Heartland Recaptured

Nowhere was this year's electoral outcome awaited with greater suspense than in the Midwest, where millions of Republicans deserted their party in 1964. And nowhere, as it turned out, did the G.O.P. make so vigorous a come back. Republicans not only eradicated their losses of two years ago but also added some upsets of their own, and may well have recovered their historic power base in the nation's heartland.

In addition to the glittering Senate victories of Chuck Percy and Bob Grif fin, the voters re-elected a phalanx of Republican regulars: Iowa's Jack Miller, Kansas' James B. Pearson, South Dakota's Karl Mundt, Nebraska's Carl Curtis. Indeed, it was a boomerang attempt by Lyndon Johnson to dislodge Curtis that led to one of six gubernatorial victories in the region.

Brother Bother. Piqued by Curtis' criticism of his Administration over the Bobby Baker case, the President persuaded Nebraska's popular Democratic Governor Frank Morrison--who had been favored to win re-election--to run for Curtis' Senate seat. As Governor, Morrison had enjoyed the support of Nebraska's conservative businessmen, but the same element had also backed Curtis. Forced to choose between the two, the business community stuck by the Republican. Defeated with Morrison was the Democratic candidate to succeed him, Lieutenant Governor Philip Sorensen.

The latter was more hurt than helped by his abrasive older brother Ted. President Kennedy's former speechwriter, who flew in from the East to campaign for Phil and immediately got into a shouting match with the Omaha World-Herald over some disparaging remarks that Ted had made about progress in his home state in 1961. In the end, Phil lost the limelight to a G.O.P. novice, Norbert ("Nobby") Tiemann, 42, himself a Kennedy-handsome, 6-ft. 3-in. banker from Wasau (pop. 724). An unknown nine months ago, Tiemann stumped the state shaking every outstretched hand, put across his German name with the slogan: "Tiemann. . . Nebraska's Way to Spell Governor." He won by 101,586 votes.

Vexation with Taxation. In Iowa, where a similar L.B.J. intervention failed to persuade Democratic Governor Harold Hughes to take on G.O.P. Senator Jack Miller, Hughes, an ex-truck driver and reformed alcoholic, easily won re-election over Republican William G. Murray, an Iowa State University economics professor; nonetheless, Hughes-imposed tax increases cut down his margin of victory. The voters' revolt over taxes-cum-inflation was also a major issue in Kansas.

Conversely, Ohio's G.O.P. Governor James Rhodes, who was re-elected to a second four-year term by a landslide 700,000 votes over Democratic State Senator Frazier Reams Jr., was helped by the fact that he had upheld a 1962 campaign promise not to raise taxes. Spending also figured in the gubernatorial campaign in Wisconsin, where Democratic Candidate Patrick J. Lucey, a Kennedy supporter, attacked Republican Incumbent Warren P. Knowles as a profligate squanderer and "cheerleader Governor." Nonetheless, Knowles, whose accomplishments include ambitious educational reforms and a $300 million anti-pollution program, trounced Lucey by 626,250 votes to 538,797.

Flunking Freshmen. In Hubert Humphrey's bailiwick of Minnesota, Republicans profited from the Democratic Farmer Labor Party's decay and disarray. Beleaguered by intraparty strife and a state insurance scandal, Democratic Governor Karl Rolvaag was toppled by Republican Moderate Harold LeVander, 56, a St. Paul attorney and onetime law partner of Harold Stassen's. Swedish-descended son of a Lutheran preacher, LeVander is a stem-winding speaker who has delivered more than 200 high school commencement addresses with such galvanizing titles as "Rise Up and Build" and "You Have Singled; Now Score."

The G.O.P.'s most spectacular Midwest gains came in the House races and were, in large part, the result of having exceptionally attractive young candidates. In Michigan, Republican challengers ousted all five of the Democratic Congressmen who were newly elected in 1964. Biggest upset occurred in the Seventh District (Flint and environs), where Republican Donald W. Riegle Jr., 28, literally quit school--he was working on a business doctorate at Harvard--to take on First-Termer John Mackie, 46, Democratic wheelhorse and longtime state highway commissioner. Riegle, who tirelessly trod city streets and crashed Democratic rallies, buried Mackie 71,133 to 60,130.

In the state's Second District (including Ann Arbor), Republicans ousted Democratic Freshman Weston Vivian, an engineering Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, by the simple expedient of recruiting a Ph.D. of their own (in speech), State Representative Marvin L. Esch, 39. In the Upper Peninsula, Republican Businessman Philip E. Ruppe bounced a fourth L.B.J. coattail product, Raymond Clevenger, despite frenetic federal pork-barreling on the latter's behalf--including a post office for microscopic Christmas, Mich, (pop. 120), which now foresees a future as a yuletide mailing center.

Shoo-Out. Many Midwest G.O.P. victories resulted simply from general discontent with the Administration. Republicans gained five congressional seats in Ohio, where voters recalled all three of their Democratic freshmen, chief among them Cincinnati's capable John Gilligan, narrowly beaten (margin: 7,832 votes out of 131,340) by Robert Taft Jr.. son of Mr. Republican. In Iowa, where five Democrats swept out veteran Republican Congressmen in 1964, the only survivor was Representative John Culver, who had a weak challenger in Cedar Rapids Mayor Robert Johnson.

In Wisconsin, both freshmen Democrats went down; Lynn Stalbaum lost his seat to ex-Congressman Henry C. Schadeberg, whom he defeated in 1964, and John Race fell before handsome Republican Assemblyman William Steiger. In North Dakota, Democratic Newcomer Rolland Redlin was wiped out. Even one Democratic freshman who had been considered a virtual shoo-in for reelection was shooed out: Nebraska's hard-working Clair Callan, after a nightlong seesaw count, finally lost to Fairbury Attorney Robert V. Denney.

Platform for Action. Nor could Illinois' only L.B.J. neophyte, Gale Schis-ler, fend off the challenge of able G.O.P. State Legislator Tom Railsback. Ironically, the Illinois Democratic machine's only major victory was the election of Adlai Stevenson III, father-like son of the late Democratic presidential nominee, as state treasurer, by a hair-thin 30,758 votes--despite the fact that the party bosses had asked Stevenson to run for the post only because Senator Paul Douglas thought that the Stevenson name would help him in his own race.

Apart from Culver in Iowa, only two other Democratic freshmen survived--Andrew Jacobs and Lee Hamilton in Indiana--largely because of skillful gerrymandering by the Democratic legislature. However, the G.O.P. unexpectedly unseated a veteran Hoosier House fixture, eight-termer Winfield K. Denton, who lost to Management Consultant Roger H. Zion, 45. Reflecting farmer unrest, the G.O.P. captured, by one estimate, 57% of the rural vote v. 49.7% in the Goldwater debacle. Of 19 Democrats newly elected in 1964 throughout the region, 16 were retired. In all, Republicans picked up a net gain of 22 House seats in the Midwest--almost half their national gain.

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