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Michigan: Incumbent Republican Charles Potter, 42, legless World War II veteran, was elected three times to the House, swept into the Senate in the Eisenhower landslide of 1952. Now he is the only remaining major G.O.P. officeholder in a state that has turned steadily toward the U.A.W.-dominated Democratic Party of Governor G. Mennen ("Soapy") Williams. His opponent: Soapy Williams' Lieutenant Governor Phillip Hart, 45, World War II infantryman (Purple Heart), who is married to plane-piloting Heiress Jane Briggs (Briggs Manufacturing Co.). Potter can win only by convincing enough of the state's 500,000 auto workers that he is a better friend than Hart.
Minnesota: Democrat-Farmer-Labor Representative Eugene McCarthy, 42, a onetime economics professor at Minnesota's St. John's University, and five-term liberal Democratic Congressman (St. Paul), has been leading for weeks in his tough, highly organized drive to unseat Senator Ed Thye, 62, veteran Stassenite ex-Governor and Eisenhower Republican. Issues helping the D.F.L.: unemployment near the alltime high and farmers who still blame Republicans for hard times, though farm prices are up an overall 5% from last year. Key G.O.P. asset: Ed Thye's well-known name, political experience, plainspoken, homely approach. Latest local polls rate McCarthy ahead of Thye (50% to 45%), but knowing Minnesotans believe Thye will squeeze through.
Nevada: Isolationist Republican Senator George ("Molly") Malone, 68, has always won with help from bitterly split Democrats. This time Democrats are generally united behind Las Vegas City Attorney Howard Cannon, 46, and Molly is on his own. For Cannon to beat Malone would be a real upset—and he may do it.
New Jersey: For the seat of retiring H. Alexander Smith, 78, ten-term liberal Republican Congressman Robert Winthrop Kean, 65, son of one U.S. Senator and nephew of another, carries the family banner against Harrison Arlington Williams Jr., 38, onetime (1953-56) Congressman. In the Democratic primary, Governor Bob Meyner was credited with a personal victory for pushing Williams through to the Senate candidacy ahead of Hoboken Mayor John Grogan, but the victory left Hudson County bosses eager to cut Williams' throat. And now even Meyner gives the lagging Williams only lukewarm support.
New York: The biggest load carried by New York's Democratic Governor Averell Harriman in his gubernatorial battle against Republican Nelson Rockefeller was laid on at the convention when Tammany Boss Carmine De Sapio overrode the Harriman forces (TIME, Sept. 8) and dictated the nomination of the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate: five-term New York County District Attorney Frank Hogan, 56. Yet the taint of bossism has somehow not rubbed off on Candidate Hogan. The old D.A. is running so much stronger than Fellow Democrat Harriman in powerful New York City that some skeptics wonder whether Boss De Sapio may not be teaching Harriman a fateful lesson on who's boss. Hogan's New York City strength gives him the edge over Republican Candidate Kenneth Keating, 58, silver-haired, six-term upstate Congressman who, even with powerful help from Ike and Nixon, is not getting across in his campaigning. Democrat Hogan is the favorite.