1958 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election

The Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1958 was held on November 4. Democrat David Lawrence defeated Republican Art McGonigle by a smaller than anticipated margin.

1958 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election
November 4, 1958 (1958-11-04)
 
Nominee David Lawrence Art McGonigle
Party Democratic Republican
Running mate John Morgan Davis John Walker
Popular vote 2,024,852 1,948,769
Percentage 50.8% 48.9%
County Results
Lawrence:      50–60%      60–70%
McGonigle:      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%
Governor before election

George Leader
Democratic

 Elected Governor

David Lawrence
Democratic

Elections in Pennsylvania

Primary

Lawrence easily dispatched incumbent Lieutenant Governor Roy Furman of Greene County, whose position within the party had been marginalized due to his poor relationship with Governor George Leader. Leader had once even described his colleague as unfit for the executive office.[1]

McGonigle's major primary opponent was Harold Stassen, the former Governor of Minnesota and security advisor to President Eisenhower who was known for making a serious run for the party's nomination for president in 1948. Stassen had moved to the state to take the presidency of the University of Pennsylvania and was determined to return to electoral politics. Although the liberal Republican Stassen was viewed as a carpetbagger by state party machinery, his name recognition gave him credibility. McGonigle waged a vigorous campaign to counter Stassen's challenge, which saw the bakery executive crisscross the state by car and gaining grassroots support. Bill Livengood, the longtime Secretary of Internal Affairs, also entered the race after failing to gain the support of his party for another term at this office, but his campaign gained little attention.

Pennsylvania gubernatorial Democratic primary election, 1958[2]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic David Lawrence 730,229 74.45
Democratic Roy Furman 194,464 19.83
Democratic Ed Lavelle 56,188 5.73
Pennsylvania gubernatorial Republican primary election, 1958[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Art McGonigle 578,286 54.52
Republican Harold Stassen 344,043 32.44
Republican Bill Livengood 138,284 13.04

Major Party Candidates

Democratic

Republican

Campaign

Pennsylvania's branches of the two major parties entered the election in disparate states. Democrats were riding their largest wave of electoral success in nearly a century and quickly coalesced behind David L. Lawrence, the Mayor of Pittsburgh who had gained national fame as a reformer for his massive urban renewal projects earlier in the decade, but who retained a powerful traditional political machine Although Lawrence worried that his age (he was 69 at the time of the campaign) and his pious Catholic faith[4] may prove problematic, he was highly touted by party leaders . He easily defeated Lieutenant Governor Roy Furman in the primary after Governor Leader described Furman as unfit for higher office.[1]

Republicans, conversely, were just exiting a time in which their organization had gone through both electoral and financial disarray. The party had brought in McGonigle, a Reading businessman who had transformed Bachman Bakeries into the world's largest pretzel maker, to clean up their monetary problems. Although McGonigle had no intention of running for public office, his bookkeeping successes lead to many party bosses viewing him as a viable dark horse candidate.[1][5]

Lawrence entered the race as the clear favorite and ran on a platform emphasizing how the successes he had achieved in Pittsburgh, such as with environmentalism, economic development, race relations, and bureaucratic reform, could be applied to state government. He ran a generally quiet and issues-based campaign and grew frustrated with what he perceived as growing reactionary behavior from the opposing party. McGonigle’s campaign was more energized and continuously attacked Lawrence both for representing an archaic machine style of politics and for his position that the possibility of instituting a state income tax deserved study.[1]

Despite political winds that greatly favored Democrats in the national arena, the party's successes in the state were marginal. Lawrence’s campaign was never able to invigorate the base of urban voters and unionized workers in the manner that McGonigle did with key Republicans. A combination of Lawrence’s generally liberal viewpoints, powerful Appalachian anti-Catholicism[6] and contempt for his position as leader as a strong political machine undercut support in one of the greatest areas of Democratic support: the outlying industrial counties surrounding Pittsburgh's Allegheny County. Despite a generally disappointing vote total,[4] Lawrence was able to hang on to his frontrunner position to win the election.[1]

Results
Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1958[7][8]
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage
Democratic David Lawrence John Morgan Davis 2,024,852 50.8%
Republican Art McGonigle John Walker 1,948,769 48.9%
Socialist Workers Herman Johansen Louis Dirle 8,677 <0.01%
Totals 3,986,854 100.00%

Notes
  1. [Kennedy, John J. (2006). Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests From 1950-2004. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761832799.
  2. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=43857.
  3. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=43864.
  4. McKenna, William J.; ‘The Influence of Religion in the Pennsylvania Elections of 1958 and 1960’; Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 29, no. 4 (October, 1962), pp. 407-419
  5. "PENNSYLVANIA: The New Twist". TIME Magazine. 21 April 1958. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
  6. See Menendez, Albert J.; The Religious Factor in the 1960 Presidential Election: An Analysis of the Kennedy Victory Over Anti-Catholic Prejudice, pp. 193, 196 ISBN 0786484934
  7. The Pennsylvania Manual, p. 728.
  8. The Pennsylvania Manual, p. 727.
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References
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