New Dominion

After casting his ballot in the Virginia hamlet of New Baltimore, Howard Worth Smith shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Times have changed." How much they had changed became apparent in the next several hours. When the votes were counted in last week's Democratic primary, "Judge" Smith, 83, longtime leader of the conservative Southern bloc in the House of Representatives, was dispossessed of the seat he has occupied for 35 years. Senator Willis Robertson, 79, like Smith a member of the Byrd organization, was also defeated. And, in the Old Dominion that has been a family fiefdom for 40 years, Harry Flood Byrd Jr., 51, won the nomination for his father's old Senate seat by only 8,300 votes out of 434,000 cast.

Smith and Robertson shared a number of common problems. Prototypes of a bygone era, they faced relatively young, vigorous opponents of modern mien and moderate views. Both incumbents suffered from the erosion of the Byrd machine, which has lost some of its far-right adherents to a new Conservative Party. On the other hand, among the independent-minded white voters who inhabit swelling suburban developments in a crescent extending from Washington through Richmond to Norfolk, there is little loyalty to the old regime. In addition, tens of thousands of Negroes have been added to the electorate since passage of the 1965 voting Rights Act and abolition of the poll tax. Negro precincts and the largest metropolitan areas voted heavily against the Byrd candidates. Harry Byrd Sr., 79, was spared the bad news: on primary day he lay in a deep coma at his Berryville estate, suffering from a malignant brain tumor.

First to Go. Judge Smith had a problem all his own in his contest with George C. Rawlings Jr. ,44, a Fredericksburg attorney and state legislator. The Eighth District was redrawn last year to include part of suburban Fairfax County in the north and some predominantly Negro areas in the south. Much of the territory between stayed loyal to Smith, but gave him smaller margins than he had expected. Suburban Fairfax went for Rawlings 2 to 1. With heavy Negro votes, Charles City County gave Rawlings a 7 to 2 margin, and New Kent County, 2 to 1. The result was a 645-vote victory for Rawlings out of nearly 54,000 cast.

House Rules Committee Chairman Smith thus became the first nationally prominent Congressman to lose his seat in the recent wave of redistricting. Next in line to succeed him as committee chairman is Democrat William Colmer of Mississippi, who, if possible, is even more conservative than Smith. Smith's defeat was, nonetheless, a traumatic shock to the House's Southern Democrats, for there is no other leader of his prestige and skill to assume captaincy of the bloc.

Competition at Last. Robertson also had a special problem. After decades of reliance on the organization, he received, at best, tepid support from his old allies in this year's campaign. Some Byrd advisers suggested bluntly that Robertson, who was never an important figure in the combine, should follow Old Harry into voluntary retirement. Instead, Banking and Currency Chairman Robertson years' campaigned on the strength of his 20 years' seniority in the Senate. Wearing the traditional white linen suit favored by Old Harry, he stumped the state making florid (and familiar) speeches denouncing the evils of big government.

He made an inviting target for State Senator William B. Spong Jr., 45, who had opposed conservative Byrd policies in the legislature for years, and now appealed for a "fresh, positive approach." Spong got a plurality of 764 out of a total vote of 433,000.

As for Young Harry, who was opposed by Armistead Soothe, 58, he concentrated on refurbishing the Byrd image. Styling himself a "progressive conservative," he coolly ignored Boothe's invitations to debate, and parried his opponent's efforts to label him a segregationist. Though Byrd helped lead Virginia's "massive resistance" campaign against school integration in the late '50s, he proclaimed that such efforts are now "passe." Said he: "I am for education." Byrd, who has been serving in the Senate by appointment since Harry Sr.'s resignation in November, probably attracted some sympathy votes, since his father's illness was announced only a week before the election. Nonetheless, Byrd won with a plurality of less than 2% , a startling contrast to the massive margins Old Harry used to pile up --when he faced any opposition at all.

Though his nomination virtually assured him of victory in the general election, Young Harry went so far as to observe that "competition for high office is healthy." Yes, Virginia, times have indeed changed.

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