The Bell Tolls for Case

A good week for political rookies and fiscal conservatives

Clifford Case was first elected to Congress in 1944, when Democrat Bill Bradley and Republican Jeffrey Bell were babies. For 34 years the liberal New Jersey Republican defied the odds, winning election to Congress five times and to the Senate four times in a state where there are now 1.5 million Democrats and only 500,000 Republicans.

Case, 74, was proof positive that both major U.S. political parties are ideological jambalayas. In his successful 1954 Senate campaign, he strongly opposed Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist-hunting investigations, and once in office he regularly supported social and civil rights legislation. He refused to endorse Barry Goldwater in 1964, and he opposed Richard Nixon's first two nominees to the Supreme Court. As he rose to ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, he continually upset the right wing of his party by such positions as early opposition to Viet Nam involvement and support of the Panama Canal treaties.

But to stalwarts of his own party he had become a liberal anomaly. He knew that a hard core of party conservatives --30% or so--always opposed him on ideological grounds, making him vulnerable in a primary with a light turnout and a right-wing challenger. That was the formula for his defeat last week. In a race in which he did not even use television ads and spent little time away from his Senate duties--"Every poll and writer indicated that I would win handsomely," Case explains--he lost by 3,500 votes out of 233,000 to Bell, a relatively obscure conservative who moved to New Jersey two years ago specifically to run against Case.

A former aide to Ronald Reagan, Bell, 34, proposes a 30% reduction in income tax rates. Case has called the tax plan "simplistic" and a "panacea," but Bell insists that he was helped considerably in his upset victory by the tax revolt that is sweeping across the U.S. He was undoubtedly also helped by finances: he outspent Case $500,000 to $100,000.

Bell still has a second race to win, of course. In November he must face another political rookie, Basketball Star Bradley, and he will rate as the underdog in that contest. Bradley, 34, a Rhodes scholar and former star forward for the New York Knicks, moved to New Jersey four years ago and began shaking hands and squeezing arms. He used a well-financed campaign to parlay name recognition and celebrity support into a Democratic primary victory over five rivals.

In other states last week, the tendency toward electing younger candidates and more conservative Republicans was also evident:

IOWA. Another conservative Republican proposing a slash in taxes, Roger Jepsen, 49, won a startling Landslide victory for the opportunity to take on liberal Democratic Incumbent Dick Clark, 48. Jepsen, who billed himself as "the right Republican," will have a tough time against Clark, who claims to have visited 1,100 Iowa communities during his first term. Jerry Fitzgerald, 37, Democratic leader of the state house, earned the tough job of trying to prevent Republican Bob Ray, 49, from winning a fifth term as Governor. Concedes Fitzgerald: "He's very popular."

MISSISSIPPI. In 1975 self-styled Populist Cliff Finch, 51, carried a lunch pail around the state to beat Prosecutor Maurice Dantin for Governor. Last week Dantin, 48, turned the tables and ran ahead of the Governor in a seven-candidate Democratic field in the race to succeed retiring Senator James Eastland, 73. They will meet in a June 27 run-off to see who faces the Republican nominee, Congressman Thad Cochran, 40, and possibly two black independents.

MONTANA. Earlier this year Paul Hatfield resigned from the Montana Supreme Court to replace the late Lee Metcalf in the Senate. It was seen as a move by the Governor and others to stop the quest of Congressman Max Baucus, 36, for a seat in the upper chamber. It did not work. The ambitious Baucus beat Hatfield by a ratio of more than 3 to 1 to take the Democratic nomination. He will face a fervent conservative, Larry Williams, 29, who attacked "printing-press money" and inheritance taxes with evangelical zeal to win the Republican nomination.

OHIO. Republican Governor Jim Rhodes, 68, easily earned renomination for a fourth term. But he faces a tough race against the Democratic nominee, Lieutenant Governor Richard Celeste, 40. Also seeking a ticket to Columbus is Wayne Hays, the former grand panjandrum of the House Administration Committee, who was brought low by his high jinks with Elizabeth Ray. Hays won a Democratic nomination for state representative. As a primary loser noted: "He's got 100% name recognition."

SOUTH DAKOTA. Democratic Lieutenant Governor Harvey Wollman, 43, will take over from Governor Richard Kneip when Kneip leaves next month to become ambassador to Singapore. This near incumbency was thought to assure Wollman his party's nomination, but he was beaten by the lavish campaign of Banker Roger McKellips, 55, who will face Republican Nominee William Janklow, 38, the state's tough, outspoken attorney general. In the race to choose a successor for retiring Democratic Senator James Abourezk, Republican Congressman Larry Pressler, 36, will face former Rapid City Mayor Don Barnett, 35, a Democrat.

VIRGINIA. Three of Elizabeth Taylor's former husbands--Richard Burton, Eddie Fisher and the late Mike Todd--got unsolicited votes during the long balloting by Virginia Republicans meeting in convention to choose a Senate candidate. Liz's current mate, former Navy Secretary John Warner, has been soliciting votes for the past year and a half, but he did not get quite enough to defeat conservative Richard Obenshain, 42, who won on the sixth ballot. The Democrats chose liberal Andrew Miller, 45, to set up a classic ideological battle for the seat of retiring Republican William Scott. -

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