The Election: WHO'S WHO IN THE STATEHOUSE

Promising Winners in Ten Key Races

Arizona. The state's powerful legislature seldom allows any Governor to run up an impressive record, but the score card of Paul Fannin looks surprisingly good. Conservative Republican Fannin, a gas distributor from Phoenix, had never run for office when he was elected Governor two years ago, but since then he has acted like a political veteran. He pushed through a much needed sales tax earmarked for educational funds, revived a Good Neighbor policy toward the Mexican state of Sonora. His pet highway-safety program ranks among the nation's best.

Maine. Lanky, moderately liberal Republican John Hathaway Reed, 39, is as typical a "Down East" product as the Cobbler potatoes he grows. He talks with a twang, was a first-rate harness racer until his wife made him quit after he had a bad spill; now he drives a collection of antique Packards. Reed entered the state senate in 1957, and as senate president succeeded automatically to the governorship on the death of Democrat Clinton Clauson. His ten-month first term was lacklustre; in his second he promises to improve state schools.

Montana. In Montana, where Senators are usually liberal Democrats, the Governor as often as not is a middle-of-the-road Republican. Plodding, unspectacular Donald Nutter, 44, seems to be a typical G.O.P. statehouse product. A war hero (B24 piloting in the China theater) turned small-town tractor salesman, stocky, cigar-smoking Don Nutter served two workhorse terms in the state senate, in the process developed from a cautious reactionary to a conscientious, business-minded liberal with a host of friends and supporters throughout the state.

Illinois. Handsomely greying Democrat Otto Kerner, 52, whose father was once a popular state attorney general, is married to the daughter of Chicago's Mayor Anton Cermak (killed in Miami in 1933 by an assassin's bullet intended for Franklin Roosevelt). Kerner has an impressive six-year record of his own as a reform-minded Cook County (Chicago) judge who helped revamp local judicial procedures, led a successful fight to modernize state election statutes. His key campaign promises: more aid for schools, hospitals and depressed areas downstate.

Kansas. Shy, personable Republican John Anderson Jr., 43, prefers raising Shetland ponies to playing politics but has never lost an election. Anderson has been a topflight county attorney and state senator, has served for the past four years as attorney general under his election victim, Democratic Governor George Docking. Liberal by Kansas G.O.P. standards (he favors repeal of the state's right-to-work laws), Anderson had to beat out his party's choice for the nomination in a primary. Major campaign promise: more cash for state schools.

Delaware. As board chairman of a prosperous Maryland fertilizer company, conservative Democrat Elbert Nostrand Carvel, 50, has inevitably been the butt of some unprintable political jokes. As a campaigner. Republicans have learned, he is no laughing matter. Elected lieutenant governor in 1944, he won the state's top job four years later, and was best known for his school-building program. Farm-fancying Bert Carvel is a bland, high-pitched orator, but he is widely credited with having the shrewdest political brain among top Delaware Democrats.