Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat

The Conservatives are still the stupid party, as witness the mess right-wing schismatics are making in New Jersey and Virginia

For conservatives, the New Jersey gubernatorial race at first seemed like a bad dream. Governor Richard Hughes, the incumbent, is a routine Liberal politician. And the Republican primary June 1 was won (narrowly) by State Senator Wayne Dumont, a “moderate” Republican who supported Scranton last year and would probably do so again as head of New Jersey’s convention delegation in 1968. His conservative primary opponent, State Senate President Charles Sandman, was defeated as a result of Birchite and other far Right votes cast against him and in favor of one Harold P. Poeschel, who had decided that Sandman (a preconvention supporter of Barry Goldwater) was not Right enough. This procedure was nothing new to New Jersey’s far Right. Earlier in the year, their convention votes had ousted, in favor of a “moderate,” the incumbent conservative president of New Jersey’s Young Republicans, Richard Plechner.

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Edward J. Bell

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The Conservatives are still the stupid party, as witness the mess right-wing schismatics are making in New Jersey and Virginia

For conservatives, the New Jersey gubernatorial race at first seemed like a bad dream. Governor Richard Hughes, the incumbent, is a routine Liberal politician. And the Republican primary June 1 was won (narrowly) by State Senator Wayne Dumont, a “moderate” Republican who supported Scranton last year and would probably do so again as head of New Jersey’s convention delegation in 1968. His conservative primary opponent, State Senate President Charles Sandman, was defeated as a result of Birchite and other far Right votes cast against him and in favor of one Harold P. Poeschel, who had decided that Sandman (a preconvention supporter of Barry Goldwater) was not Right enough. This procedure was nothing new to New Jersey’s far Right. Earlier in the year, their convention votes had ousted, in favor of a “moderate,” the incumbent conservative president of New Jersey’s Young Republicans, Richard Plechner.