Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1901 — OHIO THE CENTER OF INTEREST [ARTICLE]

OHIO THE CENTER OF INTEREST

Most Important Fight of the Year Is in the Buckeye State. The year following each presidential election is invariably the dullest from a national point of view in the political calendar. Few States choose Governors or other important State officers that year and few legislatures are selected which will be called upon to till vacancies in the United States Senate. November will see political contests of consequence decided in scarcely more than half a dozen commonwealths, among them Ohio, New Jersey, lowa, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia. In Ohio, perhaps, more is at stake this year politically than in any other State. A Governor, Lieutenant Governor, an Attorney General, a Treasurer, a justice of the Supreme Court, a clerk of the Supreme Court and a member of the Board of Public Works are to be elected and the Legislature chosen will fill the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the expiration of Joseph B. Foraker’s term on March 4, 1903. An active campaign is being made in behalf of the two State tickets, the Republican one headed by Gov. George B. Nash and the Democratic one by Col. James Kilbourne. Senator Foraker is a candidate for re-elec-tion and is leading the Republican fight in the State. In New Jersey a Governor is to be chosen. Franklin Murphy is the Republican, nominee and James M. Seymour is/the Democratic. lowa will elect a Governor and some minor State officers. A. B. Cummings heads the Republican ticket and Thomas J. Phillips the Democratic. The Legislature chosen will elect a, United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John 11. Gear, who had been selected for the full term beginning March 4, 1901, but died between the time of his election and the date set for qualification. Jonathan P. Dolliver is now filling Mr. Gear's seat by appointment. In Maryland two minor State officers. Comptroller and Treasurer are to be elected. The Legislature will choose a successor in the United States Senate to George L. Wellington, a former Republican, who supported Bryan in the campaign of 1900. Mr. Gorman is an avowed candidate for the senatorship, and the fight in the State turns mainly on his effort to regain the seat in the Senate which he filled for eighteen years. Virginia will elect a Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and two or three other minor officers. The Republican candidate for the governorship, J. Hampton Hoge, is making a lively canvass, but there is little prospect of his election over his Democratic rival, Andrew J. Montague. In Kentucky a Legislature is to be chosen, which will fill the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the expiration March 4, 1903, of William J. Deboe’s term. Pennsylvania will elect a State Treasurer and a judge of the Supreme Court. Several vacancies in the House of Representatives are to be filled next month at special elections, one in Pennsylvania, caused by the death of Marriott Brosius; one in South Carolina, caused by the death of J. William Stokes; one in Texas, caused by the death of Robert E. Burke; one in New York, caused by the death of Albert D. Shaw, and one in Michigan, caused by the death of Rosseau O. Crump.