Wayne by a Whisker

Wayne Lyman Morse proudly records in the Congressional Directory that he was once a professor of "argumentation." For the past 23 years, his flair for public argy-bargy has persuaded Oregon's voters to keep him in the U.S. Senate--even while he performed his maverick metempsychoses from Republican to independent in 1952 and from independent to Democrat in 1954. This year for the first time, the professor very nearly lost his podium.

Not until 24 hours after Democratic primary polls closed was Morse certain that he had outpointed former Congressman Robert Duncan, 47, for the party's senatorial nomination. With returns nearly complete, Morse, 67, squeezed through by 173,000 votes to 167,000, a margin of 2%. Even at that, the victory was more a matter of luck than a test of Morse's strength.

After one poll last year, it seemed questionable whether Morse should even try for county prothonotary. Running 2 to 1 behind Duncan, the Senator began taking time out from his antiwar campaign in the Senate for furious fence-mending missions at home. Morse argufied from one Oregon border to another and blanketed the state with TV spots.

Duncan, a onetime merchant seaman who narrowly lost to Republican Senator Mark Hatfield in 1966, vowed early "not to descend to personalities." As Morse gained ground, however, Duncan bitterly suggested that the Senator might be waging "the first million-dollar campaign in Oregon's history." A strong supporter of the President's war policies, Duncan was robbed of his chief issue against Morse when the Paris talks started.

Wayne's cause really waxed with the presence of a third candidate, Millionaire Phil McAlmond, a former Duncan aide and voluble supporter of the Viet Nam war. McAlmond drew 17,000 votes, nearly all of them away from Duncan, and 11,000 more than Morse's margin. In other primary races: P: Florida's former Governor LeRoy Collins also suffered through an election-night cliffhanger in his bid for the Democratic nomination to the Senate seat that George Smathers is vacating this year. An urbane lawyer and former director of the President's Com munity Relations Service, Collins, 59, narrowly defeated Florida Attorney General Earl Faircloth, who ran as a "conservative alternative" and forced Collins into last week's runoff election.

Having beaten Faircloth by only 3,000 votes, Collins will be forced to forsake some of his courtly brand of gentle persuasion in the race against Republican Congressman Ed Gurney, who will inherit much of Faircloth's conservative Democratic support. P:For the first time in Kentucky's history, voters nominated a woman for the U.S. Senate. By nearly 35,000 votes, Katherine Peden, 42, a former state commerce commissioner and the only woman member of the President's riots commission, defeated her closest opponent in a field of twelve candidates to win the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat held by Republican Thruston Morton, who is retiring. Miss Peden, who owns a Kentucky radio station, set off the morning after her victory to campaign against Jefferson County Judge Marlow Cook, the Republican nominee. Despite Kentucky's G.O.P. leanings, Miss Peden is given an even chance of beating Cook, a Roman Catholic.

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