Small Change

President Kennedy will have a solid Democratic phalanx in the House of Representatives. The old Democratic majority (283-154) may have slipped slightly by the time the last absentee ballots are counted, but it will still be wide enough to assure Speaker Sam Rayburn (unopposed in his 25th House campaign) of another two years as the presiding officer of the lower house. Republicans lost a few seats in New Jersey and New York, held their inroads in the South, reclaimed five seats in Indiana, racked up a net gain of at least 15 seats. But the House in 1961 will look very much as it did in 1960. Among the noteworthy races:

P: In Indiana. Minority Leader Charlie Halleck comfortably won a 14th term, overcoming the massive resistance of big labor unions which backed Democrat George H. Bowers.

P: In Massachusetts, longtime Republican Leader (and former Speaker) Joe Martin, 76, carried his 14th District after running behind Democrat Edward F. Doolan for most of election night.

P: Nevada's former Senator George W. ("Molly'') Malone, of the dinosaur wing of the G.O.P., failed in a political comeback. Still Nevada's lone Congressman: Democrat Walter Baring of Reno.

P: The 1958 triumph of Representative William H. Meyer, Vermont's first Democratic Representative in 106 years, was short. After just one term in the House, where he was marked for his pacifist speeches, he was defeated by Republican Governor Robert Stafford by 24,000 votes.

P: New York's 15-denier "Silk Stocking District,'' along Manhattan's East Side, returned young (38), personable Republican John V. Lindsay to the House for a second term and propelled him into the limelight as a likely G.O.P. candidate for mayor of New York in 1961.

P: In Arizona, where Republican Barry Goldwater strides with giant steps, liberal Democrat Stewart Udall kept his seat against a Goldwater-backed challenger.

P: In Missouri, Representative Charlie Brown, who managed Stu Symington's unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, had no better luck with his own campaign for reelection. The winner: Republican Durward G. Hall, a handsome, conservative surgeon who. in the Ozark phrase, is a "gravel bar speaker.''

P: California Democrats Dalip S. Saund, the only Hindu in Congress (he was born in Amritsar, India, is a naturalized American), and Jimmy Roosevelt were both reelected. Rudd Brown, granddaughter of William Jennings Bryan, failed in her second attempt to unseat Republican Edgar W. Hiestand.

P: Pennsylvania's Bill Scranton, bearer of an illustrious Republican surname and one of the brighter faces in the new Congress, had to cut through the anthracite of heavy Democratic registration and unemployment in the Tenth District to beat Incumbent Stanley A. Prokop.

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