Three aggressive Republicans run for Governor
As Part of their national strategy, Republicans are going all out to win more governorships, a category in which they now trail Democrats, 19 to 31. Of this year's 13 gubernatorial contests, ten are for offices now occupied by Democrats. Three Republicans are waging particularly aggressive fights for them:
MISSOURI. In a stunning upset, Republican Christopher ("Kit") Bond lost his governorship in 1976 to Democrat Joseph Teasdale by less than 1 % of the vote. This year Bond is again running against Teasdale, and he smells blood. Says Bond: "I have no quarrels with Joe Teasdale as a human being. I just think he's been a miserable Governor." Bond pounds hard at Teasdale as the "Great Promiser" for not keeping his 1976 campaign pledge to reduce Missouri's electric utility rates. Says Bond: "Voters found out that they can't believe him."
Teasdale is sticking to the down-home strategy he first developed in 1972, when he called himself " Walkin' Joe" and hiked across the state in an unsuccessful primary bid for Governor. Four years later, he won. He now portrays himself as a defender of the "common man." He boasts, for instance, that at his urging the state legislature voted $2.5 million to help poor people pay their air-conditioning bills during last July's heat wave. Teasdale, a former state prosecutor who graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kans., acidly contrasts his country-boy background with that of the wealthy, Princeton-educated Bond. Says Teasdale: "He governed like a millionaire. He was not seen in Missouri except in the country clubs. There's nothing wrong with that—I used to caddy." Teasdale, who is running behind Bond in the latest polls, is outspending his rival by $2 million to $1.6 million.
RHODE ISLAND. In 1974, Vincent ("Buddy") Cianci Jr. surprised the political experts by winning election as mayor of blue-collar, heavily Democratic Providence, R.I. Now, after six years in which he presided over the city's downtown renaissance, Cianci, 39, is engaged in another uphill battle. In one of the nation's most raucous gubernatorial contests, he is running against popular two-term Democratic Governor J. Joseph Garrahy, 49.
Cianci, who is a brash and fiery campaigner, has accused Garrahy's administration of being implicated in a public housing fraud and of forcing the University of Rhode Island to hire the Governor's former brother-in-law as personnel adviser at a salary of $30,000. Garrahy has responded by charging the mayor with misleading campaign advertising.
Each candidate also sharply attacks his opponent's competence as an administrator. Cianci claims that Garrahy has ignored too many pressing problems, like tuition at the University of Rhode Island, which since last year has risen by 55% to $1,777, fifth highest among state universities. Moreover, says Cianci, the Governor has done nothing to clean up polluted Narragansett Bay. Says Cianci: "I don't believe there should be any 'maybe' buttons on a Governor's desk. Garrahy's desk is full of them. He can't decide and simply waits for things to work themselves out."