Bad Day for Big Names

Stumbling in the primaries

No major surprises. No verdict on President Reagan or his economic program. No national issues overwhelming local candidates. As far as political professionals were concerned, the primary elections last week could not have been better. Said Democratic National Chairman Charles Manatt: "We produced our strongest set of nominees, and so did the Republicans."

In California, earnestly competent San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, 48, won the Republican Senate nomination over three Congressmen--Barry Goldwater Jr. (a Senator's son), Pete McCloskey and Robert Dornan--and Maureen Reagan (a presidential daughter). Far ahead in the polls only six months ago, an overconfident Goldwater ran a lazy and lackluster campaign and finished a distant third with only 19% of the vote. Governor Jerry Brown won the Democratic Senate nomination, but it was not an impressive victory. He captured only 51% of the ballots cast, giving up 15% to Author Gore Vidal, 15% to little-known State Senator Paul Carpenter and 19% to other candidates.

In the gubernatorial race, brash Lieutenant Governor Mike Curb, 37, lost to Attorney General George Deukmejian, 53. Two weeks before the vote, when Curb was ahead in the polls, he sent out 500,000 letters accusing Deukmejian of disloyalty to President Reagan. The charge backfired: for one thing, Deukmejian had been a floor leader for Reagan when he was California's Governor; for another, it was discovered that Curb failed to register to vote until he was 29 and thus missed two chances to cast ballots for Reagan as Governor. The Democratic gubernatorial winner was Tom Bradley, 64, mayor of Los Angeles since 1973, who, if successful, would become the first elected black Governor in U.S. history.

In New Jersey, Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick defeated Jeffrey Bell, and will be the Republican nominee for the Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Democrat Harrison Williams after his Abscam conviction. Bell, 38, a onetime Reagan speechwriter who defeated four-term Senator Clifford Case in the 1978 primary only to lose the general election to Bill Bradley, spent nearly three times as much as Fenwick ($2 million, vs. $700,000) and accused her of being too liberal. Fenwick, 72, a pipe-smoking four-termer who has never lost an election, is an old-line Republican whose TV ads insisted that she "stands with Reagan." Her Democratic opponent will be Frank Lautenberg, 58, a computer-services executive who spent a million dollars of his own money on his first bid for public office.

Two years ago, Bill Clinton, now 35, was the youngest Governor in the U.S. and a rising star in the national Democratic Party. But Clinton, educated at Yale and Oxford, had picked up a reputation with many back home in Arkansas as an effete snob. He was unseated in 1980 by Republican Frank White, who portrayed himself as the down-home candidate. This time Clinton ran as a man who was not too smart to listen to the people. He won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in a runoff and faces a November rematch with White.

The Governor's race in Ohio this fall should offer a clear choice. In 1978 former Democratic Lieutenant Governor Richard Celeste was narrowly defeated by James A. Rhodes, 72, who is retiring as Governor. Celeste, 44, who served as director of the Peace Corps under President Carter, will face nine-term Congressman Clarence Brown, 54, a staunch Reagan fan who easily defeated Seth Taft, 59, scion of a family that was once invincible in Ohio politics.

Roxanne Conlin, 37, became the first woman in Iowa's history to win a major party's nomination for Governor. A former U.S. Attorney, she will face conservative Republican Lieutenant Governor Terry Branstad, 35. Both will seek to replace Robert Ray, 53, retiring after 14 years. To voters who wonder if a woman can win election to Iowa's top post, Conlin joked: "If I do it, I'm going to do it as a woman. The options aren't all that acceptable." -

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