THE CAMPAIGN: Fights in the Front Lines

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In contrast to Farmer Christopher, Massachusetts' MacDonald is running in a suburban Boston district—and he certainly has the proper credentials: he is a onetime Harvard football captain; he was Senator John Kennedy's college roommate; he has a lovely wife, former movie actress Phyllis Brooks, who ladles out pink, nonalcoholic punch with complete grace and aplomb.

Flickering Eyelash. Virginia's three Republican Representatives, Richard Poff, William Wampler and Joel Broyhill, all have done well enough in Congress and are good campaigners. Yet any of them, or all three of them, might lose just because they are Republicans and Virginia is normally Democratic. North Carolina's G.O.P. Representative Charles Raper Jonas is in only a slightly better position. In New York's 21st District, Jacob Javits was the one Republican who could win. Now Javits is running for state attorney general, and Republican Candidate Floyd Cramer has little chance. The Republicans may drop a seat in California's 13th District because of the aroma left behind by G.O.P. Representative Ernest Bramblett, whose salary kickback case is still in the courts.* Pennsylvania's Representative Hugh Scott has won by an eyelash for years, all the time watching helplessly while more and more Democrats move into his district.

Nationally, some of the congressional factors seem insignificant. But in the districts, they take on awesome proportions. Illinois' Republican Representative Charles Vursell never tires of pointing with pride to the fact that, during the Korean-war-shortage period, he obtained some steel for a school in his district.

California's Democratic Candidate Ross Mclntire is given an outside chance to win only because San Diego is a Navy town and he is a retired admiral (he was President Roosevelt's doctor). Connecticut's Republican Representative Antoni Sadlak, running at large, has been helped by Polish defections from the opposition. Reason: the Democrats failed to nominate a Pole for the race. Colorado's Republican Representative J. Edgar Chenoweth is having trouble because he is blamed for the failure of the G.O.P. Congress to approve an Arkansas River reclamation bill that he himself introduced. Idaho's Democratic Representative Grade Pfost is ahead because she advocates public power at Hell's Canyon.

This is the varied stuff congressional elections are made of. Such issues call not for statesmen but for mass-mind readers. Top party strategy is still important, but it has to be custom-tailored to fit hundreds of special situations in hundreds of districts. From the sum of all this cutting and trimming and pinning will come the 84th Congress of the U.S.