Hard Battles for a Different Job

THE lot of a U.S. Governor today, like that of Gilbert and Sullivan's policeman, is not a very happy one. Much of his former power has been usurped by the Federal Government. Prison riots or fiscal failures can tarnish his reputation. The Senate in recent elections has become the farm club of presidential succession, rather than the Governors' mansions, as in times past. Still, the job has compensations, and everywhere in the 18 states where gubernatorial campaigns are under way this fall the battles are vigorous. Some of the more interesting:

> DELAWARE. During the first two-thirds of his initial term as Governor of Delaware, everything was breaking right for Republican Russell W. Peterson, 56, a research chemist and former Du Pont executive whose sideline interest in politics had led him into a full-time career. Peterson revamped the state administration, successfully sought an open-housing law, liberalized abortion laws, and capped it all with a coastal zoning law last year that barred polluting industries from establishing waterside plants.

Then came the deluge. On the same day he signed the zoning act into law, Peterson had to admit that his fiscal planners had miscalculated state revenues; tax increases were necessary to overcome a huge deficit. Disputes arose over welfare, prison riots embarrassed the Governor, and Democrats receiving late income tax refunds charged that the delay happened because the state treasury was nearly bare. Ultimately Peterson was denied routine party approval for a second term and had to beat off a Wallace supporter.

In the general election Peterson is opposed by Sherman W. Tribbitt, 49, minority leader in the state house of representatives. The Governor's plight would be worse if the lackluster and malapropping Tribbitt were a better campaigner. As it is, the Democratic candidate leads narrowly.

> WEST VIRGINIA. They look a little Appalachian as they tramp the West Virginia hills: the gangling 6-ft. 6-in. man (who gulps three burgers and three Cokes at a sitting), his uncomfortable six-months-pregnant wife, and occasionally his little sister. But the man is John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller IV, 35, great-grandson of the Standard Oilman, Democratic nephew of New York's Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Wife Sharon, 27, is the attractive daughter of Illinois Senator Charles Percy. Sister Alida Rockefeller recently graduated from Stanford.

To offset Jay Rockefeller's name, fame and wealth--his $1.5 million campaign fund is largely family money--Incumbent Republican Arch A. Moore Jr., 49 (who has a substantial fund himself), is getting personal appearance plugs from six G.O.P. Governors (excluding Nelson), Vice President Agnew and President Nixon. In addition, twelve Illinois Republican Congressmen recently visited West Virginia to diminish the Percy charisma.

Rockefeller, backed by a superb organization, is campaigning for more jobs and better roads and against strip mining; he depicts former six-term Congressman Moore as an anti-conservation advocate of the surface mining that more and more West Virginians fear. Still, in spite of eight years' residence, Rockefeller frequently has to defend himself against charges that he is a rich carpetbagger using penurious West Virginia as a step toward national office. Sometimes he refutes the accusation too effusively, as when he scoops up a handful of dirt and croons, "I love the feel of it. I love the sound of the name West Virginia." But overall, the Rockefellers come across, and Jay is favored to defeat Moore in a close race.

> NORTH CAROLINA. Democrat Hargrove ("Skipper") Bowles Jr., 52, is being marketed for Governor of North Carolina like a detergent. His campaign consultant has divided the state into six "media markets" and thoroughly researched voter complaints in each market. In the eastern and mountainous western portions of the state, as a result, Bowles commiserates over bad farm roads and promises to revamp an inept highway commission. In Greensboro he emphasizes education, and in Charlotte, taxes.

Bowies' media campaign is the most expensive recorded in North Carolina history, and so far it seems to be working. The millionaire former state legislator is ahead of his opponent, James E. Holshouser, 38.

> ILLINOIS. The governorship of Illinois is a plum for either party; for a change, in a state where machine politics is a Daley occurrence, two attractive candidates are battling over it. The incumbent, Moderate Republican Richard Ogilvie, 49, is campaigning on a respectable record that includes improved mental health and welfare administration and increased state-local revenue sharing.

His Democratic opponent, Daniel Walker, 50, is a handsomely graying father of seven who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy but altered course to a prosperous corporate law career. Walker became famous--infamous in Chicago municipal circles--for a 1968 report which blamed the disorders during the 1968 Democratic Convention on "police riots." As a Democratic primary candidate last March, Walker made his name the game: in four months he walked 1,197 miles from one end of Illinois to the other, shaking hands. Walker leads Ogilvie as the campaign steams into its finale.

> WASHINGTON. In 1964, Washington Democrat Albert D. Rosellini was defeated in a third-term try by Liberal Republican Daniel J. Evans. Now Incumbent Evans, 47, is completing eight years himself and seeking twelve--and being challenged by Old-Liner Rosellini, 62. Rosellini's familiar red rose campaign emblem and "Return Rosellini" signs appeal to older voters once more, and Evans is in trouble.

High taxes and the economy are Washington's principal issues. Rosellini attacks "Dangerous Dan" Evans for raising taxes to record levels. The Democratic candidate promises to cut the state budget by $100 million and simultaneously increase the salaries of teachers and state employees by 8% to 12%; he has not made it clear how he would do it. Evans retaliates with a credibility attack. He reminds voters that as Governor, Rosellini promised not to raise taxes, but in 1959 pushed through the biggest single increase in the state's history.

Neither side is certain which way the votes will fall in a battle of the old and the new politics--the faintly mod liberal Republican against the gladhanding, bread-and-butter Democrat. Washington is normally Democratic, which gives Rosellini an advantage in his effort to justify his Seattle telephone-directory business listing: "Albert D. Rosellini, Gov atty."

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