New York

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller cast his vote on the biggest morning of his life in a room stacked with deer heads, moose antlers and stuffed pheasants at Hilltop Engine Co. i Firehouse at Pocantico Hills, N.Y., the village polling place. Rockefeller bought the place some time ago to save it from foreclosure, then let the firemen have it. "How do you feel?" somebody asked. "Great!" said the Rock, 50, and he looked it--chunky, electric, tired but tireless. Way behind entrenched Democrat Averell Harriman at campaign's outset, he was now rated 9 to 5 favorite. "I've done the best I could," said Rockefeller. "Now it's up to the public, the way it should be."

That evening Rockefeller sat with his brothers in Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel, watched the public's verdict roll up a smashing 450,000-plus victory. Rockefeller captured upstate Buffalo by 5,500 votes where Harriman had won by 10,600 in 1954, carried Schenectady County by a bigger margin than Tom Dewey in 1950, increased G.O.P. margins in suburban Westchester and Nassau Counties, held Harriman below 60% of the vote in New York City by scoring heavily with liberals, independents, minority groups. Rockefeller carried in with him the Republican state ticket, led by upstate Congressman Kenneth Keating, elected U.S. Senator over Tammany-backed Democrat Frank Hogan. Conceded a game Averell Harriman, 66: "I congratulate Mr. Rockefeller and extend to him my best wishes."

Rockefeller, third generation of the famous family that moved from organized capitalism to organized philanthropy to organized public service, won with a dramatic new blend of personal dynamism and political skill. He concentrated unerringly on state issues, e.g., stop loss of industry from high-tax New York; crack down on organized crime; preserve rent controls, the 15-c- subway fare; find new-solutions for commuter problems. He appealed to independents, even edged slightly away from Vice President Nixon when Nixon visited New York. He successfully depicted Democrat Harriman as a creature of Tammany Hall Boss Carmine De Sapio. But above all, Nelson Rockefeller, now rated a presidential possibility for 1960, won because he was a vital, vigorous new force and new face in politics. Thomas E. Dewey's one-word estimate of why Rockefeller won: "Rockefeller!"

At 12:30 a.m. Wednesday Rockefeller held his first victory press conference, fended off peppering questions about 1960. "I have only one interest now," he said, "and that is to be Governor. Honest to God, I have no other plans."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.