Word: duffs
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...biggest primary vote in the state's history, Duff won the nomination for U.S. Senator from Grundy-backed Congressman John C. Kunkel, by a spectacular 2-to-1 majority. More important, he swept in with him (by a comfortable 193,000-vote margin), his politically unimpressive candidate for governor, Superior Court Judge John S. Fine...
...fight," Duff had said, "is between high-button-shoe reactionaries and the advocates of progressive government." Grundyism, trumpeted Duff, meant "government by a few, for a few, at the expense of the public." Grundymen retorted bitterly that Duff was a "me-too" spendthrift, viewed with alarm the millions he had added to the state's budget for welfare services, pointed out that Harry Truman himself had facetiously invited him to become a Democrat...
...With Duff a pre-election favorite, the crucial fight was for the governorship with its control of 40,000 state jobs. Judge Fine, longtime boss of Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre), was heavily attacked by Grundymen who called him "a cardboard candidate," "Little Sir Echo," and a "political judge" who winked at gambling. Grundy set out a bait for undecided voters by backing retired Philadelphia Banker Jay Cooke, who insisted he was an independent. Duff met the challenge headon. "Cooke is no more independent of the old guard than the thumb on Grundy's right hand," snorted Duff. "I would...
Fine's victory gave Duff undisputed control of the party machinery and patronage, finally put old Joe Grundy out in the anteroom. And as one minor effect, Duff's victory did no good for the 1952 presidential hopes of Harold Stassen. Stassen campaigned for Cooke, his 1948 Pennsylvania campaign manager, and that was not likely to endear him to Jim Duff's 73-member Pennsylvania delegation in the 1952 G.O.P. convention...
Freshest Face. At 67, bristle-haired, homespun Jim Duff had suddenly become a major power in the Republican Party and its freshest face in years. Some even talked of him as a presidential prospect; after all he was only one year older than Harry Truman himself.* The son of a Presbyterian minister, Jim Duff grew up among the rigs and hard-knuckled men of western Pennsylvania's oilfields. Trained as a lawyer, he made a fortune in wildcatting, lost it in the 1929 crash. A delegate to many a political convention but never a candidate until 1946, Duff campaigned...