The House: Aiming at the Leaders

The Targets Are Mo and Al

Some 30 years ago Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn of Texas was asked by a fellow Democrat to campaign in Massachusetts against Republican Leader Joe Martin. Snapped Rayburn: "Speak against Joe Martin? Hell, if I lived up there, I'd vote for him!"

For generations, that has been the gentlemanly tradition. Despite their sometimes fiery fights in the House, the leaders of the two parties--the top half-dozen men in the House on both sides of the aisle--have not tried to unseat each other. The idea of doing so still shocks some oldtimers. When House Republican Leader John Rhodes of Arizona, who has served 14 terms, was asked if he would campaign this year against Speaker Tip O'Neill, he replied, "There's no way I'd be against Tip. I don't agree with him on the time of day, but I love him."

Not all Republican leaders, however, share Rhodes' allegiance to the old political rules. In fact, the National Republican Congressional Committee this year is cold-bloodedly working hard to unseat nearly all of the House Democratic leaders. The break with tradition was engineered by the committee's chairman, Michigan Congressman Guy Vander Jagt, who is unopposed for re-election and hopes to succeed Rhodes as G.O.P. floor leader.

Vander Jagt started nearly two years ago collecting data on the Democratic leaders' voting records and the political complexion of their districts. He believes that nearly all of the Democrats have grown soft from lack of serious opposition over the years and can be beaten. He insists that there is nothing personal in the assault. Says he: "I consider myself good friends with all of these fellows. I feel close to them, warm. I won't say a bad word about them. But I will speak for their Republican challengers."

The Republican hit list includes Majority Leader Jim Wright of Texas, Majority Whip John Brademas of Indiana, Caucus Chairman Thomas Foley of Washington, National Congressional Committee Chairman James Corman of California, Interior and Insular Affairs Committee Chairman Morris Udall of Arizona, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Al Ullman of Oregon. The Vander Jagt committee has found formidable candidates to run against all of them, and is backing each of its nominees with $21,000 in campaign cash and advice on strategy, opponents' weaknesses and TV ads.

Ironically, one of the chief targets of Vander Jagt, who was the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention, is Mo Udall, 58, who was the Democratic keynoter. Admits Bruce Wright, Udall's campaign manager: "The Republicans smell blood this time." The ten-term Congressman's chief problem is the rapidly shifting political complexion of his district. It includes Tucson, which is part of Pima County. The county normally accounts for about 80% of the district's votes, and its population has soared from 275,000 to 531,885 during Udall's 19 years in Congress. Many of the newcomers are retired people or executives of national firms with branches near Tucson. They tend to be conservative Republicans who care little about Udall's leadership position and even less for his liberal views. As a result, his winning margins have dwindled steadily, to 9,000 votes in 1978.

Udall's opponent is Richard H. Huff, 54, a West Virginia native and real estate millionaire who hopes to ride a conservative, pro-Reagan tide into office. Huff is backed by a variety of conservative political-action committees, including antiabortion and evangelical religious groups. He attacks Udall as too liberal, too weak on defense, too big a spender and too busy in Washington to care for his constituents. Says Huff: "I make no bones about it. I am pro-busiess; Mo is antibusiness. He does not represent the conservative philosophy of Arizona."

Huff expects to spend up to $500,000, much of it from out of state; Udall is budgeting some $475,000. Udall's chief hope is that he can offset his losses in the Tucson area by reminding voters in the district's arid hinterland of how he has helped shape legislation affecting their water supplies, including pushing a $100 million appropriation through Congress last year for the huge Central Arizona Project, which would bring Colorado River water to the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

Another of Vander Jagt's targets, Oregon's Al Ullman, 66, professes to be less concerned about his own fate in November than about what the new partisanship may do to the House. Says Ullman: "You get a little wary about personal relationships when people go for the jugular."

Ullman has been hurt by making infrequent visits to his district in 1978 and 1979. He has owned no home in Oregon for 21 months, but is buying a condominium in Bend. He has also been damaged by advocating a national value-added tax, which is political poison in Oregon, where a sales tax has been rejected repeatedly in referendums. Insists Ullman: "I've totally abandoned it."

Nonetheless, Ullman's hard-working conservative challenger, Denny Smith, 42, the son of a former Governor and the publisher of 21 newspapers, is getting political mileage out of Ullman's past support of the tax. Smith is also making an issue of high unemployment (up to 34.6% this past summer in Harney County) in the district, which is heavily dependent on the timber industry. Smith already has $420,000 in his campaign chest and hopes to raise $330,000 more with the help of conservative businessmen's groups. With Ullman likely to spend $550,000, the hotly contested House race could be one of the most costly in the nation this year, and one of the closest.

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