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Confused as they may seem elsewhere, Republicans are doing pretty well in, of all places, the South. Until recent years, Southerners had three choices: they could be conservative Democrats, middle-road Democrats or liberal Democrats. Now the G.O.P. is giving many voters a respectable opposition party to repair to. And Democrats are reacting to a threat they have not faced in a century. A state-by-state rundown of the less and less Solid South:

sbALABAMA. Two years ago, the Republicans had moribund organizations in ten of Alabama's 67 counties. Thanks to Gadsden Businessman James Mar tin's near victory in 1962 over Democratic Senator Lister Hill and to the efforts of Republican State Chairman John Grenier, the G.O.P. now has organizations in 63 counties, plans to put up candidates for all eight congressional seats in 1964. Martin stands a good chance of winning one of them.

sb ARKANSAS. This is a Goldwater state, but "Mr. Republican" is a Rockefeller --Winthrop, that is. Since becoming national committeeman in 1961, Winthrop has helped organize active G.O.P. groups in all 75 counties, even clubs for Little Rock teenagers and Hot Springs pensioners. Barry's boys distrusted Rockefeller, figuring that he was just trying to put together an organization for Brother Nelson, but he reassured them by staking out a middle-of-the-road position. "I am not as liberal as my brother and not as conservative as Mr. Goldwater," said he. He resigned as head of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, which brought 90,000 new jobs to the state during his eight-year tenure, and two weeks ago announced his candidacy for Governor. His opponent is almost sure to be Orval Faubus, who is after an unprecedented sixth term. Faubus is probably unbeatable, but Democratic and Republican pros agree that Winthrop could defeat almost anyone else.

sbFLORIDA. "On the national level, we have a two-party state," says State Chairman Tom Brown. "On the local level, we don't have it yet." Florida voted Republican in the last three presidential elections, but locally has been able to elect officials in only 17 of 67 counties. The party's strength is restricted to the sun cities for retired old folk and central Florida's industrial belt, and though the state has two G.O.P. Congressmen, six of its ten Democratic Congressmen are running without any opposition at all.

sbGEORGIA. In 1952, says G.O.P. National Committeeman Robert Snodgrass, Georgia's Republican organization could fit "in somebody's hatband." Today there are organizations in 130 of 159 counties. Republicans have elected two city councilmen in Atlanta, another in Augusta, two state representatives, four state senators, and they are contesting several congressional races this fall. All this has gotten the Democrats out of their hammocks. They recently opened their first fulltime state headquarters in Atlanta. "Let's face it," says one Georgia Democrat, "it's the first time we ever had to."

sbLOUISIANA. With 12,438 registered Republicans in the whole state, Republican Oilman Charlton Lyons polled some 300,000 votes for Governor in March. Although he lost, he helped push two Republicans into the state legislature. Heartened, Lyons plans to turn management of his Shreveport petroleum business over to associates and to spend the next four years pasting together organizations in the state's 64 parishes. The state's Republicans are mostly Goldwater men, last week gave 16 out of their 20 convention votes to the Senator from Arizona. All this has so upset Democratic Governor John McKeithen that he is trying to hamstring the G.O.P. with a law eliminating primaries and providing instead for two general elections. Everybody would run in the first, regardless of party, and the top two, presumably Democrats, would fight it out in the second. Complains Lyons: "That kind of thing isn't constitutional."

sbMISSISSIPPI. Democratic lawmakers were so shocked when Republican Rubel Phillips drew 38% of the gubernatorial vote last November that they drew up a legislative package aimed at putting the G.O.P. completely out of business. It is still pending in the state's house of representatives. G.O.P. State Chairman Wirt Yerger Jr. protests that the effect of the proposed bills "would be to establish by law in Mississippi a one-party police state such as they now have in Communist Russia and Castro's Cuba." But Yerger is going ahead with attempts at grass-roots organization, now has seven fulltime workers in his headquarters, and G.O.P. units in all of the state's 82 counties. Republicans have elected one member to the state house of representatives and one county attorney. While that does not seem like much, in Mississippi it is real progress.

sbNORTH CAROLINA. The G.O.P. already has two Congressmen, Charles Jonas and James Broyhill, hopes to elect a third in November. Republican candidates are running in nine of the state's eleven congressional districts, and the party will put up a record 150 candidates for the 175-seat general assembly. The Democrats, alarmed by the 45% vote polled by Republican Robert Gavin in 1960's gubernatorial race and stung by a G.O.P. pamphlet showing a donkey dozing in a hammock, have begun to stir, and are rejuvenating local organizations.

sbSOUTH CAROLINA. Legislatively, South Carolina has been as tough as Mississippi on the G.O.P. The effect of one recently passed law is to require the Republicans to nominate their candidates nearly three months before the Democrats do, giving the Democrats lots of time to bang away at the opposition. Still, active Republican organizations have sprouted in 42 of the state's 46 counties, and by 1966 the party aims to oppose every statewide candidate but Senator Strom Thurmond. Says G.O.P. State Chairman J. Drake Edens Jr. of Thurmond: "He's about the only thing conservative left in the Democratic Party in this state."

sbTENNESSEE. The G.O.P. does well nationally, but locally it has its problems. Republicans occupy three of Tennessee's nine seats in Congress, and the state has gone Republican in the last three presidential elections. But the party stands little chance of winning either of the Democrat-held Senate seats up for grabs this fall--Albert Gore's and that of the late Estes Kefauver. The death of tough Old Guard Republican Congressman Carroll Reece in 1961 has left a vacuum in statewide leadership that has yet to be filled.

sbTEXAS. G.O.P. organizations are well established down to the precinct level in places like Harris and Dallas counties. Ten Republican field men operate out of Austin, each covering a score or more of Texas' 254 counties. This year, for the first time in history, Republicans will contest every one of the state's 23 house seats, and the May 2 G.O.P. primary may produce an attractive senatorial candidate in Houston's George Bush, son of Connecticut's former Senator Prescott Bush, to run against liberal Democrat Ralph Yarborough. The Democrats are beginning to react. In Dallas County, where eight of the nine state representatives are Republicans, they are trying to patch up a twelve-year-old feud, have hopes of giving five-term G.O.P. Congressman Bruce Alger a tough fight for reelection.

sbVIRGINIA. Senator Harry Byrd behaves so much like a Republican that Virginia's G.O.P. sometimes wonders just where it can turn. Nevertheless, the G.O.P. has been winning seats never before held by Republicans--and two G.O.P. Congressmen elected in 1952 are now well entrenched. Though the Republicans doubled their strength in the Virginia general assembly last year, they are still outnumbered 126 to 14, which indicates the size of the job they face. But islands of strength are being formed in suburban areas, where young families are settling to man new industries, and a lot of doorbell ringing is being done.

It will, of course, be a few years before Republicans can expect equal footing in the South. But they have made a start, and they mean to keep moving. Thus the Republican National Committee sponsors a well-attended course in political action for Southerners called "Mobilization of Republican Enterprises." It is no coincidence that its name forms the acronym MORE.

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