Vietnam Isn't Issue in Oregon -- Wayne Morse Is

PORTLAND, ORE., OCT. 10--Age and iconoclasm may be catching up with Wayne Morse in his battle against a young, businesslike state Representative named Robert Packwood.

Although Morse is known outside of Oregon mainly for his vitreolic attacks on the Johnson administration's war policy, Vietnam is a minor issue here. Packwood has recently emerged as a moderate dove, and while his anti-war credentials don't compare to Morse's that fact isn't enough to build a campaign on.

There is only one issue in this election: Wayne Morse.

He's like the weather: everyone knows him and has an opinion of him. "Wayne Morse?" muttered a brawny teamster over lunch in East Portland yesterday. "I'm tired of that old man." A Reed College girl said, "With his moustache, gray hair and lecture-like speeches, he reminds me of a friendly old uncle--something like uncle Ho."

To many, Morse represents Oregon's populist past--the rugged, individualistic Oregon of loggers and pioneer farms along the Willamette. "He is the Oregon all Oregonians cherish," one Morse campaign official said yesterday. "They don't want to vote against their own heritage."

Packwood is everything that Morse isn't: he's predictable, pragmatic, somewhat superficial, and in supreme contrast to Morse, bland. As Morse reflects the past, Packwood symbolizes Modern Oregon--the freeways along the Columbia, the Manhattan-like skyscrapers of down-town Portland. Packwood is a progressive Republican, somewhat along the lines of Illinois' Senator Percy. He descends from Oregon's blue-blood establishment, and offers Oregonians a staid, mildly progressive alternative to Morse's turbulent Senate career.

Morse came out of last May's Democratic primary in bad shape. He defeated his hawkish opponent, former Congressman Robert B. Duncan, but only by a razor-thin margin. His vote, less than 50 per cent of the total, was the poorest showing of his political career: even in his most difficult early days, as a Republican Senator who was too liberal for the old guard in his party, Morse never encountered so much opposition.

To counter Packwood and to bring out as many voters as possible, Morse has mobilized one of the strongest political armies in Oregon's history. On all the college campuses McCarthy students have come out to work for Morse's re-election. A few of the McCarthy stalwarts, however, are boycotting Morse as a result of his strong endorsement of Vice President Humphrey. Nevertheless, Morse supporters are counting on McCarthy-style house-to-house campaigning, along with some heavy spending on TV & advertising to pull Oregon's old populist through the toughest campaign he has ever fought.