Few political correspondents have observed more campaigns more closely than TIME's congressional correspondent Neil MacNeil. He still vividly remembers his first, for United Press, in 1950, "that terrible debacle year when the Korean War was at its initial fury, and Joe McCarthy was in full cry." In 1958, MacNeil first analyzed congressional results for TIME, and that occasion also sticks in his mind as "the year of the huge Democratic majorities and the 'liberalizing' of Congress."

MacNeil's assignment included following individual campaigns, and he recalls with special fondness races in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, "rich with grand old political traditions of 'Vote early and vote often.' " For many years, he would set up a specially prepared board with a complex system of colored pins that signaled party switches an regional shifts around the nation. Nowadays, he can rely on television for the charts.

Indeed, during his tenure, MacNeil has noticed politics bending more and more under the weight of television and its big brother, money. Advertising that verges on libel has become the norm, he points out, adding, "The spending of such huge sums on congressional campaigns gives a grimmer and darker meaning to the old joke: 'We have the best Congress--that money can buy.' " Despite these ominous trends, MacNeil still reacts with undiminished excitement to an election. This year, after a voting night watch until 2 a.m. and facing a breakfast appointment followed by a day of press conferences, MacNeil found he was too keyed up to sleep.

TIME staffers around the country put in equally long days. Boston Correspondent John Yang stood outside an old-fashioned red-brick schoolhouse in Fall River, Mass., conducting a "decidedly unscientific" poll that proved to be highly accurate. That evening Boston Correspondent Joelle Attinger saw Connecticut Senate Candidate Toby Moffett transformed within hours from "an eerily calm" fellow telling fishing stories into a crushed politician whose voice repeatedly broke as he conceded defeat. And Houston Bureau Chief Sam Allis was attending a sumptuous bash for an overconfident Texas Governor Bill Clements, when the victory party suddenly turned into a wake. Allis hurried to opponent Mark White's headquarters, where what might have been "a political wake had become a full-blown victory party."

Analysis of the election will continue for weeks and months to come, but at week's end our political correspondents could all echo MacNeil as he summed up: "I feel like Lindbergh as he approached Paris. In his words, 'I've got some gas left, but I might as well stop here.' "

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