Maverick's End, G.O.P. Gains

In Oregon's senatorial race, the Election Night suspense persisted for days. Last week it became obvious that, in one of 1968's major upsets, 36-year-old Portland Attorney Robert W. Packwood had dislodged Democrat Wayne Morse, 68, from the Senate seat that he has occupied for 24 years. At week's end, Packwood held a thin 3,554 margin over Morse out of 814,418 votes cast. Morse will demand a recount. Unless it reverses the verdict, however, the brilliantly erratic Democrat--and onetime Republican--will retire to raise cattle on his Willamette Valley farm.

A corrosive polemicist and unrepentant maverick, Morse appealed to Oregonians with his independence, even when many of them disagreed with his passionate criticism of the war. But over the years, his army of political enemies increased. Republicans never quite forgave him for abandoning the G.O.P. in 1952, and later becoming a Democrat. Two years ago, he reversed field by supporting dovish Republican Mark Hatfield for the Senate, thus embittering thousands of Oregon Democrats.

Packwood, a three-term Oregon state representative, is characteristic of an ambitious type of Republican emerging at the grass roots. This month the G.O.P. in five states--California, New York, Delaware, Indiana and Iowa--gained control of both houses of legislatures that were formerly split. Particularly hard hit was California Democrat Jesse Unruh, who had hoped to use his post as speaker of the state's assembly as a springboard to the governorship in 1970 but now faces at least two years in the humbler and less visible job of minority leader.

The Republican victories gave the party command of both houses in 20 states, the highest number it has controlled since 1955. The Democrats, similarly, have majorities in both houses in 20 states. The G.O.P. also commands 31 statehouses, more than at any time since 1953; the total includes every major state except Texas. At lower levels, the party also made some inroads. In 1966, the Republicans elected 557 new state legislators, although this year they made a net gain of only 36 more. At the county level, the Republicans won more than 700 new seats in 1966. This year they added more than 500 county offices, from sheriff to recorder of deeds, swelling the total to more than 1,200 seats gained since the Goldwater debacle of four years ago.

To be sure, Congress remains the property of the Democrats. In addition to their 51-vote House majority, they have a 58-to-42 edge in the Senate, after a loss of five seats. Nixon will thus become the first President since Zachary Taylor in 1849 to enter office with the opposition in complete control on Capitol Hill--even though the House, with its combination of Republicans and conservative Democrats, may not prove too unfriendly. Nevertheless, the G.O.P.'s gains in Congress, and more particularly at other levels, offered a dramatic demonstration of how far the party had traveled from the wreckage of 1964.

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