Country Ham and Hard Ball

This is the fourth in a series examining the candidates for the presidency.

"People aren't sure whether he belongs to Washington or Indiana," says an Indiana Democrat about Senator Birch Evans Bayh Jr., 47. The Senator would just as soon keep them guessing. Last week as he became the ninth Democrat to announce for the presidency, he knew he would need the support of both worlds--Middle America and the coastal liberals--to win the nomination. His aim is to live a double life as long as possible. As a onetime dirt farmer who has become the author of three constitutional amendments, he offers a political style that is both country ham and hard ball--take your pick. In Washington he appears to be the tough, ambitious sophisticate; on the stump in Indiana, he turns into a country boy.

Just Me. His long-anticipated announcement was pure Bayh: a mixture of hokum and humility. Followed by two busloads of staff and press, he traveled around Indiana. The first stop was the family farm in Shirkieville (pop. 40). As he gazed over his 340 acres, Bayh brooded: "I think it's fair to say that I have really felt closer to my God right out here in these fields, doing the kinds of things most of us enjoy doing." He even confided that he did not have a "burning desire" to be President. The next stop, at Indianapolis, brought a change of mood and a definite kindling of desire. Thundered Bayh: "I am running for the presidency to provide the kind of leadership that will stop telling Americans what we can't do, start telling us what we can do and show the way to get it done."

Mesmerized by the spirited campaigner with his crooked smile and dimpled chin, people sometimes forget what Bayh has said or that he has not said much of anything. He often ends his campaign speeches with the following:

"When John Kennedy was [long pause, eyes lowered] taken from us, Norman Mailer wrote something that I have never forgotten and that went something like this [voice hushed]: Tor a while the country was ours. [Pause.] Now they've taken it away from us.' [Long pause, voice very low.] With your help, I want to take it back again."

Bayh is not embarrassed by his banalities. As he told TIME Correspondent Stanley Cloud last week, "That's just me. I can't help it." When he appeared at a recent candidates' forum in Minneapolis, a woman complained: "He reminds me of Johnny Carson discussing the issues." But Bayh gives his all to everyone he meets. Nobody high or low, friendly or hostile, is spared some gesture of affection--a slap on the back maybe, a poke in the ribs, a jab to the shoulder--as if Bayh were still a Golden Gloves light-heavyweight boxing champion. "If he does that once again," Robert Kennedy is reported to have grumbled, "I'll punch him in the nose." But most people like the Bayh touch.

Rarely does he let people forget where his roots are. Born in Terre Haute, he spent part of his childhood in Washington, D.C., where his father was a director of physical education in the school system. At 12, when his mother died and his father went overseas in World War II, Bayh and his sister Mary Alice moved to their grandparents' farm in Shirkieville. In high school Bayh became a champion 4-H Club tomato grower and decided to study agriculture at Purdue. After two years in the Army, he returned to graduate in 1951. Then he settled down on the farm and married Marvella Hern, a winsome and whip-smart blonde who had defeated him in the national finals of a Farm Bureau debate. They have one son.

At Marvella's urging, Bayh ran for the state house of representatives and won. While serving, he earned a law degree from Indiana University. At 30 he became speaker of the house. In 1962. at age 34, he challenged Republican Senator Homer Capehart. The incumbent was not expected to have much trouble defeating Bayh, whose name many people did not even know how to pronounce (it is buy). He soon set them straight with a radio and TV jingle: "Hey look him over/ He's your kind of guy./ His first name is Birch/ His last name is Bayh." With the strong support of the United Auto Workers, Bayh narrowly won by 11,000 votes. He still plays on the name; one of his campaign buttons says: I'm BAYH Partisan.

Legislative Skills. In the Senate he built up an impressive record of liberalism, a leaning that he sometimes tries to camouflage for the more conservative folks back home. He drafted the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which provides federal funds to rehabilitate young offenders. He supported civil rights legislation, health and welfare measures and a gun-control bill, which was unpopular in Indiana.

On economics, he has followed the standard liberal Democratic policies of pump priming and full employment. He has recently introduced a bill calling for a breakup of big oil companies (see ECONOMY AND BUSINESS). Bayh favors some kind of federal aid for New York City. "If you let New York go down the drain," he said in a speech in Ohio, "it's going to be tough on Youngstown! It's going to be tough on Terre Haute! It's going to be tough on Peoria!"

Bayh's legislative skills were demonstrated by his work as chairman of the Constitutional Amendments subcommittee. He was principal author of the 25th Amendment, which provides for an orderly succession if the President is disabled or removed; Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller took office under its provisions. Bayh participated in drafting the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18. He was prominent in drawing up the 27th Equal Rights Amendment, which bars inequality of treatment on the basis of sex. The amendment has been ratified by 34 of the required 38 states.

Bayh is well known for leading the fight in the Senate to stop two of Richard Nixon's nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court: Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell. The Senator expertly demolished the able Haynsworth by tying him to a conflict-of-interest charge. Said a Bayh opponent: "He made us sick with his 'Aw shucks, this just kills me to say these things about a fine gentleman and sincere judge, and I'm sure he didn't do anything crooked, but golly gee.' " After that, picking off Carswell, a lackluster judge with a segregationist past, was like a turkey shoot.

Bayh has not had an easy time winning re-election in Indiana. In 1968 he defeated Republican Congressman William Ruckelshaus by only 72,000 votes (out of 2 million). Last year he turned back Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar by 75,000 votes. He was preparing to run for President in 1971 when Marvella was stricken by breast cancer; Bayh dropped out of the race to devote more time to her. Three years after her mastectomy, she appears to have fully recovered and works as a Bicentennial reporter for WRC-TV in Washington.

Biggest Boost. Bayh claims to have raised enough money to qualify for federal matching funds. Recently he opened headquarters in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and won endorsements from many politicians in those states. He has started a delegate drive in Iowa, a non-primary state, where he is considered a threat to the front runner, Jimmy Carter. Bayh's biggest boost will come from labor. AFL-CIO President George Meany has encouraged him to make the race. He is a favorite of the United Auto Workers.

With his labor backing, Bayh could outdistance his liberal rivals, Carter, Morris Udall and Fred Harris. A key date is Dec. 6, when the New Democratic Coalition, the liberal-left wing of the New York Democratic Party, endorses a candidate. The following day, a nonpartisan convention of liberal-minded people takes place in Massachusetts. Strong showings could build momentum for Bayh as he enters the New Hampshire primary in February and the Massachusetts primary in March.

Next May 4 comes a big question mark for Bayh: the Indiana primary. Humphrey defeated George Wallace in the 1972 contest, but the Alabaman rolled up 41% of the vote. He is considered by many to be at least as strong today. If Bayh does not top Wallace, he will be in deep trouble. But if he wins big, he will look like the kind of candidate who can tame the Republicans. In the end, it may all boil down to whether the home folks think their man belongs to Indiana or to the nation.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.