States: First Hurrahs

States: First Hurrahs

Entering election year '76, there were 36 Democratic Governors to only 13 Republicans and one independent, Maine's James Longley. In the 14 contests decided Tuesday, the Democrats triumphed in nine and the Republicans in five--a pickup of one statehouse for the Democrats. A prostatehood candidate won office in Puerto Rico. A generally youthful group of G.O.P. hopefuls scored impressive wins in Delaware, Illinois and Vermont. The Republicans also re-elected their popular chief executive in Indiana, and returned to office for the third straight two-year stint Archconservative Meldrim Thomson of New Hampshire on his single plank --no taxes. Democratic incumbents were re-elected in Arkansas, Montana and North Dakota, while new candidates won in Missouri, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington and West Virginia. A fresh face also won in North Carolina, where James Hunt, a New South Democrat with an awesome organization, overwhelmed his G.O.P. opponent by a nearly 2-to-l margin. Among the other intriguing victors:

WEST VIRGINIA: NO CARPETBAGGER

Following one of the state's dullest campaigns in memory, Democrat John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller IV, 39, the nephew of Nelson Rockefeller and grandson of John D. Jr., swept to an almost 2-to-1 triumph over his Republican opponent, former Governor Cecil Underwood, 54. Rockefeller, who lost the Governor's race four years ago to Arch Moore, took no chances this time: he spent $1.7 million to win last spring's primary and more than $800,000 in this campaign. Nonetheless, he was able to defuse the wealth issue by suggesting that he was too rich to steal and by putting his assets into a blind trust.

Rockefeller, who moved to the state 13 years ago as an antipoverty worker, was finally able to put to rest the carpetbagger issue by emphasizing his four years of service as West Virginia's secretary of state and his two years as president of Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. "I am a West Virginian," insisted the New York City-born Democrat. "My kids were born here. Try and tell them they're not West Virginians."

ILLINOIS: MR. CLEAN V. MACHINE

James ("Big Jim") Thompson, 40, who in four years as U.S. Attorney put dozens of Mayor Daley's underlings into the slammer for various forms of corruption, easily knocked off another Daley lieutenant, jowly Democrat Michael Hewlett, to win the state's governorship by more than a million votes. A Republican liberal, Thompson rolled up heavy majorities in conservative downstate Illinois and Chicago's suburbs; he even made inroads into the traditionally Democratic black wards of Chicago.

With his somewhat wooden speaking style, Thompson campaigned intelligently and energetically seven days a week. The strapping (6 ft. 6 in., 200 Ibs.) Thompson also put on slacks and cowboy boots to appear more folksy. He pictured the genial but ineffectual Hewlett, who had been Illinois' secretary of state, as the embodiment of old-style politics. Thompson now has his work cut out for him: he has only a two-year term and faces a cantankerous legislature controlled by the Democrats. But his smashing win has catapulted him into national prominence as a possible Republican presidential contender in 1980.

MISSOURI: POPULIST INSURGENT

Bright, personable Governor Christopher ("Kit") Bond, 37, was considered a rising star of the G.O.P. and a sure bet to gain a second term. But in the biggest upset of Tuesday's gubernatorial races, he lost by less than a 1% margin to Democrat Joseph P. Teasdale, 40, a former prosecutor from Jackson County (which covers Independence and Kansas City). Known as "Walkin' Joe" after his unsuccessful trek around the state seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination four years ago, Teasdale hammered away at the Republican in debates and TV ads, painting him as a "corporate man" with ties to big-monied interests and a do-nothing chief executive "removed from the mainstream of life."

The tough-talking Teasdale favored a constitutional amendment exempting food and drugs from the state sales tax, proposed upping taxes on "giant corporations" to raise higher new revenues, and argued for stronger controls on utility charges. Missouri voters, in a populist mood, seemed to like his ideas--and turned a rising star into a falling one.

DELAWARE: SCION ON A BUDGET

Three-term Congressman Pierre ("Pete") Du Pont IV, 41, handily defeated incumbent Democratic Governor Sherman Tribbitt, 53, by a vote of 58% to 42%. Although a millionaire in his own right (he is a scion of Delaware's first family), Du Pont actually had campaign financial troubles: he refused to accept contributions of more than $100 and limited his spending to a modest $125,000.

A slender, aristocratic graduate of Exeter, Princeton and Harvard Law School, Du Pont stumped the state in a 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass that was driven by a college student. He preached fiscal integrity and charged Tribbitt with running the statehouse for partisan advantage. Du Pont told his audiences, "We have government of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians." Du Pont promises to run a lean, efficient administration, but he faces the likelihood of a large deficit and the certainty of a low bond rating in the state of Delaware.

WASHINGTON: FEISTY NEOPHYTE

Dixy Lee Ray, 62, who was the first woman to head the Atomic Energy Commission, became the second woman in U.S. political history to win a Statehouse without having a husband who preceded her (the other is Connecticut's Ella Grasso).* Democrat Ray edged out her Republican opponent, County Executive John Spellman, 49, by about 125,000 votes.

A former professor of zoology at the University of Washington, Dixy Ray, an admitted political neophyte, was a surprise winner of last September's Democratic primary. Ray, a small, chunky woman who lives with two dogs in a pre-fab home on an island, waged an energetic, 18-hour-a-day campaign on a skimpy budget to defeat the less colorful, pipe-smoking Spellman. As Governor, Ray is expected to pursue a generally conservative course, trimming the state budget and considering an income tax to replace other levies if the need arises. Predictably, she favors development of nuclear energy and revising upward the limits on the size of oil tankers on Puget Sound.

VERMONT: COOL CONSERVATIVE

Richard Snelling, the Republican majority leader in the statehouse, brushed aside sharp-tongued conservative Democrat Stella Hackel, 49, Vermont's state treasurer, to become Governor by a vote of 53% to 41%. It turned out to be one of the roughest gubernatorial races in Vermont's history. A conservative himself, Snelling continually accused Hackel of "trying to seduce the ultraconservative" wing of his party with her relentlessly shrill antiwelfare rhetoric.

Hackel retorted that Snelling was "a product of political recycling" because of his defeat in the 1966 gubernatorial race and his long term in the state legislature. But Snelling, a millionaire ski-equipment manufacturer, came across to the voters as more enlightened and cooler-headed than Hackel; he was thus able to attract moderate Democrats alienated by Hackel's strident and reactionary views. As Governor, Snelling is expected to work hard to attract new business to Vermont and to downplay environmental considerations in favor of economic growth.

PUERTO RICO: STATEHOOD BACKER

In a surprising upset victory, Mayor Carlos Romero Barcelo, 44, the New Progressive Party mayor of San Juan, narrowly beat the reserved, telegenic, incumbent one-term Governor of Puerto Rico, Rafael Hernandez Colon of the Popular Democratic Party, by an electoral count of 49% to 46.5%. Candidates of the two leftist and pro-independence parties received approximately 6% of the total popular vote.

A blustery speaker and flesh presser in the best Latino tradition, Romero capitalized on the island's deepening economic woes: unemployment is hovering around 20% and economic growth has flattened out to the point of stagnation. Romero has proposed an eight-point economic program to revive private sector confidence in the economic future of Puerto Rico; among other things, he wants the government to sell to private enterprise the island's telephone company and maritime shipping authority, both acquired under Hernandez. Romero is an advocate of statehood for Puerto Rico, but he will undoubtedly move slowly to change the island's commonwealth status because of the unique tax privileges that it provides, including exempting all residents from paying federal income taxes.

*Governors Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming, Miriam Ferguson of Texas and Lurleen Wallace of Alabama all had husbands in office before them.

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