POLITICAL NOTES: Touslehead II

One of the Massachusetts Republicans’ highest hopes this year is to unseat Democratic Governor Foster Furcolo, who is having his troubles with the state budget, unemployment and other problems. Last week, weeks ahead of schedule, the race got under way with the announcement by Christian Archibald Herter Jr., 38, that he will ask the party’s convention in June to nominate him for governor. Son of the U.S. Under Secretary of State and former Massachusetts governor (1953-57), young Herter is the G.O.P. counterpart of the

Democrats’ bundle of tousleheaded boyish charm, Senator John F. Kennedy.

Like Kennedy, Herter Jr. is a Harvard man (’41) and a World War II combat veteran (Army, Purple Heart, Croix de guerre) who afterwards took to politics. In 1950 and 1952 he won election to the Massachusetts house, resigned in 1953 to be Vice President Nixon’s administrative aide in Washington, later served as general counsel for Nixon’s G.O.P. hair shirt, Harold E. Stassen. In 1956 Herter ran successfully for the State Executive Council.*

Though Massachusetts Republicans applauded young Herter’s zeal, there were reservations about his political manners. In announcing early, he stepped on the toes of his father’s old friend and political supporter. Republican State Chairman Charles Gibbons, who was about to declare for governor himself. The next problem for young Herter, having put himself out front, was how to get the parade to form behind him.

* An elective governor’s advisory council, which survives from the Colonial period in three states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine) and originally was a buffer between the local assemblymen and the governor, appointed by the King.