THOUGH THE Democratic battle has attracted most of the media attention so far, the Republican contest between old-line. Brahmin guru Elliot L. Richardson '41 and self-made-millionaire-businessman-cum-populist-conservative Ray Shamie has provided a more substantive debate on President Reagan and the future of the ailing state Republican organization.

Shamie, who backs the president on just about every major issue (acid rain is an exception), has jousted with the more liberal Richardson over tax policy, nuclear policy, and U.S. involvement in Central America, and the debate has been interesting if not always effectively argued.

Richardson, who can claim to have held more cabinet posts than any living American, is probably best known for the one thing he didn't do: fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox '34 in October, 1973. He claims to be most proud of the largely inconclusive Law of Sea Treaty--he headed the U.S. delegation--which Reagan scuttled upon taking office.

Richardson is the kind of guy who could take or leave a senate seat, and only recently has he put any elbow grease into the primary campaign. We hope he takes the party's nomination, because if the Senate is to have another Republican it should be someone who doesn't belive that Reagan and the far-right Rep. Jack F. Kemp (R-N.Y.), if left to their own devices, would solve the world's problems in seven days.

If the country is to have another Republican senator, let it be a man of Richardson's moderation, experience, and intelligence--and a man who took the platform at the Dallas convention to repudiate the unacceptable Republican Party platform.