Fractured Crystal

With control of the U.S. Senate (present count: 48 Democrats, 47 Republicans, one vacancy) hinging on the outcome, both parties have applied steam-boiler pressure in recent months to push known vote getters into the most critical of this year's 32 senatorial contests. Last week the pressure from the Democratic boiler pushed Nevada's easygoing, cherubic Alan Bible, 46, elected in 1954 to fill the unexpired term of the late Pat McCarran, into a contest for which he had little taste: another Nevada Democratic primary campaign.

Bible, a hand-groomed favorite of the Senate Democratic leadership, set aside an earlier decision to retire to the "quieter role" of private life (as a topflight Reno lawyer). But, far from improving the Democratic position, the move misfired, left the party's fragile post-McCarran unity as fractured as a quartz crystal from the Comstock mines. Three other Democratic hopefuls, all of whom had politely waited until Bible announced his "retirement" last fall to jump into the race, gave little indication of getting out again. Most certain to benefit from the fracture: able Clifton Young, 33, Nevada's only Congressman, and the unopposed Republican choice for the Senate seat.

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