Mar. 7, 1964 - The final weekend of the New Hampshire primary campaign opened today with a flurry of activity that projected two non-candidates into the spotlight. Voting takes place Tuesday.
Supporters of Henry Cabot Lodge asserted they had assurance that the Ambassador to South Vietnam was an active candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination. The assurance, they said, came from George Cabot Lodge, elder son of the Ambassador.
On the other side of the political fence, Democratic leaders sought to avoid embarrassment for President Johnson by trying to channel a movement to push Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy as a Vice-Presidential possibility into a write-in campaign for both men.
About 100,000 persons are expected to vote in the Republican primary. They will be watched over by a horde of newsmen and poll-takers who have flooded the state in the last few days.
The tabulation of the nation’s first primary of 1964 will probably be slow, even with television coverage, since Republican voters will have a paper ballot that takes 11 minutes to read and mark. In addition, each town will have three other state ballots to offer voters.
The polls will be open at differing times throughout the state. In Concord, the polls will be open from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.
Winning the New Hampshire primary would not necessarily ensure nomination, but an early defeat could hurt a candidate’s chances.
In his final news conference of the campaign, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a Republican candidate for President, said that if Robert F. Kennedy attracted more votes than President Johnson, the President “would have a real bear on his hands.”
Since New Hampshire Governor John King said last Monday that he planned to write in the Attorney General’s name on the Democratic ballot as his preference for Vice President, other party leaders have tried to induce voters to make sure they also write in Mr. Johnson’s name for President.
