The Senate: Rising Democratic Stars

Senate seats vacated by the retirement of popular incumbents offer a chance for two rising stars in the Democratic Party to become more visible nationally: West Virginia Governor John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller IV and Tennessee Congressman Albert Gore Jr., both scions of famous families.

A Family Tradition

After 16 years in West Virginia politics, Democrat Jay Rockefeller no longer has to worry about his state's voters rejecting him as a rich-kid carpetbagger from New York and Harvard. And, with two solid terms as Governor, he should be a shoo-in to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Jennings Randolph. So why is Rockefeller running so hard? Because he remembers 1972 and the last G.O.P. landslide. "I went through the McGovern year," he says of his initial, unsuccessful run for Governor. "The coattail effect this year, the potential for a Reagan victory, is something I have to factor in." Indeed, last week Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, declared the West Virginia seat one of three he believes might be taken from the Democratic column.

Rockefeller, 47, the nephew of former Republican Governors in New York and Arkansas, seems to have a comfortable lead. The West Virginia Poll last month put him 16 points ahead of his Republican opponent, Businessman John Raese, 34. With personal wealth of around $150 million, Rockefeller has been able to spend more than $7 million on his campaign so far. Raese has spent only about a tenth as much.

"I know the federal system-the people, the players, the structure," Rockefeller says. "You can't trade on that kind of experience. The fellow I'm running against has been tested not at all, and to the extent he has been tested in the campaign he has come up as a real amateur."

The charge seems fair enough. Raese is a conservative with no political experience. During the Republican Convention in Dallas, Raese got into a scuffle with a Charleston Gazette reporter over the candidate's erstwhile advocacy of right-to-work laws. At a United Mine Workers rally on Labor Day, Raese practically heckled his opponent as Rockefeller addressed the crowd. "Come on, big boy," he shouted to the gentlemanly, 6-ft. 7-in. Governor, "I'm ready to debate you!" Rowdy Raese expects indulgence from voters. Says he: "I don't think West Virginia is going to elect Governor Rockefeller on a few minor mistakes I've made."

Rockefeller touts himself as one of his party's "new pragmatists," those who know how to make tough spending cuts. While denying presidential ambitions, he has run television ads on Washington stations, which reach only 7% of the state's residents, in what may partly be an effort to impress powerful Washingtonians. A quarter of West Virginia's coal mines closed during Rockefeller's last term, and the unemployment rate at 13.6% is the highest in the country, but his prospects seem undamaged. "It's like, 'Don't blame Jay,' " grouses State G.O.P. Chairman Kent Hall. "Somehow he's able to divert attention away from his failures."

A Father's Footsteps