Six Worth Watching

Jesse Helms' Senate seat is one of 33 that are at stake this year, 19 held by Republicans and 14 by Democrats. To capture control, which they lost in the Republican onslaught of 1980, the Democrats need a net gain of six seats. Notable races where the rhetoric has already heated up:

TEXAS. Last August, when Republican John Tower announced he was retiring from the Senate, the news caught the party off guard. No one had been groomed to succeed the spunky, conservative 23-year Senate veteran. Congressman Phil Gramm, a former Democratic "boll weevil" who co-sponsored President Reagan's budget-cutting legislation in 1981 and 1982, converted to the G.O.P. in 1983 and is now the leading contender for the party's nomination. Running on his "proven record as an effective leader," Gramm has the advantage of appealing to conservative Democrats and independents. His strongest opponent is Moderate Robert Mosbacher Jr., a rich Houston oilman who served six years as a legislative assistant to Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. A well-born preppie, Mosbacher is the only Republican in the race to support the Equal Rights Amendment and the right of women to have legal abortions. More conservative is Congressman Ron Paul, who favors the elimination of all welfare benefits and a return to the gold standard.

Among the three main Democratic candidates, the front runner is Robert Krueger, who came within 12,000 votes of defeating Tower in 1978. His style is aloof and intellectual: a Shakespearean scholar with a doctoral degree from Oxford, Krueger was once a dean at Duke University. Conservative Congressman Kent Hance, with his good-ole-boy demeanor, plays up the contrast between the elegant Krueger and him self. "I'm a Texan," he drawls. "I think like a Texan and I'll vote like a Texan." Battling Krueger for the liberal vote is State Senator Lloyd Doggett, a consumer advocate and civil rights crusader who has won endorsements from the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats and the state AFL-CIO.

MASSACHUSETTS. Democratic Senator Paul Tsongas looked like a shoo-in for reelection. But along with Tower, Tsongas became one of four Senators (two Democrats and two Republicans) who have announced they will not seek reelection. Seven Democrats are scrambling to succeed him. Congressman James Shannon, an ally of House Speaker Tip O'Neill, is probably closest philosophically to the neo-liberal Tsongas. Congressman Edward Markey has based his reputation on passionate support of a nuclear freeze and little else. When it seemed he was alienating his liberal constituency by opposing abortion rights, Markey shifted his stand on the issue. Supporters of Lieutenant Governor John Kerry say he combines Markey's good looks with Shannon's intelligence. He is a decorated Viet Nam War veteran and former leader of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War.

On the Republican side, patrician Elliot Richardson, a veteran of three Cabinet posts who resigned as Richard Nixon's Attorney General in Watergate's Saturday Night Massacre, should get a run for his money from feisty Businessman Raymond Shamie, who garnered 39% of the vote when he challenged Ted Kennedy in 1982.

ILLINOIS. After Jesse Helms, the prime target of the Democrats this year is Republican Charles Percy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He won his third term in 1978 with his narrowest margin, 53% of the vote, and since then has moved somewhat rightward. The Democratic candidate, Representative Paul Simon, is better known for his trademark bow ties than his legislative input during five congressional terms, but he has waged an inspired campaign against his opponent. Percy's commercials show Reagan praising him and then trumpet that he is, therefore, "the Illinois advantage." Simon counters that Illinois ranks 49th out of 50 states in return of federal tax dollars. Asks he: "What kind of advantage is that?"

Democrats are also placing high hopes on three other races: Tennessee, where the retirement of Senator Howard Baker has led to a free-for-all among four Republicans vying to run against Democratic Congressman Albert Gore Jr.; Mississippi, where popular former Democratic Governor William Winter is challenging Republican Thad Cochran; and Iowa, where an acrimonious race is shaping up between freshman Senator Roger Jepsen, a conservative Republican, and Representative Tom Harkin, a liberal Democrat. In each case the outcome will partly turn on the popularity of the man at the top of the ballot, Ronald Reagan.