Oct. 27, 1964 - Senator Kenneth Keating and Robert F. Kennedy exchanged charges of campaign trickery in separate television broadcasts tonight.
Each had bought 30 minutes of time on WCBS‐TV, and they spoke from studios two rooms apart. Kennedy bought his half‐hour after learning that the Senator would appear, and he came on the screen immediately after Keating.
Nothing new was said. Both candidates repeated familiar accusations, each charging the other with “running out” on a face‐to‐face debate.
Keating, the Republican candidate for reelection, used the device of an empty chair to symbolize what he said was Kennedy's “utter contempt for the voters of New York” by “refusing” to join the debate.
There was a mild brouhaha when Kennedy appeared outside Keating’s studio five minutes before the 7:30 starting time of the Senator’s program and sought to occupy the empty chair.
Two years ago, Gov. William Scranton of Pennsylvania turned the empty‐chair ploy to his own advantage when he materialized in the empty chair his opponent, Richardson Dilworth, was preparing to debate.
But tonight, Kennedy was barred by WCBS‐TV guards from entering the Keating studio. He protested, “I’m here to debate — Senator Keating has invited me to debate,” but the guards were adamant.
Thereafter, security in the corridors was so tight that Kennedy’s chief press aide, Edwin Guthman, was pushed back when he sought admission to the Kennedy studio.
In their appearances, the candidates presented disparate images. Keating portrayed himself as seethingly indignant. Using a gesture similar to that of a politician throwing out the first ball, he flung his right arm repeatedly toward the cameras and accused his opponent of trying to “besmirch” his name in a ruthless campaign.
Kennedy’s demeanor was more relaxed, possibly in an effort to counter the enemy camp’s attempt to picture him as a ruthless, ambition‐driven young man.
Keating charged that Kennedy had distorted his voting record in a “ruthless and unprincipled attempt to destroy my character and lifetime of service.”
Occasionally, the camera’s eye drifted to the empty chair. To make sure his point got across, the Senator had put a name plate, “Robert F. Kennedy,” on the table in front of the chair.
Keating said Kennedy had adopted ruthless tactics “when it became clear that the squeals of the bobby-soxers could be registered in a jukebox but not in an election box.”
Keating complained that Kennedy kept invoking the name of his brother, President Kennedy. The Senator described the late President as a man of courage and independence respected by all.
Nevertheless, the former Attorney General again invoked his brother tonight. He called President Kennedy “the epitome, the leader of our generation,” and said he wanted to help “keep the flame still alight.”
He said he would not be running for Senator were it not for the experience he had gained working with President Kennedy as Attorney General, helping the President on civil rights and foreign affairs.
Kennedy’s half‐hour used the interview format, with Barry Gray, the radio‐TV commentator, and Kennedy sitting at a table. City Council President Paul Screvane stood in the foreground and began the program denouncing Keating’s empty‐chair device.
Then Mr. Gray asked: “Mr. Kennedy, I understand you presented yourself at Senator Keating's studio door at 7:30 p.m. Can you tell us what happened when you arrived?”
Kennedy, in his reply, said that when he first suggested a debate using the same format as the 1960 Presidential debates, Keating had quickly accepted, then reneged.
“The whole thing bogged down in a two‐week discussion,” Kennedy went on. “Then he [Keating] said he’d come here at 7:30 p.m. and debate an empty chair. I came at 7:30 to meet with him. Although I didn’t think it was the proper format, I came.
“He had a guard stop me at the door. Then he uses the empty chair. I just don’t believe that’s the kind of politics we want in New York.”
Kennedy said he was “shocked” that the Keating campaign had “degenerated into that kind of activity.”
Mr. Kennedy dismissed the carpetbagger issue by saying that he had lived in New York for a total of 20 years and had spent more time here than in any other city. “This is where I grew up; this is where I came back,” he said.
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