Tumbling All Over

Political analysts just love Connecticut. They think of it as a sort of microcosm, if only because it has a little bit of everything: dreary industrial cities, picturesque towns and superb suburbia. It has a certain amount of agriculture--if tough turkeys, and apples used mostly for bland cider, can be counted. It has roughly 360,000 registered Democrats, 360,000 registered Republicans and 600,000 independents--and the analysts adore independents. Connecticut is small but heavily populated: at its widest stretch, it is less than 100 miles across; within its modest boundaries live some 2,500,000 people. And this year the candidates for major public office are tumbling all over each other as they travel the state.

The contenders in the two top races: Democrat Abe Ribicoff, 52, and Republican Horace Seely-Brown Jr., 54. running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Prescott Bush; and Democratic Governor John Dempsey, 47, who is challenged by Republican John Alsop, 47.

Abe & the Potholder Man. Last week in West Hartford. Representative Seely-Brown slung a paper boy's sack over his shoulder, rang doorbells, chatted briefly with the housewife, then handed out a brown-and-white potholder bearing the words: "Seely-Brown for U.S. Senator." Making a beeline for the next bell, he explained: "People throw campaign cards and buttons away. They keep potholders in their kitchens. A housewife will remember anyone who takes the time to knock on her door and give her something for her kitchen."

Getting himself remembered is the major problem for husky Horace. For after six terms in the House, he has pitted himself against one of the most formidable votegetters in Connecticut political history. Ribicoff. who resigned last June as Secretary of Health. Education and Welfare to run for the Senate, is an ex-Congressman (1949 to 1953). was elected Governor in 1954 and re-elected four years later by 246,000 votes, the biggest margin on record in a Connecticut gubernatorial contest. Says Ribicoff of Seely-Brown: "Who knows him? Go around and ask people. They know who I am. They never call me Mr. Ribicoff. They call me Abe because they like me."

They are also getting to like Seely-Brown. if only because they are getting to know him through his tireless potholder campaigning. As for actual issues, Ribicoff is running hard on the Administration's medicare bill. "I had to sit in the Senate gallery and watch medicare defeated." says Ribicoff. "One Senate vote would have made the difference. I want to be that vote." For his part. Seely-Brown favors medical care for the aged, but he fears that the Administration's proposal for financing it through social security could bankrupt the whole retirement system. He concentrates his fire on Ribicoff's job jumping, from the governorship to HEW and now to the Senate campaign--all within two years. "Ribicoff made too fast a turn-around." says Seely-Brown. "If he gets into the Senate, maybe he won't like that, and he'll go after something else. I've never run away from any job, nor out on any job."

John & John. Against Democratic Governor Dempsey, a bluff veteran in Connecticut politics, Republican Alsop also has the problem of establishing his own image. Outside Connecticut, his name is more famed than Dempsey's; he is, after all, the brother of Pundits Joseph and Stewart Alsop. John makes the least of this. During one recent campaign trek through a supermarket, a lady gushed to him about how much she had enjoyed reading Stew's Saturday Evening Post piece--"My Brother Runs for Governor." Replied John dryly: "Wasn't it nice of him to write it?"

Much of Alsop's campaign has been conducted in similar humor. Thus a factory worker in Litchfield, having just received a political leaflet from the candidate's own hand, sneered: "I guess you're for God, motherhood and country, ain't you?" Retorted Alsop: "That's right. And I'm also against man-eating sharks." An hour later, Alsop approached a suburban housewife near Torrington and said: "Have one of my biographies, madam. There's not a lie in it. A few exaggerations, perhaps, but not one lie."

Refreshing as such techniques may be, there is some doubt about how many votes they may win. But Alsop is also campaigning on a serious state issue. He argues that Ribicoff, when Governor, and Dempsey increased state taxes by $122 million, even while increasing the state deficit by $744 million.

Dempsey cites a string of achievements in education, job retraining, highways, and attracting nuclear research industries, calls his opponent's charges "Alsop's Fables." Alsop's retort: fabled Fabler Aesop was put to death by the citizens of Delphi for refusing to distribute money to them --because he found them grasping and greedy.

It remains for both the Republican candidates to overcome the great, vote-getting name of Abe Ribicoff; he is favored to beat Seely-Brown, and he might well carry Dempsey along with him. In that sense, a story doing the Connecticut rounds is appropriate. Alsop, pulling a switch on Seely-Brown's potholder campaign, is passing out Band-Aids with his name imprinted on them; other candidates are passing out G.O.P. cookbooks. An elderly lady brewed a Republican stew, took it off the stove with a Seely-Brown potholder and badly burned herself. She put an Alsop Band-Aid on the wound. Then she called Abe Ribicoff to ask about medicare.

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