Nation: Hughes Who in New Jersey

From the start of his campaign for Governor of New Jersey, Democrat Richard J. Hughes, 52, knew that he would have to answer one big question: “Who’s Hughes?” A lawyer who had served ably but quietly on the New Jersey Superior Court, Hughes had never run for statewide office and was little known to the voters; in contrast, his Republican opponent, former U.S. Labor Secretary James P. Mitchell, had a nationwide reputation as one of the ablest men of Eisenhower’s Cabinet for seven years. But by last week, almost everyone in New Jersey knew who Dick Hughes was: he was the state’s Governor-elect, having defeated Mitchell by 38,000 votes out of 2,100,000 cast.

“Running for God.” The Hughes victory was kind of a classic—and so was the Mitchell loss. Handicapped by a broken leg that he suffered last June in a bathroom fall, Jim Mitchell campaigned in a lackluster, above-partisan-politics fashion. “He acted,” complained a Republican bitterly last week, “like he was running for God.” As the hand-picked candidate of New Jersey’s liberal Republican Senator Clifford Case, Mitchell was also hurt on election day by the number of conservative Republicans who simply stayed home.

But Hughes earned his own win. Working 20 hours a day, he logged a remarkable 60,000 miles in crisscrossing New Jersey. He visited each of the state’s 21 counties at least twice, concentrating on Republican strongholds. By his own estimate, he shook some 300,000 hands; he turned up at so many political and civic luncheons and dinners that he gained ten pounds. Backed by a Democratic kitty estimated at $800,000, he appeared on scores of radio and television spots, made a crisp, pleasing impression.

“You’ve Got It Made.” Hughes was helped by an end-of-campaign visit to New Jersey by John Kennedy. If nothing else, the President’s trip got Hughes a lot of publicity—and made his name better known. Hughes began to feel confident that his massive get-acquainted effort had paid off when, in the campaign’s closing days, he paid an unscheduled visit to a Hudson River dock and found himself recognized by about 150 working longshoremen. Cried one: “You’ve got it made.”

In his victory, Dick Hughes became the first Roman Catholic ever to be elected Governor of New Jersey (Mitchell likewise would have been). Hughes suffered a bitter personal loss two days before the election: his father, who as a small-town mayor had schooled him in politics, died of a heart attack. But the day after the election, his wife Betty announced that the Hugheses are expecting a tenth child in May. Said she: “It will keep me busy. I was afraid of being bored, now that the campaign is over.” As Governor of New Jersey, Dick Hughes will have plenty of problems. But at least he will no longer have to answer that question about “Who’s Hughes?” He is a who.