Meanwhile, Hot Races Back Home

Although the presidential struggle dominates the nightly newscasts and absorbs the most printer's ink, for millions of Americans the elections that have the greatest impact on their daily lives are the ones that are taking place right around home. The sheriff, the mayor, the Congressman, the Governor often seem so much better positioned to deal effectively with problems than does the monolith that either Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford will try to grapple with for the next four years. Last week, from posh hotels in Beverly Hills, empty lots in grimy, big-city ghettos, street corners in Brooklyn, and general stores in small towns like Black Betsy, W. Va., the voices of these politicians were heard in the land. Millions of the words are broadcast and printed each day, but after Viet Nam, Watergate and years of governmental corruption, the American electorate in campaign year 1976 is not satisfied with words. Millions of people have tuned out completely. But the earnest and concerned Americans who will turn out on Nov. 2 to choose not only the next President, but also 14 Governors, 33 Senators, 435 Congressmen and a host of lesser officials are scrutinizing the candidates minutely and demanding, above all else, trustworthiness.

How they will make their assessments is impossible to determine--maddeningly so for the candidates and their image makers. But in contest after contest, it is plain that party affiliation and positions on all but a few emotional issues (abortion, busing, gun control) are of less concern to most voters than their general perception of the candidates' honesty and integrity. In races in which one candidate has been brushed by scandal--no matter how lightly--polls indicate an impending defeat, generally a bad one.

As the long campaign nears the finish line in every state, city and hamlet, TIME correspondents have found a plethora of hot races and intriguing, more or less new faces. Some of the more fascinating in each category:

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