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Write-In Campaign for RFK

Mar. 5, 1964 - A growing write-in campaign may produce more votes for Robert F. Kennedy for Vice President than Lyndon B. Johnson will get for President in the New Hampshire Democratic primary next Tuesday.

Sponsors of the drive, including Governor John King, now are urging write-in votes for the President too. But the Concord Monitor, the state capital newspaper, commented in an editorial today that “the magic name of Kennedy” might produce an upset next Tuesday “as startling as Senator Estes Kefauver’s beating President Truman in a New Hampshire primary” in 1952.

Neither Mr. Kennedy nor Mr. Johnson is officially on the ballot. Mr. Johnson is taken for granted in New Hampshire as the Democratic Presidential nominee. For that reason, many Democrats may not take the trouble to write his name on the ballot.

No one, of course, is urging that Mr. Kennedy’s name be written in as a Presidential choice. But if the concentrated drive to endorse Mr. Kennedy for Vice President produces more write-in votes for him than Mr. Johnson polls, the President could be damaged politically.

Even if Mr. Johnson comes out ahead, a big vote for Mr. Kennedy would put strong and probably unwelcome pressure on the President, who has made it clear he wants a free hand to choose his own running mate. Either outcome could strain relations between Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kennedy, who have never been close, either personally or politically.

Mr. Kennedy has given no indication that he wants to be a Vice-Presidential candidate. A source close to him insisted today that the Attorney General had nothing to do with the New Hampshire write-in campaign. Some Democrats in New Hampshire believe, however, that persons in Washington who support Mr. Kennedy for the Vice Presidency have given tacit encouragement to the campaign.

Until today, Mr. Kennedy had made no move to dissociate himself from the write-in drive. But Edwin Guthman, spokesman for the Justice Department, issued a statement tonight saying that Mr. Kennedy “wishes to discourage any efforts on his behalf in New Hampshire or elsewhere.”

It appeared likely, however, that with the disavowal coming less than a week before the voting, he probably would still poll a large vote. This is due to several factors. One is that the Kennedy name is widely admired among New Hampshire Democrats, who supported John F. Kennedy strongly in 1960. Another is that many of the Democrats in the state are Roman Catholic. In addition, virtually every leading Democrat has endorsed the Kennedy drive.

All these factors combined with the emotions aroused in New Hampshire by the assassination of John F. Kennedy, have produced strong sentiment for putting Robert Kennedy on the Democratic ticket.



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