Tweedleham & Tweedlesam

In their undergraduate days at Harvard, Hamilton Fish Jr. and Alexander Aldrich were members of the junior varsity crew, lived at Eliot House, belonged to the Porcellian Club and, as comrades and co-patricians, hailed each other as "Ham" and "Sam." Today Lawyers Ham Fish, 39, and Sam Alrich, 38, rival candidates for the Republican nomination for Congress from New York's 28th District, still refer to each other by the same old nicknames--if not quite so chummily. Ham, sniffs Sam, "is running solely on his father's name." Sam, snorts Ham, "has got the Rockefeller money behind him."

Roots. Whether by blueblood test or Dun & Bradstreet standards, both candidates are remarkably similar. Fish is campaigning as "a man molded in the finest American tradition." Tracing his ancestry to the American Revolution, he points with pride to his father and the two other Hamilton Fishes who have served in Congress. Aldrich, 38, a compact (5 ft. 9 in.) look-alike of his first cousin, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, certifies himself in his campaign brochure as the son of Winthrop W. Aldrich, former Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, and grandson of Nelson W. Aldrich, onetime Senator from Rhode Island.

As for their political views, Fish and Aldrich are as close as ever. Near Poughkeepsie last week, in one of a series of town-hall debates throughout the rich Hudson Valley farming district, Fish recommended tougher laws to combat inflation and civil rights infringements, suggested that Viet Nam should eventually be policed by an Asian peacekeeping force. Aldrich, who came out for high-speed trains in the valley and fresh initiatives in water conservation, dismissed his rival's Viet Nam and anti-inflation proposals as "unrealistic." Said Manhattan-born Sam: "The issue here is not ancestral roots or personal family roots, but roots which qualify your candidate to speak in Washington for the people of this district."

Toots. Later in the week, attired alike in grey suits and button-down Brooks Brothers shirts, Tweedleham and Tweedlesam went out shaking hands and dispensing ballpoint pens and lollipops--Aldrich tooting through Columbia County in a Jeep panel truck outfitted with a locomotive bell and steam whistle, Fish riding around Schoharie County in a red, white and blue Chevrolet. To his chagrin, Fish found that his rival's prowess at bawling bawdy ballads had had a strong impact on the area.

Most Hudson Valley pros favored Sam Aldrich to win the June 28 primary. The Republican candidate will face Democratic Representative Joseph Y. Resnick, 41, a Russian immigrant's son who made a fortune manufacturing electronics components. Resnick was first elected to Congress in the 1964 Lyndon Johnson landslide by a 15,000-vote margin in a district whose 83,438 registered Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly 2 to 1. If there is one subject on which Ham and Sam unreservedly agree, it is that Resnick will be a tough man to unseat.

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