The Year They Stayed In

At the outset, the 1966 campaign in the East seemed to presage danger for incumbents of both parties. Pundits and pollsters alike heralded the political demise of New York's Republican Gover nor Rockefeller, foresaw some uncertainties in the futures of Massachusetts' Governor Volpe, New Hampshire's Democratic Governor John King and New Jersey's Republican Senator Case. As a result, edgy incumbents in the twelve Eastern states fought like Trojans. And, instead of a year to "Throw the Rascals Out," 1966 wound up as the year in which Eastern voters decided overwhelmingly to "Keep 'Em In."

In 14 of the region's 16 contests for Governor and the U.S. Senate, satisfied voters returned old familiar faces -- or reasonable facsimiles -- to old familiar jobs. And both parties pretty well held their own.

Vote of Confidence. Solid victories were awarded to such veterans as Volpe (63% of the vote), Case (62%), Maine's doughty three-term G.O.P. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (59%), Delaware's Republican Senator Caleb Boggs (60%), and West Virginia's Democratic Senator Jennings Randolph (59%). Youngish up-and-comers also were rewarded with renewed votes of confidence. Vermont's Governor Philip Hoff, 42, elected in 1962 as the state's first Democratic chief executive since 1854, got a 57% majority this year; ticket-splitting Rhode Island voters re-elected Democratic Senator Claiborne Pell, 47, with a 67% margin and also returned energetic Republican Governor Chafee, 44, by a 64% total.

Connecticut Democrats, led by Governor John Dempsey, wound up retaining every statewide office and all but one congressional seat. New Hampshire's King, who in 1962 became the state's first Democratic Governor in 39 years, won an unprecedented third two-year term -- thanks in part to a continuing squabble within the G.O.P. Demo cratic Senator Thomas Mclntyre easily trounced his super-hawkish opponent, retired Brigadier General Harrison Thyng, a World War II and Korean flying ace who had financial backing from such outstate hyperconservatives as Texas Millionaire H. L. Hunt.

Freshmen's. Return. In Pennsylvania, moderate Republican Ray Shafer hand ily defeated spendthrift Millionaire Mil ton Shapp -- and that, too, represented a victory for the incumbent regime, since Shafer had served for four years as Lieutenant Governor in the popular ad ministration of outgoing Governor Scranton. Indeed, Pennsylvania voters' reaffirmation was vigorous enough to regain Republican control of both houses of the legislature by a hair. In Maryland, even though Republican Ted Agnew came from behind to defeat Segregationist George Mahoney in the gubernatorial campaign, voters also seemed content with the status quo, re-electing Democrats to all other statewide offices and keeping the state legislature lopsidedly Democratic.

In the East's congressional races, the Republican resurgence was notably less dramatic than elsewhere. The 1964 Goldwater debacle deposed 16 Eastern Republican House members; last week the G.O.P. picked up only seven seats in 122 House elections. All but three of the Democrats' celebrated '64 freshmen were sent back to Capitol Hill.

Rocky's Wreckage. The clenched-fist determination of Eastern state incumbents was best personified by Nelson Rockefeller, who last spring was rated as having the support of only 25% of the voters. Even in the final hours before the election, the usually dependable New York Daily News's straw poll found him trailing Democrat Frank O'Connor by 2.6%. Rocky never stopped punching. Near midnight on election eve he was still campaigning on New York City streets. Thanks to his indefatigability, a $4.3 million campaign fund, and O'Connor's underfinanced and uninspiring effort, the Governor won a third four-year term.

Whatever hope Rocky's big win may have given Republican moderates, it left little but wreckage and bad feeling in the New York Democratic Party. Some party workers felt that Senator Robert Kennedy gave less than his all for O'Connor, though in fact Bobby campaigned vigorously and even assigned his own top political engineer, Brother-in-Law Steve Smith, to oil the O'Connor machinery. Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that Bobby will devote much personal time or effort to resurrecting the New York party organization; the traditional Kennedy style--as displayed by both Jack and Teddy in Massachusetts--is to let the home-state politicians fend for themselves.

The election probably put an end to Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.'s political career. Though he spent at least $250,000 and predicted that he might well pull 2,000,000 votes as the Liberal Party's candidate, F.D.R. Jr. ran an abysmal third, pulling a scant 12,000 more votes than Conservative Party Candidate Paul Adams, the diffident upstate college dean who campaigned with a pinchpenny fund of less than $40,000.

Symbols of Statistics. In Massachusetts, John Volpe--stung in 1962 by a sliver-thin re-election defeat at the hands of Democrat "Chub" Peabody --also waged a herculean battle to stay in office. In defeating Democrat Edward McCormack, nephew of House Speaker John McCormack, Volpe won four more years with the biggest gubernatorial plurality (500,000 votes) in Massachusetts' history.

Though the Massachusetts G.O.P. ticket swept statewide offices, the Republicans barely held the current ratio in Massachusetts' congressional districts (seven Democrats, five Republicans). In the Tenth District, where former House Republican Speaker Joe Martin was bumped in a September primary after 42 years in Congress, Margaret Heckler, 35, a peppy housewife-lawyer, narrowly defeated her Democratic opponent--despite a last-minute underground campaign to exploit the "mother! ash" vote of people who thought Mrs. Heckler ought to be tending her home and three children instead of romping around on Capitol Hill.

In all twelve Eastern states, the only leading incumbent to be defeated was Maine's colorless, cliche-prone Republican Governor John Reed. (With typical Down East contrariness, Maine voters also replaced the Democrat-controlled legislature with G.O.P. majorities in both houses.) Reed, 45, was beaten by Secretary of State Kenneth Curtis, a rugged former merchant marine officer who campaigned with Kennedy-like slogans ("Get Maine Moving Again") and the support of Teddy and Bobby. At 35, Curtis will be the nation's youngest Governor.

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