New Mexico

A coalition of McCarthy and Kennedy (with strong, progressive Mexican-American support) forces is very close to taking over the state organization. They controlled about forty-five per cent of last summer's party convention and won a proportionate number of seats on the national convention delegation. Party elections are in January; following the November elections the Kennedy-McCarthy coalition hopes to organize precinct by precinct to rest control from the corrupt party organization in January.

Most of the coalition activists are working hard for liberal gubernatorial nominee Fabian Chavez, the first brown gubernatorial nominee in half a century.

Ohio

Unity and leadership is badly needed by both the liberals and the party itself. If the new leadership is liberal, they can probably have the party. Party senatorial nominee John Gilligan who gave up labor support rather than make a pre-convention endorsement of Humphrey will be swept under in the Nixon landslide. Young liberals like Dick Celeste of Cleveland formerly of the Peace Corps are hoping to build "a tangible issue orientation" within the party. From that base they might work out to local and then state-wide candidate contests. Gilligan, U.S. Rep. Charles Vanik, former astronaut John Glenn, and black Humphreyite Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes all may play prominent roles in a liberal-based party move to retake the state from a decade of GOP control.

Oklahoma

The conservative state is becoming more Republican each vear. In this context pro-war liberals like Sen. Fred Harris, co-chairman of Humphrey's pre-convention drive, are about the best McCarthy supporters expect. Moderates should continue to hold the party. In academic centers like Stillwater and Norman, McCarthy generated significant grass-roots organization. In Tulsa and Oklahoma City, liberals tended more to Kennedy, but worked for McCarthy in most cases following the assassination.

Oregon

Liberal McCarthvites have control of the party--but barely. They realize consolidation and a strong issue-base are the only answers to the problem. To meet it, a reformists league--either tightly knit like the CDC or a non-partisan group like ADA--will get together after the election. McCarthy and Kennedy people never merged following the assassination, since the McCarthy slate had been elected in the May primary. Much of the Kennedy organization was out-of-state, leaving the McCarthy machine few with which to form a viable coalition. Re-electing Sen. Wayne Morse occupy most liberals this fall.

Pennsylvania

Though McCarthy won the April presidential primary with the help of a substantial organization, most liberals are not hopeful that they will triumph over the entrenched machines. In the East, Philadelphia Mayor Tate runs "the forces of evil" as one McCarthy worker described it and in the West, Pittsburg Mayor Barr.

The McCarthy forces have formed an insurgent reformist group, the Coalition of Independent Democrats and Independents to try to take over the party. This fall they will fight for Sen. Joseph Clark's re-election; later they will attempt to build the grass-roots organization to overthrow "the forces of evil."

Rhode Island

An active McCarthy-Kennedy coalition has formed the Coalition for the New Politics which will work within the party to wrest control from the Doorley machine in Providence and the conservative organization at a state level. With Brown student Leonard O'Brien, chairman of Rhode Island Students for Kennedy, challenging a Doorley candidate in Providence this fall, the liberal move has begun. Leaders of the Coalition are state Sen. Mrs. Eleanor Slater and Newport councilman David Fenton. Sen. John O. Pastore can be expected to aid the old guard if the challenge becomes serious.

South Carolina