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That may be true, but the outcome depended on other factors as well. Trible, an intense, exuberant candidate, enjoyed a six-month head start over Davis and outspent his rival $2.5 million to $1.1 million. Davis, a millionaire mortgage banker and onetime mayor of Portsmouth, entered the race reluctantly and at times campaigned as if he did not really want the job. Even so, Davis pulled even with Trible in the closing weeks, thanks in part to the Republican's blundering performance in debates. In the final days, Trible spent $450,000 on a TV blitz. He also got a little help from his friends: the National Rifle Association fired off a salvo of radio commercials that falsely accused Davis of favoring gun control, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and antiabortion groups waged a direct-mail crusade on his behalf.
NEW MEXICO. Harrison Schmitt, 47, first rocketed to fame in 1972 when he landed on the moon as an Apollo astronaut. That feat helped propel him into the U.S. Senate in 1976. But in a state with an unemployment rate hovering around 10%, Reagan's economic programs hurt Schmitt badly. State Attorney General Jeff Bingaman, 39, constantly linked Schmitt to the White House and called attention to his lackluster six years of service. But Schmitt may have largely engineered his own defeat. The Senator attacked his opponent with a pair of ads blasting Bingaman's record as attorney general, a post he has held since 1978. One spot attacked Bingaman's handling of a 1980 prison riot inquiry, while the other accused him of requesting a pardon for a prisoner who had once been on the FBI's most-wanted list. Both commercials turned out to be based on inaccurate information. So incensed was Santa Fe Archbishop Robert Sanchez that he publicly denounced the prison inquiry ad, an invaluable boost for Bingaman in a state that is one-third Hispanic and largely Catholic. At the polls, Bingaman brought Schmitt back to earth, 54% to 46%.
NEVADA. Even the most daring Las Vegas high roller would have shied away from betting that unknown Jacob ("Chic") Hecht, 53, would upset veteran Democratic Senator Howard Cannon, 70, in his race for a fifth term. Cannon seemed about as durable as the Hoover Dam, especially when pitted against Hecht, a well-to-do Las Vegas haberdasher whose only previous political experience consisted of two terms in the state senate before being defeated for re-election in 1974. But Hecht outpolled Cannon, 50% to 48%.
During the race, Hecht charged that the Senator had outserved his usefulness, a theme that not only helped Hecht but drove Cannon to start dyeing his hair to look younger. The Senator was also damaged by his links to the Teamsters Union. Two weeks before the election, Roy Williams, the union's president, and four other men went on trial for allegedly attempting to bribe Cannon to oppose legislation deregulating the trucking industry. Cannon has not been charged with any crime, but the headlines undoubtedly cost him a few more votes