Goldwater and Son

For those who cannot forget a face, there is something in the curly hair, the forthright blue eyes and the squared-off jaw to bring back nostalgic twinges. The name is familiar too. When Barry Morris Goldwater Jr., 30, showed off his proud mom and dad to jubilant California conservatives, it was Goldwater pere's evocation of the 1964 right-wing crusade that stimulated the cheering section. "In your hearts," said Barry Sr., "you know we're right."

Young Barry had certainly been right, as it turned out, to enter a special election for Congress. Last week he handily beat Democrat John K. Van de Kamp, 64,675 to 48,933, in a runoff in California's 27th District to replace Republican Ed Reinecke, who took over as the state's Lieutenant Governor when Robert Finch moved to Washington as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The sprawling 27th now stretches from suburban Los Angeles northward to rural Kern County. Young Barry ran far ahead of his father's 1964 showing in the district.

No Smear. The difference in outcome reflected no difference in generational outlook. No. 1 Son echoes his father's conservatism and, on one issue at least, is even farther to the right. While Barry Sr. favors lowering the voting age to 18, his son opposes the change. That kind of talk goes down well in the 27th District. Though registered Democrats enjoy a slight edge over Republicans, voters there customarily prefer conservatives of either party. Van de Kamp, 33, a former Justice Department lawyer whose family founded bakeries and restaurants throughout the state, proved to be almost as rightward-thinking as Goldwater. Both candidates hit hard at campus turmoil and stressed law and order. The result was a contest devoid of issues. With both men rigorously ruling out smear tactics, the question became more one of name than of name-calling. Yet while Barry Jr. bragged unabashedly of being the "elder son of the Senator from Arizona," he did devote 18-hour workdays campaigning to making it to Congress on his own.

That has been Barry Jr.'s way ever since he graduated from Arizona State University in 1962 with a major in business administration and a harvest of wild oats. "He was a bright kid," recalls one professor. "But it would be asking too much of the boy to be a serious student when he had his father's name and those same good looks. And the girls were crazy about him."

Playing Hard. Moving to California, Barry Jr. decided that it was time to settle down--up to a point. He started seven years ago as a $275-a-month stockbroker's clerk, progressed to a partnership that is now worth $80,000 a year. Girls, lithe and long-legged, are still wild about him, frequently decorating his three bedroom bachelor pad in Burbank. "I work hard and I play hard," Barry Jr. says. He pilots his own single-engined Bonanza, has sailed a yacht to Hawaii and Tahiti and keeps a brace of motorcycles for Mojave Desert hill climbing.

In Washington, the Goldwater team will join Capitol Hill's other family acts, including Missouri's Democratic Senator Stuart Symington and his guitar-strumming Congressman son James and Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen and his son-in-law, Republican Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee. Goldwater and Son promises to be the most cohesive of the family firms in politics. "We sound alike, and basically we think alike," said the new Congressman. "Maybe we shouldn't be so much alike. But we just are."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.