Now, the Republican Rumble

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INDIANA. A surprising 624,032 voters cast ballots in the Republican primary—the highest G.O.P. total ever in that state. They gave Reagan an upset 51%-to-49% victory and 45 delegates to Ford's nine. This was despite the fact that nearly all of the state's well-organized Republican machine was behind Ford, including Governor Otis Bowen and 95% of all the county chairmen. Ford workers made more than 150,000 telephone calls to get out votes for the President; on the basis of these calls, his organization had expected that Ford would net about 59% of the total.

GEORGIA. Ford had virtually conceded the state to Reagan, since Georgia's Republicans are attuned to Reagan's brand of conservatism. The President made only one half-day trip to Atlanta suburbs. Reagan spent two days in the state. Yet Reagan's 68%-to-32% swamping of Ford and his capture of all 48 delegates proved a worse drubbing than the White House had foreseen.

ALABAMA. In George Wallace's home state, no profound analysis of Reagan's victory was necessary. He captured all 37 delegates. The Alabama G.O.P. is even more conservative than are Wallace's Democrats. Cross-over voting of such Democrats aided Reagan, although Ford had no chance anyway.

More than just cross-over voting upset the politicians' calculations in these primaries. Thousands of independents, who usually shun the primaries of both parties, jumped into the Republican battle, since that suddenly was where the action was. Yet the voting by Democrats in the G.O.P. contests posed a more difficult problem for Ford's strategists. Indeed, there is no effective way to stop it from happening elsewhere.

Reagan and his workers have openly courted this vote, angering regular Republican leaders and other Ford backers. The huge Indiana G.O.P. vote indicated that as many as 53,000 Democrats and independents may have opted for the more exciting Republican race. Without crossovers, Reagan would not have carried Indiana, and this vote was also decisive for him in Georgia. Democrats in the state who had given Wallace a whopping 535,550 votes in the 1968 general election, for example, this year cast only 60,000 votes for George; many of those former Wallace voters went to Reagan.

Reagan's pitch to disenchanted Democrats has been sophisticated. He says he is seeking to forge "a new majority" of Republicans, Democrats and independents and wants to give Wallace-leaning Democrats "something to vote for, not against." In Parkersburg, W. Va., last week, several posters at a Reagan rally urged: VOTE REPUBLI-CRATS—WALLACE AND REAGAN. In now critical Michigan, Ford has never run for statewide office, and Reagan's campaign director, State Senator John Welborn, is appealing openly for Democratic votes. Michigan Republican Chairman William McLaughlin is "shocked, stunned and damned angry" by this pitch for crossovers, adding: "It's going to destroy the two-party system, and it will destroy the Republican Party if this continues to happen."