The Senate: Embattled Heartland Republicans

Two Midwestern states are key battlegrounds for Senate races this year. In Illinois, a member of the old Republican vanguard is fighting for his political life. In Iowa, a New Rightist is trying to overcome indiscretions and missteps in his quest for a second term. Both men are facing tough, aggressive liberal challengers.

Aiming at a Moving Target

A dozen years ago, Republican Senator Charles Percy of Illinois seemed an ideal presidential prospect. Gifted with patrician good looks and a rich, sonorous voice, Percy, by the end of his first Senate term in 1972, had earned a solid reputation as an independent-minded Republican in the progressive Rockefeller mold. But his star soon stopped soaring. A stodgy campaigner, he made a tentative presidential bid in 1976 and nearly lost his 1978 Senate race to a little-known Democrat, Attorney Alex Seith. Trying to keep pace with America's growing conservatism, Percy changed his stands on economic issues, foreign policy and defense spending. Yet he still has only lukewarm support from conservatives and is confronted with outright sniping from the far right.

Percy faces a rough challenge from five-term Congressman Paul Simon, a southern Illinois liberal. Simon is known for his trademark bow ties and hornrimmed glasses and for his effectiveness on Capitol Hill: he had more of his bills passed this year than any other member of the House. Percy, although chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee since 1980, has never pushed through a major bill of his own. Polls show the candidates in a virtual dead heat. Simon has won over many black and Jewish voters who in the past had supported Percy in his more liberal incarnation.

Simon has stayed on the offensive for most of this bitterly fought campaign, in which each side is expected to spend $3 million. He is trying to make an issue of the Senator's inconsistency. Some of his ads ask: "Where will Charles Percy stand tomorrow? Only his pollster knows for sure." Percy's commercials tout "the Illinois advantage," alluding to his seniority, and attack Simon for sponsoring a symbolic bill in 1983 that would create a box on income tax returns for taxpayers to check if they do not want their payments to be used by the Pentagon.

Percy has tried to emphasize his ties to Reagan, as well as his clout and power in the Senate. But few of his colleagues have helped him in his battle. Many far-right Republicans want Percy out so that North Carolina's Jesse Helms, champion of the Moral Majority, might succeed him as head of the Foreign Relations Committee. A group of national conservatives went so far as to endorse a Libertarian candidate in the Illinois race rather than Percy, whom they called a "partisan Democrat in Republican's clothing." Percy denounced the group as "part of the kooky right wing."

Taking On a Teflon Senator

Square-jawed and white-haired, Republican Roger Jepsen of Iowa is the very picture of senatorial splendor. His distinguished demeanor, however, belies a propensity for personal blunders. Last June an Iowa reporter uncovered an application he had signed in 1977 for membership in a "leisure spa" that advertised "nude modeling, nude encounters and nude rap sessions." Jepsen explained that he had joined in "a moment of weakness" that occurred before he became a born-again Christian and won his surprising 1978 victory over liberal Senator Dick Clark. Last year Jepsen was stopped for driving alone in a lane reserved for car pools, and he beat a $35 ticket by claiming congressional immunity.

Although his actions have prompted scorn and snickering during his campaign for a second term, two things usually fatal to a politician, the fervently conservative Senator has demonstrated a Teflon resistance to lasting taint. The Des Moines Register poll conducted last spring showed him 16 points behind his opponent, Democratic Congressman Tom Harkin, but the Register poll released last week gave the Senator a 50%-to-41% lead. Jepsen has appealed to Iowa voters by claiming to be a victim of "character assassination." At a Republican state convention, he won sympathy by saying he had been "stripped of all worldly pride and humbled before an entire nation."

Harkin, a coal miner's son who served as a Navy pilot in Viet Nam, is trying to exploit Jepsen's gaffes with the campaign slogan: "Tom Harkin--a Senator lowans can be proud of." Jepsen has sought to make Harkin's liberal voting record the key issue. But though Iowa's voters tend to be conservative on most social issues, they are less so on matters of military and foreign policy. Harkin, who has won five successive terms in a Republican district in southwest Iowa, has tried to deflect criticism of his opposition to a constitutional amendment banning abortion by proclaiming, "If we are truly concerned about respect for life, we should enact a nuclear freeze, cancel the MX missile and stop sending arms to Central America."

A key advantage for Jepsen may be the current enormous popularity of President Reagan, the original Teflon candidate, in the state. Iowa voters have split tickets before, sending some notable liberal Democrats to Capitol Hill while voting for Republican presidential candidates, but an overwhelming pro-Reagan sentiment might discourage many Democrats from going to the polls in November.