Nation

NEW FACES IN THE SENATE "THE GOOD MOUTH" "WE ELECTED A DEMOCRATIC WOMAN NAMED BARBARA AND SOMEBODY NAMED MIKULSKI, AND THE SENATE WON'T BE THE SAME FROM NOW ON!" THUS CROWED THE MARYLAND WINNER, A 4-FT. 11-IN. BUNDLE OF ENERGY WITH A VOICE LIKE A BALTIMORE HARBOR FOGHORN, ON ELECTION NIGHT. THE VICTORY CELEBRATION WAS INDEED HISTORIC: BARBARA MIKULSKI, 50, % THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF POLISH IMMIGRANTS, HAD SWEPT PAST REPUBLICAN LINDA CHAVEZ, 61% TO 39%, TO BECOME THE FIRST FEMALE DEMOCRAT

TO MAKE IT TO THE SENATE ON HER OWN, RATHER THAN IN THE FOOTSTEPS of a deceased husband.

Ronald Reagan, who campaigned in Maryland to defeat her, called Mikulski a "wily liberal." He was only half right. Liberal, certainly. Mikulski, a former social worker, got her start in politics almost 20 years ago by organizing a coalition of blacks and ethnics to block construction of a 16- lane highway that would have destroyed their homes. In five years on the Baltimore city council and five terms in Congress, she has defined her special constituencies as blue-collar workers, women, children and the aged.

But wily is about the last word Marylanders would apply to Mikulski. Blunt, outspoken and feisty would describe her better. She is a fierce debater, with a fondness for pointed quips. "I define public service as not only to be a help but to be an advocate," says Mikulski. In the Senate, she adds, "I plan to use the good mind, the good mouth, the good heart God gave me."

Southern Liberal

Lean, voluble Wyche Fowler of Georgia has been one of the few whites to represent a predominantly black district in Congress. Elected in 1977 to fill the Atlanta House seat that Andrew Young vacated to join the Carter Administration, Fowler went on to compile the most liberal voting record in Georgia's congressional delegation. Last week, when Fowler, 46, defeated Republican Incumbent Mack Mattingly, 51% to 49%, to win a seat in the Senate, he proved that even on a statewide level, Southern white liberals are not a vanishing species, after all.

Nowadays, however, Fowler presents himself as an independent-minded moderate rather than a down-the-line liberal. A former Army intelligence officer, Fowler has made military affairs a special interest, and on that subject he follows no particular ideological line. He has supported a nuclear freeze and strongly opposed the MX missile and B-1 bomber, largely because they drain away funds needed to maintain the readiness of conventional forces. But he is also an advocate of the Trident II submarine-launched missile and has voted for continued research on Star Wars while contending that the "important thing is to find a way to have meaningful and verifiable agreements between the Soviet Union and the U.S." In the House, Fowler gained a reputation for his congeniality and ability. Now that he is moving to the upper chamber, aides boast that he will be a "career Senator."

Ebullient Songster

On many national issues, Florida Senator-elect Bob Graham's positions can hardly be distinguished from those of Paula Hawkins, the incumbent Republican he beat 55% to 45% -- or for that matter from those of Ronald Reagan, who campaigned unavailingly against him. Democrat Graham, 50, who enters the Senate after eight years as Governor, supports the Strategic Defense Initiative and aid to the Nicaraguan contras, and he considers the Gramm- Rudman-Hollings Act a "necessary sledgehammer" to trim federal spending.

But national issues played little role in Graham's victory. A Harvard- trained lawyer, he won largely on the strength of his ebullient good-ole- boy personality and his unabashed state boosterism. "The future of America is Florida," he says. "If America deals with Florida's problems today, it is dealing with America's problems tomorrow." As Governor, Graham endeared himself to Floridians through his once-a-week "workdays," when he would leave his desk to get the feel of a nonpolitical job: schoolteacher, hospital orderly, flight attendant, migrant farmer, even one night on the stage in The Fantasticks. That gave him a chance to indulge a passion his new Senate colleagues should keep in mind: Graham will burst into song at the slightest provocation, or none. Journalists who heard him warble Margaritaville on election eve can testify that his baritone is notable more for enthusiasm than for melodiousness.

Cajun Campaigner

John Breaux of Louisiana touts himself as a "new type of Democrat." He voices strong concern for minorities, the environment and a balanced budget. But in one respect he is similar to a long line of Dixie Democrats: he is such a fan of the military that aides boast there is not a single major weapons system for which he did not vote money during his 14 years as a Congressman. Breaux, a smooth-talking, good-looking Cajun, is a campaigner of the old shoe- leather school. His election to replace retiring Democratic Senator Russell Long came after a 19-month drive during which he sometimes scheduled as many as a dozen events a day. Says the 42-year-old Breaux: "I love campaigning."

The son of an oil-field worker, Breaux entered politics as a staff aide to Edwin Edwards, now Governor, but took care to keep some distance from his scandal-tainted mentor during the campaign. One charge leveled by his Republican opponent, W. Henson Moore, whom Breaux overtook after trailing in Louisiana's open primary, was that he had one of the worst attendance records in Congress. Louisiana voters evidently paid little attention, giving Breaux a 53%-to-47% victory. They may have been more impressed by Breaux's reputation for brokering back-room deals and his straightforward promises to "put Louisiana first" as a Senator. In the House he did exactly that, successfully promoting legislation favorable to Louisiana's rice sales.

Prairie Boy

Normally conservative South Dakotans elected Democrat Thomas Daschle to the Senate mostly in a loud protest against federal farm policy. In the process, they opted for a dramatic generational and political change. Gray-haired James Abdnor, 63, the Republican incumbent whom Daschle defeated 52% to 48%, had been faithful to the Reagan Administration line on almost every issue. "The fighter or the follower" was how Daschle's ads portrayed the choice. Daschle, who looks younger than his 38 years, bucked the Reagan line so consistently as a Congressman that in 1985 he won a 70% rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. (Abdnor's rating: zero.)

It can hardly be argued that the state's voters did not know whom they were getting. Daschle takes care to present himself as a homegrown product of South Dakota's prairies. Says he: "The only big city I ever went to before I was 20 years old was Minneapolis." Daschle represented about half his state in Congress after 1978, and all of it after 1982; he defeated the other incumbent, Republican Clint Roberts, when a redistricting blended their two districts into one that year. Moreover, Daschle's liberalism is not of the knee-jerk variety. He voted against the tax-reform bill, and sounds Midwestern protectionist on trade matters. Says Daschle: "It's time to tell Tokyo, 'If you want us to buy your Toyotas, then you'd better buy our beef and grain.' "

Atari Democrat

When he was three, his father died, and his mother struggled to support the family. Still, with the help of scholarships, Tim Wirth was able to attend some of the nation's most elite schools: Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard and Stanford. From that experience, Democrat Wirth has fashioned a political morality tale. He succeeded, he tells campaign crowds, because "government and society" made investments in the future; government and society must continue to do so as a way of "ensuring that everybody has a chance." Increasingly conservative Colorado voters responded by electing liberal Wirth to six terms in the House and, last week, to the Senate. Wirth, 47, beat Republican Ken Kramer 51% to 49% to take the seat that had been held by Gary Hart.

As a Congressman, the 6-ft. 5-in. Wirth made a reputation as the typical "Atari Democrat," who urges growth and investment in high-technology industries. But he has balanced his views with positions more attuned to a Colorado constituency. He advocated strong consumer-protection laws but also worked for abolition of price controls on oil and gas. When campaigning back home, Wirth shucks his stylish Washington dress in favor of cowboy boots and big belt buckles, but some Democratic pols think he must cultivate a more genuinely down-to-earth manner. Says one: "It's something Tim needs to work on. He can't seem to help letting people know that he is smarter and busier than they are."

P45

Missouri Aristocrat

At 33, Christopher Bond was the youngest Governor in the U.S. Now "Kit" Bond is 47 and no longer a boy wonder, but he still stands out from the political crowd. Last Tuesday he became the only Republican this year to capture a Senate seat from the Democrats, beating Lieutenant Governor Harriett Woods 53% to 47% to take the Missouri seat held by Thomas Eagleton, who is retiring. Bond's victory confirmed the strong conservative Republican trend in Missouri, which was once a staunchly Democratic state.

Bond embodies that turn to the right. An aristocrat whose grandfather made a family fortune selling fire-resistant brick, the Princeton-educated, preppie-looking Bond entered Republican politics young and in 1972 became Missouri's first Republican Governor in 32 years. He was then considered a moderate, and his reformist notions and support of the Equal Rights Amendment alienated some G.O.P. conservatives. Defeated for re-election in 1976, he came back as a conservative and won a second term four years later. During the Senate campaign, Bond got an unintentional boost when Woods ran a TV spot that pictured a farmer in tears, provoking a serious negative reaction. Bond called the "crying farmer" spot the "silver bullet that was pointed in the wrong direction." The new Senator says he might differ with the Senate's present Republican leaders on only one issue: he wants no part of any potential tax increase.

War Hero

When opponents assailed him in 1982 as a carpetbagger who was running for Congress only about a year after moving to Arizona, Republican John McCain had a ready retort: "The longest place I've ever lived in my life is Hanoi." That was no exaggeration: after a peripatetic life as a Navy pilot, McCain was shot down over Viet Nam in 1967 and spent the next 5 1/2 years in a prisoner- of-war camp. He came out with two broken arms and a broken leg; he still walks with a slight limp and cannot raise his right forearm above elbow level. His war-hero status helped elect him to two terms in the House and, last week, to Barry Goldwater's seat in the Senate. McCain, 50, easily defeated Democrat Richard Kimball, 60% to 40%.

Though McCain is a staunch conservative on most matters, befitting a successor to Goldwater, he is something of an independent on foreign policy. He supports sanctions against South Africa and favors military aid to the Nicaraguan contras but strongly opposes direct U.S. intervention in Central America. McCain has curbed his formidable temper but not his irreverent humor: he got off one of the best quips of the campaign at Goldwater's expense. McCain recalled Goldwater's saying that if he had been elected President in 1964 and had put his hawkish policies into effect, McCain would never have wound up in a Vietnamese prison camp. Right, said McCain, "it would have been a Chinese prison camp."