NEW FACES IN THE SENATE

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Normally conservative South Dakotans elected Democrat Thomas Daschle to the Senate mostly in a loud protest against federal farm policy. In the process, they opted for a dramatic generational and political change. Gray-haired James Abdnor, 63, the Republican incumbent whom Daschle defeated 52% to 48%, had been faithful to the Reagan Administration line on almost every issue. "The fighter or the follower" was how Daschle's ads portrayed the choice. Daschle, who looks younger than his 38 years, bucked the Reagan line so consistently as a Congressman that in 1985 he won a 70% rating from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. (Abdnor's rating: zero.)

It can hardly be argued that the state's voters did not know whom they were getting. Daschle takes care to present himself as a homegrown product of South Dakota's prairies. Says he: "The only big city I ever went to before I was 20 years old was Minneapolis." Daschle represented about half his state in Congress after 1978, and all of it after 1982; he defeated the other incumbent, Republican Clint Roberts, when a redistricting blended their two districts into one that year. Moreover, Daschle's liberalism is not of the knee-jerk variety. He voted against the tax-reform bill, and sounds Midwestern protectionist on trade matters. Says Daschle: "It's time to tell Tokyo, 'If you want us to buy your Toyotas, then you'd better buy our beef and grain.' "

Atari Democrat

When he was three, his father died, and his mother struggled to support the family. Still, with the help of scholarships, Tim Wirth was able to attend some of the nation's most elite schools: Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard and Stanford. From that experience, Democrat Wirth has fashioned a political morality tale. He succeeded, he tells campaign crowds, because "government and society" made investments in the future; government and society must continue to do so as a way of "ensuring that everybody has a chance." Increasingly conservative Colorado voters responded by electing liberal Wirth to six terms in the House and, last week, to the Senate. Wirth, 47, beat Republican Ken Kramer 51% to 49% to take the seat that had been held by Gary Hart.

As a Congressman, the 6-ft. 5-in. Wirth made a reputation as the typical "Atari Democrat," who urges growth and investment in high-technology industries. But he has balanced his views with positions more attuned to a Colorado constituency. He advocated strong consumer-protection laws but also worked for abolition of price controls on oil and gas. When campaigning back home, Wirth shucks his stylish Washington dress in favor of cowboy boots and big belt buckles, but some Democratic pols think he must cultivate a more genuinely down-to-earth manner. Says one: "It's something Tim needs to work on. He can't seem to help letting people know that he is smarter and busier than they are."

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Missouri Aristocrat