Trying to Unhouse Democrats

Three aggressive Republicans run for Governor

As Part of their national strategy, Republicans are going all out to win more governorships, a category in which they now trail Democrats, 19 to 31. Of this year's 13 gubernatorial contests, ten are for offices now occupied by Democrats. Three Republicans are waging particularly aggressive fights for them:

MISSOURI. In a stunning upset, Republican Christopher ("Kit") Bond lost his governorship in 1976 to Democrat Joseph Teasdale by less than 1 % of the vote. This year Bond is again running against Teasdale, and he smells blood. Says Bond: "I have no quarrels with Joe Teasdale as a human being. I just think he's been a miserable Governor." Bond pounds hard at Teasdale as the "Great Promiser" for not keeping his 1976 campaign pledge to reduce Missouri's electric utility rates. Says Bond: "Voters found out that they can't believe him."

Teasdale is sticking to the down-home strategy he first developed in 1972, when he called himself " Walkin' Joe" and hiked across the state in an unsuccessful primary bid for Governor. Four years later, he won. He now portrays himself as a defender of the "common man." He boasts, for instance, that at his urging the state legislature voted $2.5 million to help poor people pay their air-conditioning bills during last July's heat wave. Teasdale, a former state prosecutor who graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kans., acidly contrasts his country-boy background with that of the wealthy, Princeton-educated Bond. Says Teasdale: "He governed like a millionaire. He was not seen in Missouri except in the country clubs. There's nothing wrong with that--I used to caddy." Teasdale, who is running behind Bond in the latest polls, is outspending his rival by $2 million to $1.6 million.

RHODE ISLAND. In 1974, Vincent ("Buddy") Cianci Jr. surprised the political experts by winning election as mayor of blue-collar, heavily Democratic Providence, R.I. Now, after six years in which he presided over the city's downtown renaissance, Cianci, 39, is engaged in another uphill battle. In one of the nation's most raucous gubernatorial contests, he is running against popular two-term Democratic Governor J. Joseph Garrahy, 49.

Cianci, who is a brash and fiery campaigner, has accused Garrahy's administration of being implicated in a public housing fraud and of forcing the University of Rhode Island to hire the Governor's former brother-in-law as personnel adviser at a salary of $30,000. Garrahy has responded by charging the mayor with misleading campaign advertising.

Each candidate also sharply attacks his opponent's competence as an administrator. Cianci claims that Garrahy has ignored too many pressing problems, like tuition at the University of Rhode Island, which since last year has risen by 55% to $1,777, fifth highest among state universities. Moreover, says Cianci, the Governor has done nothing to clean up polluted Narragansett Bay. Says Cianci: "I don't believe there should be any 'maybe' buttons on a Governor's desk. Garrahy's desk is full of them. He can't decide and simply waits for things to work themselves out."

Garrahy boasts that he has been most concerned with luring new high-technology and offshore oil drilling companies to the state, which has helped cut its unemployment rate from 11.1% in 1975 to 7.3% last month. The state also is running an $8.5 million budget surplus. In contrast, notes Garrahy, Cianci has failed to stem Providence's mounting deficit, which could run as high as $26 million by the end of this fiscal year. Says Garrahy: "He simply cannot manage a budget adequately." Responds Cianci: "I've had to fix a dying city, and there are still things to be done." According to the latest polls, voters would prefer that he remain in Providence and do them.

WEST VIRGINIA. As Governor from 1969 to 1977, Arch Moore, 57, was a wily, backslapping politician who relished a tough fight, whether with the Democratic legislature or a Democratic candidate for his office. In 1972, he soundly thrashed Democrat John D. Rockefeller IV, even though Moore was outspent by $1.5 million to $700,000. Barred by state law from running for a third consecutive term, Moore went back to his law practice for four years, enabling Rockefeller to win election. Now, Moore is running again, and against Rockefeller.

The chief issue is money. Moore accuses the incumbent of trying to buy the election. Indeed, Rockefeller expects to spend more than $5 million on the campaign (vs. Moore's $750,000), much of it from his personal $20 million fortune. He is making heavy use of TV, including buying air time on stations as far away as Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. He also held gargantuan picnics in 33 of the state's 55 counties. In all, he fed about 100,000 voters fried chicken and a campaign pitch. Rockefeller, who leads in the polls, argues that his wealth ensures voters of his incorruptibility--an oblique reminder of Moore's tax problems with the IRS and his acquittal in 1976 on charges of extorting $25,000 from a company seeking a bank charter.

Rockefeller maintains that, as chairman of the President's Commission on Coal, he can give the state's mining industry a powerful boost if he is reelected. Scoffs Moore: "I hear a lot about clout these days. You use the clout in the first four years of your administration, not in the second."

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