ROBERT KENNEDY MADE LAST MINUTE VISIT CAMPAIGN VISIT TO BOOST JFK IN THE MARYLAND 1960 PRIMARY ELECTION
BY KEN ROSSIGNOL
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY
Gearing up for the Maryland Primary Election on May 17, 1960, Robert F. Kennedy Sr. made a campaign stop in Leonardtown with a local campaign committee headed by St. Mary’s Delegate J. Frank Raley Jr, attending a dinner where he was the guest speaker.
Billed as the former counsel for the McClellan Senate Investigating Committee, Kennedy spoke to an overflow crowd in the Pennies Bar in Leonardtown, Md. The group hosting the dinner was the Young Democrats of St. Mary’s County on the Saturday night before the Primary Election.
Richard Arnold, President of the Young Democrats and in 1982 was elected as a St. Mary’s County Commissioner, and his wife Evelyn, a future St. Mary’s County Clerk of the Circuit Court, presided over the dinner. The event somehow managed to pack 500 people into the large establishment used for overflow crowds for softball tournaments and Donkey Softball games to listen to the brother of the candidate for President of the United States.
The powerhouses of the Democratic Party in St. Mary’s County, Circuit Court Judge Philip H. Dorsey Jr and State Senator Walter B. Dorsey, were in attendance. Senator Dorsey introduced Kennedy and expressed confidence in his victory in the coming primary election and all the way to November. Judge Dorsey gave a heavenly dose of optimism as he said Grace before the meal.
Robert Kennedy, who, upon the election of his brother in the General Election over Republican Vice-President Richard Nixon, became the Attorney General of the United States when selected by his brother, President Kennedy. As his closest advisor and confidante, JFK decided to have his brother Bobby in the crucial role at the top of the Department of Justice.
That Saturday night before the primary election at Pennies Bar, Robert Kennedy gave what one publication said was “a fiery speech that brought a standing ovation from the crowd.” Kennedy told the crowd that the results of the West Virginia primary, which his brother won, was a “tribute to the people” and that they voted for the man despite the issue of religion despite predictions that JFK would lose due to being a Roman Catholic.
Robert Kennedy’s stump speech that night included promises that JFK would provide a Democratic Administration that would solve the pressing problems of the day, including housing, schools, increasing the number of science graduates, helping the elderly, and lifting the United States out of the category of “a second-class nation.” Kennedy might have been imbibing the famous ten-ounce cans of Budweiser at Pennies Bar, which was located next to the Guy Distributing warehouse on Rt. 5 in Leonardtown, as if he believed the United States was a second-class nation; precisely who was a first-class nation?
Speaking at Pennies wasn’t the only stop for Bobby Kennedy that day, as he was whisked down to Spicer’s Leonardtown Wharf for the 50th Anniversary of the St. Mary’s Council of the Knights of Columbus in Leonardtown. A report on the affair included that in addition to a surprise birthday cake to the Council’s Grand Knight W. Edelen Gough Jr by his father, was a visit from Kennedy. The account of the evening stated that Kennedy spoke a few words and shook as many hands as possible before rushing off to keep other campaign commitments.
As Bobby Kennedy’s last dash at garnering votes in St. Mary’s County proved effective, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy beat Sen. Wayne Morse in the Maryland Democratic Primary with 2,180 votes to 284.
Among the leaders of the Democratic Party statewide endorsing Senator Kennedy in the Maryland Primary were Comptroller Louis L. Goldstein, State Party Treasurer David Hume, former Attorney General William C. Walsh, and executive assistant to Governor Millard Tawes Lloyd L. Simkins as well as Thomas B. Finan, chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee.
Senator John Kennedy opened his Maryland campaign following the West Virginia primary election win with a visit to Baltimore and then on the Eastern Shore and a major address at Washington College in Chestertown, where Maryland State Senator George Bacon Rasin Jr (Kent County), the Kent County Kennedy Campaign Chairman, and Calvin Harrington, Eastern Shore Kennedy Campaign Chairman greeted him. The College’s Political Science Club and International Relations Club invited Senator Kennedy to speak. The tour of the Eastern Shore took JFK through Elkton, Centerville Easton, Cambridge, and Salisbury.
Beginning at the West View Shopping Center, Sen. Kennedy was greeted by Baltimore County Executive Christian H. Kahl and the North Central Kennedy Chairman James Nolan. He then went to Anne Arundel County and back to a rally at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore City.
While Robert Kennedy was touring Southern Maryland counties, his brother, Sen. John F. Kennedy, swept through Western Maryland. The Evening Star reporter Paul Hope’s coverage on May 13, 1960 that Kennedy hammered on the issue of unemployment in the depressed panhandle of Maryland, which suffered from a jobless rate of twelve percent. Sen. Kennedy said that the Democratic Congress had passed a bill to aid depressed areas that the President may veto. “I hope the President will not veto this bill,” said Kennedy. “But if the President does veto this bill, I promise that help will not be long in coming.”
As Sen. Kennedy spoke from a sound truck to a crowd of several hundred in the downtown area of Hagerstown and urged them to vote for him so he could help the “…5000 men who are out of work in this county back to work” at that same time President Eisenhower vetoed the bill. At Hood College, Senator Kennedy’s car barely got through a crowd of more than 700 women and girls crushing to get close to the 42-year-old Senator. After leaving the Republican stronghold of Western Maryland, Senator Kennedy traveled to Annapolis to meet with Maryland Governor Tawes to pick up his endorsement just before a large rally in Baltimore. The day before, Sen. Kennedy met with the Democratic Women’s Club of Maryland in Montgomery County at the Indian Springs Country Club, with more than 1,000 in attendance, and dedicated the Prince Georges County Democratic Headquarters. Sen. Kennedy also paid a visit to campaign at the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center, which was billed as the sixth largest in the United States at the time. Kennedy began the day at the home of Senator Blair Lee III and a visit to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Silver Spring. In Rockville, at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Kennedy was greeted by Col. Ward Caddington and the Democrats from the county at the Board of Elections offices.
The importance of a win for Kennedy in the Maryland primary was more about taking more convention delegates to the national convention than scoring a big win over his only opponent, Wayne Morse. As a result of the Maryland Democrats swarming to support John Kennedy, he swamped Morse with seventy percent of the vote, winning the biggest vote of any candidate in a Maryland Presidential Primary election. Kennedy won 200,454 to 49,525 for Morse.
Included in J. Frank Raley’s Kennedy Presidential Campaign Committee for St. Mary’s County were Malcolm A. “Mockey” Guy Jr, Joe Taylor, and Olive Bradburn as Chairmen for the First District; chairman of the Second District was County Commissioner John Hodges; Senator Walter B. Dorsey, former Senator Joseph A. Mattingly and Delegate Frank A. Combs in the Third District and Commissioner C. Byron Guy was appointed chairman in the Fourth District. Fifth District chairman Henry Fowler, Sixth District William A. Raley, Seventh District and member of the Democratic State Central Committee Samuel “Bo” Bailey Jr., Eighth District were Charles J. Molitor and Francis Taylor. Del. Raley was still looking for a chairman of the county’s smallest District, Nine on St. George Island. Former Congressman Lansdale G. Sasscer served as Regional Southern Maryland Chairman, and Statewide Chairman was Delegate Joseph Tydings.
Raley issued a statement about the formation of the campaign committee and said that every political faction of the local Democratic Party, of which there were at least five, was represented. “We feel that in Senator Kennedy, we have an outstanding candidate who will be enthusiastically supported by the people of this state.”
Many of those involved in Raley’s committee to boost Senator John F. Kennedy pursued their own political careers. When Sen. Walter Dorsey resigned in 1961, Henry Fowler was appointed by Gov. Tawes to fill out the rest of the term. In 1962, J. Frank Raley Jr formed his ‘New Leadership’ slate with John Hanson Briscoe and with the help of Charles Molitor’s newspaper, The Enterprise, which Dorsey had sold, swept out much of the Dorsey Machine in local offices. Raley was elected State Senator and Briscoe to the House of Delegates.
Attorney Paul Jacob Bailey, a former two-term Republican State Senator, beat Raley for the Senate in 1966 and won a fourth senate term in 1970. Democrat Joe Weiner won the States Attorney post in 1966 and, in 1970, was appointed by Governor Marvin Mandel to the Circuit Court upon the retirement of Judge Philip H. Dorsey Jr. Jeanne Dorsey, divorced from Walter Dorsey, married Marvin Mandell in a spicy news-filled drama when Mandel’s wife threw him out of the State House when he announced he was going to leave her and marry the woman he loved. Mandel won two terms as Governor in 1970 and again in 1974. Mandel was convicted of racketeering and sent to Federal Prison, and when the Court of Appeals overturned his conviction, he was restored to office for the final three days of his term.
Walter B. Dorsey won the second of five terms as St. Mary’s States Attorney in 1982. In 1972 Joseph A. Mattingly beat Weiner for the Circuit Court while Briscoe became Speaker of the House when Mandel was chosen to fill out the term of Maryland Governor Spiro “Ted” Agnew, who became Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Richard Nixon when sworn into office in 1969.
The son of Malcolm “Mockie” Guy, James Randall “Randy” Guy, was elected to the Democratic Central Committee in 1998 and, in 2014, won the first of three terms as President of the St. Mary’s County Commissioners – as a Republican – following losing the GOP nomination to Thomas McKay in 2010 for that post.
Elected to the Democratic State Central Committee in St. Mary’s County and greeting Robert F. Kennedy in his photo taken at the WTPX offices on Coral Place in Lexington Park were: Samuel M. Bailey, Jr., Richard D. Arnold, Robert G. Dean, Malcolm A. “Mockey” Guy Jr, Walter Wise and Otis F. Wood.
Biden Administration denies Secret Service Protection for his chief opponent for the Democratic Party nomination – Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
THE FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE KENNEDY CAMPAIGN ON JULY 29, 2023:
In what is a new low for the Biden administration’s politics of fear and loathing, it has refused a request, supported by 63 pages of confidential documentation, to provide Secret Service protection for our presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Think about this: President Biden placed a bust of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., in the Oval Office. Now Biden is denying Mr. Kennedy’s namesake protection, while the Secret Service provides his own son, Hunter Biden, with protection.
The Democratic Party is stirring up hate against Mr. Kennedy for running against President Biden, while President Biden denies Mr. Kennedy protection.
Biden will not provide protection for Mr. Kennedy, but you can by going to Kennedy24.com/donate now to help fund Mr. Kennedy’s personal security team while he campaigns.
Here is how Mr. Kennedy sees this move by the Biden administration:
“The White House and the DNC are playing hardball pitching hate and vilifying me in the press with hate speech and the most odious defamations that might reasonably incite violence while simultaneously denying me the security to which I’m entitled.”
Has the Biden administration’s lust to hold onto power caused them to forfeit their humanity? Where are their hearts, their souls? Mr. Kennedy is totally fearless, but we must defend him. He has a security team, and now we must fund it.
YouTube removed this video for “medical misinformation”
Thankfully, you can still watch it here on the public square pic.twitter.com/IswUL6cjhd
— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) July 28, 2023
Audience members at the presentation of the National Security Medal to Allen W. Dulles, retiring director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Seated in the first row (L-R): three unidentified women; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara; Ethel Kennedy, wife of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; and the Attorney General. Seated in the second row (L-R): Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Lyman Lemnitzer and Commandant of the United States Marine Corps General David M. Shoup (wearing glasses). J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seated in the third row, to the right of General Lemnitzer. CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia.
Kennedy Assassination Anniversary
President John F. Kennedy, the day before he was killed in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963. Events of the day from The Death of the President from JFK Library. President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in that afternoon aboard Air Force One by a Texas judge as First Lady Jackie Kennedy looks on at right, and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson is at her husband’s side. Photo courtesy of JFK Library.
This machine transmitted the Associated Press wire stories of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on Nov. 22, 1963, from Dallas to the rest of the world.
Photo courtesy of the Museum of Broadcast Communications
Right, a copy of the Miami News is now being auctioned off on Ebay. With a starting bid of $7.99, there are no bidders.
AP photo shows Nellie Connally, left, in the limo with the President just before he was killed.
Nellie Connally, the wife of Texas Gov. John Connally, died this year. She was the last person left alive who was in the presidential limo with JFK when he was murdered.
* CBS was the first to report the news when correspondent Dan Rather gave the report.
* Robert Novak was a 32-year-old reporter working in Washington when the news of JFK’s killing came across the radio in the cab in which he was riding in Washington, D.C. His story on CNN:
* Report: JFK Jr. and his wife and her sister died in a plane crash in the Atlantic in 1999.
* Sanitized copy of conference of President, CIA officials and presidential advisors held on Oct. 29, 1963, on the looming coup against South Vietnamese President Diem.
Briefing to JFK and top cabinet officials on October 29, 1963, by CIA official William Colby on the status of the Coup against South Vietnamese President Diem
* Kennedy Sought Dialogue with Cuba just before he was killed.
* The last living member of the Warren Commission was former President Gerald R. Ford, who, in 2007, was the longest living President, having surpassed Ronald Reagan in age.
* Special report from the House committee report in 1976 on various allegations of plots and conspiracies on the death of JFK
CREDITS: Library of Congress, taxpayers of the United States that fund the Library of Congress and the JFK Library, National Archives, Maryland Archives, and Library of St. Mary’s County. Also to The Washington Evening Star, The Washington Post, The Enterprise, Randy Guy, Walter B. Dorsey.