The East: The Year They Stayed In

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At the outset, the 1966 campaign in the East seemed to presage danger for incumbents of both parties. Pundits and pollsters alike heralded the political demise of New York's Republican Gover nor Rockefeller, foresaw some uncertainties in the futures of Massachusetts' Governor Volpe, New Hampshire's Democratic Governor John King and New Jersey's Republican Senator Case. As a result, edgy incumbents in the twelve Eastern states fought like Trojans. And, instead of a year to "Throw the Rascals Out," 1966 wound up as the year in which Eastern voters decided overwhelmingly to "Keep 'Em In."

In 14 of the region's 16 contests for Governor and the U.S. Senate, satisfied voters returned old familiar faces — or reasonable facsimiles — to old familiar jobs. And both parties pretty well held their own.

Vote of Confidence. Solid victories were awarded to such veterans as Volpe (63% of the vote), Case (62%), Maine's doughty three-term G.O.P. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (59%), Delaware's Republican Senator Caleb Boggs (60%), and West Virginia's Democratic Senator Jennings Randolph (59%). Youngish up-and-comers also were rewarded with renewed votes of confidence. Vermont's Governor Philip Hoff, 42, elected in 1962 as the state's first Democratic chief executive since 1854, got a 57% majority this year; ticket-splitting Rhode Island voters re-elected Democratic Senator Claiborne Pell, 47, with a 67% margin and also returned energetic Republican Governor Chafee, 44, by a 64% total.

Connecticut Democrats, led by Governor John Dempsey, wound up retaining every statewide office and all but one congressional seat. New Hampshire's King, who in 1962 became the state's first Democratic Governor in 39 years, won an unprecedented third two-year term — thanks in part to a continuing squabble within the G.O.P. Demo cratic Senator Thomas Mclntyre easily trounced his super-hawkish opponent, retired Brigadier General Harrison Thyng, a World War II and Korean flying ace who had financial backing from such outstate hyperconservatives as Texas Millionaire H. L. Hunt.

Freshmen's. Return. In Pennsylvania, moderate Republican Ray Shafer hand ily defeated spendthrift Millionaire Mil ton Shapp — and that, too, represented a victory for the incumbent regime, since Shafer had served for four years as Lieutenant Governor in the popular ad ministration of outgoing Governor Scranton. Indeed, Pennsylvania voters' reaffirmation was vigorous enough to regain Republican control of both houses of the legislature by a hair. In Maryland, even though Republican Ted Agnew came from behind to defeat Segregationist George Mahoney in the gubernatorial campaign, voters also seemed content with the status quo, re-electing Democrats to all other statewide offices and keeping the state legislature lopsidedly Democratic.

In the East's congressional races, the Republican resurgence was notably less dramatic than elsewhere. The 1964 Goldwater debacle deposed 16 Eastern Republican House members; last week the G.O.P. picked up only seven seats in 122 House elections. All but three of the Democrats' celebrated '64 freshmen were sent back to Capitol Hill.