(9 of 10)
Such an outcome was assured when Bentsen upset liberal Ralph Yarborough in the primary by linking the incumbent to the Democratic convention riots in Chicago and to campus unrest and permissiveness. Now Bentsen and Bush —expecting the Yarborough support to sit this one out—grope for a major share of the Texas conservative vote. Concedes Bentsen: "I've got to find an issue that will catch fire."
Supported by Lyndon Johnson, former Governor John Connally and most of the Texas Democratic Establishment, Bentsen argues that Texas already has one Republican Senator in Washington, and Nixon has "all the Republicans he deserves." Bush stresses his close relationship with the President, who encouraged him to run, hints that Texas would have a link to White House inner circles if he should win. Neither argument is stirring Texans. Many will be satisfied with whoever wins, and are perfectly content to let it just happen.
Spiro the Imponderable
Of the eight remaining battleground states, Democrats lead the polls, though sometimes marginally, in all but one. Though any or all could be swept aside by the whirlwind of final campaigning, incumbents Frank E. Moss in Utah, Howard Cannon in Nevada, Joseph Montoya in New Mexico, North Dakota's Quentin Burdick and New Jersey's Harrison Williams are currently ahead. So are the Rev. Joseph Duffy, chairman of Americans for Democratic Action and the Democratic nominee in Connecticut, and former Governor Philip Hoff in Vermont. Only in Indiana do the Republicans now have the edge, where Representative Richard Roudebush has a slight lead over Democratic Incumbent Vance Hartke.
In these key states, as in others, perhaps the major imponderable of 1970 is Spiro Agnew and the impact of his rock'em, sock-'em style of campaigning. Republicans are as puzzled as Democrats. In conservative Nevada, Governor Paul Laxalt declares Agnew the most popular politician in the land. But in equally conservative Texas' and Wyoming, G.O.P. leaders fear that the Vice President, while generating Republican enthusiasm and dollars, frightens off independents and moderates. For months, New Jersey Republicans have delayed inviting Agnew into the state and were once rumored''to have considered capitalizing on his unquestioned fund-raising ability by chartering a ship in New York Harbor for his appearance, still keeping him out of the state. Lowell Weicker, running for the Senate in Connecticut, publicly expressed the hope that Agnew will "choose a major issue in the campaign and discuss it positively" when he campaigns for him.
If the President is victorious in the battle for the Senate, the returns to him and his party will be bountiful. New cogency will attach to Administration arguments that a Silent Majority does exist, and that its march is plainly in the direction in which Nixon wants to lead. Republican moderates in the Senate, sensing the changed political winds, will re-evaluate the wisdom of independent stances on issues as crucial to their President as Supreme Court nominees.
Party leadership in the Senate almost certainly will pass from moderate Hugh Scott, who at 69 probably would