After Styles

New Hampshire has almost as many ambitious Republican politicians as it has people. Most of these, for nearly a quarter of a century, had to take a back seat to Senator Styles Bridges, the overlord of New Hampshire Republicanism. But since Bridges' death last November, the aspirants for his old Senate seat have broken out all over.

Long Thought. Certainly the trimmest ankle of the lot is turned by Bridges' widow, Doloris, 46. She promises that she will carry on her husband's strong conservatism. "This is your money," she tells the ladies at coffees, teas and club dates, as she hits President Kennedy and his foreign policy. "This [U.N. money] is your money, not his private fortune, which is going to Poland, Yugoslavia, and India, which has consistently voted against us, and--hold your breath, girls--to Cuba!" She often invokes Styles's shade. "I thought about this a long time. I lay awake nights. I know what it requires to be a public servant, if you do it well. I am a respected co-worker with Styles, and those who admired Styles. If they can't have him, they would like to have me. I am a Styles Bridges Republican--and everyone knows what that is."

Ranged against Doloris Bridges are New" Hampshire's two Congressmen, Perkins Bass and Chester Merrow, and Maurice Murphy Jr., who is serving out Styles's Senate term under appointment by Governor Wesley Powell. "Mo" Murphy, 34,' an amiable fellow, is also considered a "Bridges Republican," but he stands to the southpaw side of Doloris (he favors financial aid to the U.N., she is against it). He argues that the voters ought to keep him in Washington because he is so young and he already has a few months' Senate seniority. Merrow, after 20 years in the House, has a well-oiled local organization, is accused by his opponents of voting more like a Democrat than a Republican. A dry ex-schoolteacher, he explains: "If federal money for Rye, for Portsmouth, for urban renewal in Manchester, and for better sewage disposal plants in many communities in our state is 'pork,' then I am for 'pork.' "

New Doctor? Of the four candidates, the one that Murphy, Merrow, and even Doloris will have to beat is Perkins Bass. The Bass name is almost as big as Bridges' in New Hampshire Republican politics. Bass's grandfather helped manage Lincoln's second presidential campaign, was a pallbearer at Lincoln's funeral; his father was a New Hampshire Governor. In Bridges' terms, Perkins Bass is a liberal--he even supports a modified version of Kennedy's foreign trade program. "I feel very strongly," says he, "that Senator Murphy and Mrs. Bridges represent the point of view that will mean the ruin of the Republican Party. I think the outcome of this negative type of Republican thinking will put the Republicans in permanent minority status." He also scoffs at the notion that Doloris should go to the Senate by inheritance. "I agree that being the wife of a distinguished Senator is glamorous and interesting. But does this itself provide the background of knowledge, experience and training for the U.S. Senate? How many of us, if our doctor died, would go to his widow for treatment?"

That question can only be answered by the state's G.O.P. voters in the Sept. 11 primary.

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