Abstract

The Party Vetoes the People

In the April 23, 1968 primary elections in Pennsylvania, Senator Eugene McCarthy received 428,259 democratic votes while the combined votes for U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey were 72, 263. The preference of voters indicated as their political feeling, namely, that they oppose a Johnson Administration candidate and prefer somebody else, particularly Senator McCarthy. Professional Democrats in Pennsylvania, operating an organization that had lost the last two gubernatorial elections and its statewide registration edge over the Republicans, received two stunning blows this year. Their effect was increased by the fact that former Governor David Lawrence had died in 1966 and was no longer around to guide, manage and oversee the deliberations of the state party's policy committee. The first blow was the announcement by Johnson that he would not run for re-election.