Mirage

Boston's handsome Hotel Somerset has a large number of public rooms, and every election night these halls are occupied by confident politicians and their friends and workers. This year was no different.

A week ago Tuesday night, while Republican Governor John A. Volpe was holding a reception in the Louis XIV Ballroom, across the hallway in the Empress Room was Lt. Gov, Elliot L. Richardson '41 and his people, and down the hallway was the Democratic State Treasurer Robert Q. Crane. Two friends of Crane's, on the way to his reception in the Princess Room, stopped by Volpe's celebration. They watched the TV cameras, listend to the band play "Louis, Louis," gulped down a glass of punch, and left. On the way out, one turned to the other and said, "There really aren't many Republicans in there; most of them are Italians."

If he had said those words two years ago at Valpe's previous victory party, most Massachusetts Republicans would have had to agreed with him. John Volpe had been elected governor then, as he had in 1960, on a coalition of Republicans and alienated Democrats--a group which included the state's large number of Italians and wall-to-wall Irish.

But last week the Republicans captured the state's three highest offices for the second consecutive time and gained a seat in the U.S. Senate. The fact that this second sweep was won with large pluralities had led many Massachusetts Republicans to hope that the usually Democratic Irish and Italian voters had elected the Republican candidates mainly because they were Republicans. They felt that the victory did not reflect ethnic voting or a protest against poor candidates offered by the Democratic party. Heightening this belief was the knowledge that the Democratic candidates for governor and senator were energetic, able, good men. If these hopes were true then the Republican party in Massachusetts was at the beginning of a proud new day.

But the Republican showing in the races for lower state offices and especially for the General Court (Massachusetts' legislature), indicate that the party has undergone no re-birth. Democrats were re-elected as state treasurer, auditor, and secretary of state by overwhelming majorities despite serious Republican efforts to capture these offices. In the House of Representatives, Democrats still hold a two-thirds majority (170-69), and the Senate margin is almost as wide (26-14). Republicans, citing that 107 House and 15 Senate seats went by default to the Democrats, claimed that they could have done better if they had contested more seats. This conclusion, however, is doubtful, as the case of Milton suggests.

Milton is a pleasant suburban town on the South Shore with a large upper middle-class, well-educated Irish population. Milton went for Volpe, Brooke Richardson, and Sargent, but at the same time overwhelmingly chose two Democrats as representatives over two hard-fighting, attractive Republicans.

"Respectability is the problem," according to one Massachusetts political observer who claims that the suburban Irish-Italian vote is the pivotal one in state-wide elections. He claims that this bloc, especially the Irish part of it, was anxious to repudiate past performances by Democrats. The bloc therefore passed over any Democrat who had a connection with old-fashioned politics and voted for the Republican. He cited the re-election of of Secretary of State Kevin H. White, Treasurer Robert Q. Crane, and Auditor Thaddeus Buczko, all Democrats and all men who have no connection with the Democratic party of the 1940's and 1950's. Their re-election, he says, demonstrates that the subruban vote will readily turn to a respectable or new-breed Democrat.

In its anxiety to repudiate the past, however, this suburban vote rejected some excellent men, such as Endicott Peabody '42 and Edward J. McCormack.

McCormack and Peabody, by suffering their second consecutive political losses last week, showed that they cannot win. Although both have admirable records, they are apparently associated in voters' minds with the Democratic party of the 1950's. The failure of both men to win elections in the last few years will prevent their being considered for office at the next convention in 1970 and also ought to demonstrate to the convention the extent of the stigma of the 1950's.

At the 1970 Democratic State Convention, a number of new faces, especially from the energetic liberal wing of the General Court, will probably appear.

The likely rise of new respectable Democrats in the next four years suggests a comeback in 1970, unless the Republicans can find some other reasons to convince the pivotal subruban vote to remain with them. Massachusetts Republicans have never really had an opportunity to demonstrate to the electorate the positive advantages of Republicanism. The next four years will be their chance.