Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1962

Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1962
	County results
Governor before election; David Lawrence ; Democratic	Elected Governor; Bill Scranton ; Republican

Last updated May 01, 2019

The Pennsylvania gubernatorial election of 1962 was held on November 6. Republican Bill Scranton and Democrat Richardson Dilworth, each a member of a powerful political family, faced off in a bitter campaign.

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Richardson K. Dilworth was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the 117th Mayor of Philadelphia from 1956 to 1962. He twice ran as the Democratic nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania, in 1950 and in 1962.

Primary

Both endorsed candidates easily defeated their primary opposition. Dilworth faced only token candidates, led by McKees Rocks real estate agent Harvey Johnston. Scranton was challenged by Collins McSparran of Lancaster County. McSparran, who was the son of former gubernatorial candidate John McSparran, was the president of the state branch of The Grange, and had a small but vocal base in farming interests.

McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania Borough in Pennsylvania, United States

McKees Rocks, also known as "The Rocks", is a borough in Allegheny County, in western Pennsylvania, along the south bank of the Ohio River. The borough population was 6,104 at the 2010 census.

Lancaster County, sometimes nicknamed the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the south central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 519,445. Its county seat is Lancaster.

Pennsylvania gubernatorial Democratic primary election, 1962^[1]
	Candidate	Votes	%
Democratic	Richardson Dilworth	651,096	73.06
Democratic	Harvey Johnston	142,243	16.07
Democratic	Charles Schmitt	96,899	10.87

Pennsylvania gubernatorial Republican primary election, 1962^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bill Scranton	743,785	78.06
	Republican	Collins McSparran	209,041	21.94

Major Party Candidates

Democratic

Richardson Dilworth, Mayor of Philadelphia
- running mate: Stephen McCann, State Representative

Philadelphia Largest city in Pennsylvania, United States

Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2018 census-estimated population of 1,584,138. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Stephen McCann (1919–1991) was a Democratic politician from Pennsylvania. Born in Waynesburg, he lived for most of his life in Carmichaels, a southwestern Pennsylvania coal mining town. From 1952 to 1963, he represented Greene County in the state House of Representatives. In 1959, he was chosen as Majority Leader.

Republican

Bill Scranton, US Congressman
- running mate: Ray Shafer, State Senator

Raymond P. Shafer Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Raymond Philip "Ray" Shafer was an American attorney and politician who served as the 39th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1971. Previously, he served as the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967 and a Pennsylvania State Senator from 1959 to 1962. He was a national leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party in the late 1960s.

Campaign

After John F. Kennedy received a relatively large win in the state in 1960, combined with a poor showing in the previous year's municipal elections, Republicans attempted to cast themselves in a moderate light and thus chose the rising star Scranton, a so-called "Kennedy Republican" for his socially liberal viewpoints, as their nominee. Scranton, whose only prior elected position was a two-year term in Congress, was immediately attacked for his inexperience. However, Scranton's positions or credentials were rarely the focal point of the election; rather the race was seen as a referendum on Dilworth, a former nominee for this same office, who was serving as the controversial Mayor of Philadelphia.^[3]

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician and journalist who served as the 35th president of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate prior to becoming president.

Throughout his political career, Dilworth had gained a reputation for taking hard-nosed action and for not being afraid to speak his mind. During the campaign, he continuously waged direct assaults on state Republican leaders, asserting that Scranton was a tool of the faltering Republican machine (Dilworth first gained statewide fame for breaking Republican machine politics in Philadelphia in the late 1940s). He also raised the issue of a restrictive covenant that was in place on a Scranton-owned property in Florida, charging that the stipulation that the residence could only be sold to a Caucasian demonstrated that Scranton had racist sentiments; Scranton defended himself by asserting that the condition was placed in the lease by a previous owner and could not be removed, and he countered by criticizing Dilworth for his affiliation with several all-white, elite social clubs. Dilworth was also plagued by corruption charges and, during the course of his campaign, reversed his position from strongly opposing an investigation into city government, to endorsing it as a way to demonstrate a commitment to transparency.^[3]

On Election Day, Scranton took 62 of the state's 67 counties in an impressive win. Dilworth struggled not only in GOP strongholds, but also in the heavily Democratic Pittsburgh area, where he was plagued by both the corruption charges and anti-Philadelphian sentiment. His loss was especially heavy in Philadelphia's suburban counties, both because of his involvement in a controversial failed redistricting plan designed to divide upper class GOP support, as well as because of his antagonistic attitude toward suburbanites (he was quoted as saying "if a few of those Main Liners got mugged once in a while, it might teach them a way of life".^[3] Dilworth also won by a smaller than expected margin in his home city, as his personality clash caused city Democratic leaders to give only tepid support.^[3]

Results

Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1962^[4]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage
	Republican	Bill Scranton	Ray Shafer	2,424,918	55.3
	Democratic	Richardson Dilworth	Stephen McCann	1,938,627	44.3
	Socialist Labor	George Taylor	Benson Perry	14,340	.3

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References

↑ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=43856.
↑ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=43863.
1 2 3 4 Kennedy, John J. (2006). Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests From 1950-2004. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761832799.
↑ The Pennsylvania Manual, p. 626.
↑ The Pennsylvania Manual, p. 625.

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[1] ttp://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=43856.

[2] ttp://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=43863.

[kennedy-3] 1 2 3 4 Kennedy, John J. (2006). Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests From 1950-2004. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761832799.

[4] The Pennsylvania Manual, p. 626.

[5] The Pennsylvania Manual, p. 625.