Alf Landon Far in Lead for Republican Nomination at Convention in Cleveland

"Governor Landon is much closer to the nomination than Herbart Hoover was at this same time in 1928. It's all over but calling the roll, in my opinion." Thus did a prominent Republican politician of Massachusetts sum, up the pre-convention situation, as Grand Old Partizans of New England prepare to entrain for the Cleveland Convention, which opens June 9.

The political expert, who asked that his name be not used, said that although originally he had favored Hoover as the nominee, he thought that now there was nothing that could stop the Kansas Chief Executive from sweeping the Convention on the first ballot when the roll is called on the third day of the gathering.

The action that clinched the nomination for Landon, this politician felt, was the announcement earlier in the week that J. Henry Roraback's uninstructed Connecticut delegation would vote for the "Kansas Coolidge" on the first ballot. This was the first break in the solid ranks of the free Eastern delegations, and what "Stop Landon" movement there was collapsed, in the opinion of the annonymous Bay State Republican.

He even felt now that Connecticut had broken that New York's bloc of 90 might cast at least half their total for Landon on the first ballot. Even if the Kansan doesn't pile up the necessary 501 votes, when the roll is first called, he said that some doubtful states might change their votes so that more than a majority could be counted for Landon, making a second ballot unnecessary. This is what happened in the 1928 Democratic Convention when Al Smith was nominated.

Talk of the proposed "coalition" ticket with a prominent anti-New Deal Democrat receiving the Democratic nomination was laughed off.