53, wife of onetime (1919-25) Senator Davis Elkins, has an advantage over most House candidates in her race against Democratic Incumbent Harley Staggers, 49. A Washington socialite with a West Virginia address, Mrs. Elkins has only to pick up her telephone to bring into the district such leading Republicans as Vice President Nixon, Seriate Republican Leader William Knowland and Secretary of Labor James Mitchell.

In the twists and turns of the nation’s congressional -district politics, some of the newcomers will lose because of inexperience, others because of influences beyond their control, e.g., the presidential tides. But many will make the grade, and, with the congressional races figuring as a tossup, the U.S. House of Representatives will probably be controlled next year by the party that has managed to present the most attractive new faces to the district voters.

*Jones was one of the two honest members (the other: Cliff Barker) of the original five. Alex Groza, Ralph Beard and Dale Barnstable all admitted taking bribes to shave parlay points.