Polities' High Price

Conventional wisdom has preached that Watergate will have a stunning impact on elections, converting incumbency from an asset into a liability and making this the year of the ethical amateur in politics. The analysis is logical enough, but politics often is not. Primaries in five states last week provided such mixed results that only one thing seemed certain: the electorate is still writing the 1974 political script.

Only in the Ohio Democratic Senate primary did the predicted pattern hold up. At stake was nomination for the seat vacated by Republican William Saxbe when he became U.S. Attorney General. Millionaire Businessman Howard Metzenbaum, 56, serving temporarily by appointment, was challenged by John Glenn, 52, the retired astronaut and Marine colonel who is now a franchise partner in five Holiday Inns. When the two last competed for a Senate nomination in 1970, Metzenbaum, with eight years' experience as a state legislator and an efficient, well-financed campaign, beat Glenn. Metzenbaum then lost in the general election to Robert Taft, but this year the Democratic nomination is more valuable. The winner of the Republican primary, Cleveland Mayor Ralph Perk, is a far weaker candidate than Taft was.

Strong Chisel. At the outset, it seemed that Metzenbaum would repeat his 1970 performance. There were few policy differences between the two Democrats, although Glenn is basically more conservative than Metzenbaum. The only major contrast was between Metzenbaum, the experienced politician, and Glenn, who had never before been elected to office. But Glenn steadily chipped away with one strong chisel--his Boy Scout image. The result was a decisive victory for Glenn, a plurality of 94,000 out of more than 1,000,000 votes cast.

Billing himself as "someone your children can look up to," Glenn from the start mined his reputation for honesty and integrity. Although he vowed to wage "the cleanest campaign I know how," Glenn all but ignored the issues to hit hard--and low--at Metzenbaum as a tax dodger after both candidates released details of their recent tax returns. The charge rested on the facts that Metzenbaum (whose net worth is $3.6 million) legitimately paid no federal taxes in 1969 because of high interest payments and losses in various investments and is involved in a tax-court dispute over a 1967-68 deduction of $118,000 for plant depreciation. Asked Glenn: "How much of a sense of responsibility can a man have for his country when he diddles it out of taxes?"

For Watergate-weary voters, such a question was bound to evoke unhappy comparisons. The tax issue cut deeply into Metzenbaum's support, even among the labor unions, where it was strongest in 1970. "Our people at the plants are puking over that tax business," said Arch Little, executive secretary of the Dayton-Miami Valley AFL-CIO Council. Washington Pollster Peter Hart, who took surveys for Glenn, found that 43% of those polled thought Glenn was the more honest of the two candidates, while only 11% thought Metzenbaum was. "In essence, that was the ball game," said Hart. Metzenbaum, who will almost certainly support Glenn in the upcoming race, is disillusioned about the low tone of the campaign and sees his defeat as a dreary portent: "We're going to lose some good politicians because of Watergate. The price of being in politics today is just too damn high."

Elsewhere, however, Watergate seemed to have no special effect, though it may have contributed to the poor turnouts in Indiana and Texas. Local issues and personalities rather than national trends determined the outcomes. As usual, nearly all incumbent Congressmen seeking renomination were successful. Other noteworthy primary results:

> In Alabama, Governor George Wallace, 54, easily defeated four rivals, including his wife Cornelia's uncle, former Governor James E. ("Kissin' Jim") Folsom, 65, to win the Democratic nomination for an unprecedented third four-year term. The paralysis that has confined Wallace to a wheelchair since the attempt on his life two years ago was apparently no political handicap: he got more than 65% of the vote, the biggest sweep in an Alabama primary since 1920. He carried 66 of the state's 67 counties and received surprisingly strong support from blacks, whom he seriously courted for the first time in his political career. He is still coy about his plans for 1976, but it is clear that Wallace intends once again to use the Governor's mansion in Montgomery as a base for his quadrennial foray into presidential politics.

> In Texas, Governor Dolph Briscoe's landslide victory in the Democratic gubernatorial primary probably assures him of a second term and may have ended the political career of his rival, Frances T. ("Sissy") Farenthold. A multimillionaire rancher and banker, Briscoe, 52, ran on a bland, conservative record and a boast of having avoided new state taxes last year. He surprised even himself by rolling up 68% of the unusually light vote (less than one-fourth of those eligible) and swamping Farenthold, 47, a reform-minded liberal who is the national chairwoman of the Women's Political Caucus. Farenthold was a strong competitor in the primary two years ago, but this time she was hampered by lack of funds, and her campaign never caught fire. She is currently still running for office--alumna trustee of Vassar College --but has not decided on her future political plans in Texas.

> In North Carolina, where voter turnout was also poor (35%), Attorney General Robert Morgan, 48, won with 50.49% of the Democratic Senate primary vote, enough to avoid a runoff in his bid for the seat of Senator Sam Ervin, who is retiring. A 24-year veteran of state and local Democratic politics, Morgan calls himself a "people's advocate"; he created a consumer-protection bureau within the attorney general's office. He will face Republican State Representative William E. Stevens, 52, executive vice president of Broyhill Furniture Industries, in November. Stevens won 65% of the vote in the G.O.P. primary and has the backing of Republican Governor James E. Holshouser Jr., but Morgan is expected to win.

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