A Hard-to-Forsake Habit

Mark Odom Hatfield is a lay preacher of the fundamentalist Baptist Church, a teetotaling former university dean (Willamette) who gave up smoking because he did not want to lead his students into temptation. Hatfield has since adopted a habit that is a lot harder to forsake: running for public office. At 43, he has won five consecutive contests for assorted posts as a Republican in normally Democratic Oregon, is just finishing off his second four-year term as Governor. Since he was barred by Oregon's constitution from seeking a third successive term, Hatfield obviously had to find another way to feed his habit. Last week he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Maurine Neuberger, who is quitting politics (TIME, Nov. 5).

Hatfield faces no discernible competition for the Republican nomination, and no Democratic opponent has yet appeared. There is, in fact, a dearth of Democrats anxious to oppose Hatfield, despite the Democrats' registration edge of 100,000 in Oregon. Hatfield is durable, good-looking and articulate, what he calls "a political animal." Oregon has prospered during his governorship. His legislative record is studded with progressive statutes in the fields of civil rights, welfare and labor relations. He has invested heavily in public community colleges, kept the state treasury in surplus. Thus deprived of ammunition, the Democrats are reduced to accusing him of being merely a shrewd, superficial operator who steals Democratic programs.

Buttons for Lyndon. Hatfield's brand of Republicanism is somewhat unorthodox. Long considered a comer by party elders, he nominated Richard Nixon at the 1960 Republican Convention, and was the keynoter at the 1964 convention. At a convention that refused to condemn extremism, he vigorously denounced the John Birch Society in his keynote address. After the convention, he lent his name--and one of his key aides--to the Goldwater campaign. And when Lyndon Johnson came campaigning, Hatfield greeted him warmly and presented him with a basket of L.B.J. buttons. At the Governors' conference last July, Hatfield and Michigan's George Romney cast the only votes against a resolution supporting Johnson's Viet Nam policy.

Hatfield's announcement of candida cy last week was in character. After his publicity men had put out the long-expected word via press release and recorded radio and TV spots, Hatfield drove to the farm community of Silverton (pop. 3,967), where 16 years earlier he had made his first campaign speech as a candidate for the state legislature. He held no formal press conference, went instead to a Kiwanis luncheon, where he barely mentioned his Senate candidacy. "I shall seek," his press release said, "to be a Senator of all the people." The announcement carried no indication of the candidate's party affiliation.

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