Cramer is running a slick, wellfinanced campaign and is proud to tell the folks that he is running "because President Nixon asked me to." Nobody of such stature asked Chiles to run, so he walked-1,003 miles down the middle of the state. In a revival of the old person-to-person vote-getting style that made Estes Kefauver so popular in the South ten years ago, Chiles has had personal chats with thousands of his constituents. He has met thousands more since the primary and shuns the television, airplane, newspaper gimmicks of his opponent.
Chiles is by no means a liberal, but he does have a populist tinge about him. He has called for a revamping of the federal social legislation-the most frequent beef of the constituents he met. If he wins it will not be a victory for liberalism, but it will be a major defeat for the Madison Avenue style which elected Richard Nixon in 1968.
HAWAII: It was a tough job for the Democrats to find a man to oppose Republican Senator Hiram Fong. The man they came up with is the owner of a television station, Cecil Heftel, who has achieved any reputation he might have through appearances on his own station. Fong's popularity is somewhat of a mystery in a state which gave 80 per cent of its votes in the last Senate election to one of the most liberal members of the Senate, Daniel K. Inouye. But Fong, who is Chinese, has a large ethnic backing and lots of money. To say that Heftel has an uphill battle is being kind to the Democrats.
ILLINOIS: Ever since his reconciliation last summer with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Democrat Adlai Stevenson III has been the favorite to win the seat held for 20 years by Everett Dirksen. His opponent, Republican Senator Ralph T. Smith, was appointed to fill the remainder of Dirksen's term and is still relatively unknown in the state. He is an employer of the Agnew style and has attacked Stevenson as a radical-liberal.
In reaction to Smith's attacks, Stevenson has retracted from his liberal position. He has hired to direct his campaign the prosecuting attorney at the Chicago 7 trial and has come down hard in favor of law and order and against "campus revolutionaries." He supports an early end to the war but has tried to avoid explaining just what that means while accusing Smith of being a rubber stamp for the Nixon administration.
Stevenson will win the election, but how far to the right he will go to do it remains to be seen. In any case he isn't the man his father was.
INDIANA: Vance Hartke, the Democratic incumbent from Indiana, may not be the ideal liberal Senator, but on most of the basic issues he votes with the good guys and in Indiana that takes guts. He opposed both Haynsworth and Carswell, as well as the ABM. He has opposed the war since the early days of the Johnson Administration. Predictably he is in trouble. His opponent, right-wing Republican Rep. Richard Roudebush, is a former national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and supports Nixon and Agnew about as much as anyone can.
Indiana is a basically conservative state with two remarkably liberal Senators. Hartke's main advantage is his campaign technique which is tireless and personal. This year he faces an opponent whom he calls "a faceless rubber stamp for the Administration." But he may find that that is what the voters in the Hoosier State want.
MARYLAND: The state which produced Spiro Agnew also has produced one of the most liberal and progressive members of the Senate. Yet the political splits and maneuverings which produced Agnew may serve to defeat Tydings this year.
Agnew was elected not because hewas particularly popular, but because his opponent, Wallace supporter George Mahoney, was particularly detestable. This year Tydings is particularly detestable to different segments of the electorate because of three factors:
His stand in favor of the no-knock provision of the D. C. crime bill has angered many liberals who otherwise would have supported him gladly. The provision permits police, under certain circumstances, to enter a building without first announcing their presence or occupation.
His championing of gun control legislation has brought upon him the wrath of the powerful and wealthy gun lobby. The gun people have flooded the state with anti-Tydings money and literature.
An August 20 article in Life magazine charged Tydings with conflict of interest in connection with a Maryland company, the Charter Corporation. Though nothing ever came of the charges and many Tydings backers see it as an indirect White House-initiated smear attempt, the odor remains and may have an effect.
Whether traditional Tydings supporters will be angered enough by these single issues to vote against a man whose whole record they admire will determine whether the election will go to Tydings' Republican opponent, Rep. J. Glenn Beall. Beall, like Tydings the son of a former Senator, is a shrewd politician who was persuaded to give up his safe seat in the House to oppose one of the chief targets of Agnewian attacks. Tydings is rated high on the White House target list, and Beall will not lack support, financial and otherwise, from the Administration. Beall is running a classic middle-of-the-road, low profile campaign. He has refused Agnew's direct help; he supports the Nixon Indochina policy, and he opposes gun control.
If Beall upset Tydings it will be a major victory for the Administration and the gun lobby as well as a grave loss for liberals in the Senate.
( The second part, including Maine will appear in Monday's CRIMSON.)