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New Jersey. The voters have a choice between two able, liberal intellectuals, the Republican incumbent, Clifford Case, and Democratic Kingmaker Thorn Lord (full name: Balfour Bowen Thorn Lord). A big-time lawyer, Lord works in Trenton, lords it over a claque of intellectuals at home in Princeton. No mere egghead, he is a shrewd politician who rebuilt the Democratic Party statewide after the collapse of Jersey City's Boss Hague, was one of the earliest advocates of all-out registration drives. After Lord masterminded Bob Meyner's rise to the governor's mansion, the awed northern Jersey bosses acknowledged his political genius.
Case, having overcome rebellion of the G.O.P. right wing in last April's primary, is like Lord waging a cultured above-it-all campaign. Physically, he is much more attractive than the high-domed and weathered Thorn Lord, but he faces many pitfalls: resurgent Democrats, a large Catholic, pro-Kennedy vote, simmering revolt in the local G.O.P., rising unemployment. He barely mentions Dick Nixon in his campaigning.
New Mexico. Democrat Clinton Presba Anderson, 64, seeking his third term, has borrowed the "experience" line from the Republicans (his campaign slogan: "Succeed with Seniority"), is carefully sidestepping the intense, local Democratic squabbles. His conservative opponent, William Frank Colwes (pronounced Call-wes), is tall (6 ft. 4 in.), grey and handsome, a civic leader and onetime Pontiac dealer who is scarcely known outside of Santa Fe, given little chance of upsetting Old Pol Clint Anderson.
Oregon. Onetime State Representative Maurine Neuberger is the favorite to succeed her late husband, Dick Neuberger, in the Senate, although irascible Democratic Senator Wayne Morse, who has long feuded with the Neubergers, is giving her minimal help. Her Republican opponent, ex-Governor Elmo Smith, is neither as well publicized nor as supercharged with corny slogans ("Join the Maurine Corps").
Rhode Island. The surprise primary victory of Democrat Claiborne deBorda Pell (TIME, Oct. 10) upset the campaign plans of Raoul Archambault Jr., who thought he would be running against one of two old-line Democrats: former Governor Dennis Roberts or former U.S. Attorney General J. Howard McGrath. Archambault, a conservative's conservative, has shifted to a frontal assault on Democratic spending. A strong Democratic trend, a big Catholic vote and the proximity of New Englander Kennedy should put Pell over.
South Dakota. For the first time in generations South Dakotans have a clear-cut choice between a genuine conservative, folksy Karl Mundt, 60, the Republican defender, and a purebred liberal, Congressman George McGovern, 38, the Democratic challenger. Mundt is running for an unprecedented (for South Dakota) third term, stressing his seniority and experience and the Nixon-Lodge capability for "handling the Russians." He has repudiated Ezra Benson. McGovern, a deceptively soft-talking former history professor (and World War II 6-24 pilot with D.F.C., the air medal and three oakleaf clusters), offers his own farm program, attacks Mundt for his position on rural electrification, and even reminds him of his vote against the fortification of Guam before Pearl Harbor. Methodist McGovern's early edge has washed away in the religion reaction against Kennedy. It will be close.