Scandals Cast Clouds Over Several Incumbents : Politics: Keating affair, House bank overdrafts and other charges have put several lawmakers on the defensive. Others appear to be weathering the storm.

A mug shot of former savings and loan magnate Charles H. Keating Jr., with prison numbers under his chin, flashes on local television screens. Appearing next to it: A smiling photo of Democratic Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, the former astronaut and the first American to orbit the Earth.

For Glenn, 71, who is accustomed to being honored as a national hero, it is a humiliating experience to be identified in his opponent’s political commercials as a collaborator with a notorious convicted felon. Angered by the ads, Glenn has insisted that he is a victim of “guilt by association” and “gutter TV politicking.”

But it was inevitable that the man challenging Glenn for reelection, Ohio Lt. Gov. Mike DeWine, a 45-year-old former congressman, would dredge up the senator’s ties to the former owner of Lincoln Savings & Loan. Even though Glenn was cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee of any wrongdoing in the Keating affair, he has acknowledged taking $234,000 in campaign funds from the man who came to symbolize the savings and loan scandal.

Glenn is surely the most well-known, highly regarded incumbent to have his integrity questioned during this year’s rough-and-tumble congressional elections, but he is far from the only one.

Like Glenn, several must defend questionable campaign contributions. Others face criticisms stemming from bad checks they wrote at the House bank or from other alleged misdeeds.

In Arizona, Republican Sen. John McCain--like Glenn--is being criticized by his opponents for accepting campaign contributions and other favors from Keating. One of his opponents even refers to him as a “disgraced senator,” even though McCain was also cleared by the Senate ethics panel of allegations that he improperly used his influence to aid Keating.

In Massachusetts, Democratic Rep. Nicholas Mavroules is battling an indictment for bribery and extortion as well as a well-funded Republican opponent, state Rep. Peter Torkildsen, who is trying to take advantage of the incumbent’s legal difficulties.

In Texas, Democratic Rep. Ronald D. Coleman, who had 673 overdrafts at the House bank, is being called upon by his opponent to answer why he has not received a letter clearing him of wrongdoing from federal prosecutor Malcolm Wilkey.

And in Ohio, Democratic Rep. Mary Rose Oakar’s 213 overdrafts--combined with several House Ethics Committee inquires into her office practices--seem to pose a significant obstacle to her reelection.

Throughout the nation’s history, politicians often have had to answer for misdeeds at election time. And some--such as the late Rep. Adam Clayton Powell of New York--have been returned to Congress despite serious charges pending against them.

But in 1992, voter tolerance for political rascals appears on the wane. Now, the most minor transgressions by politicians are being viewed as evidence that the political system corrupts even the most well-intentioned men and women who go to Washington to serve the public.

Indeed, scandals such as the ones that have engulfed these incumbents are only reinforcing a growing voter bias against anyone who is an incumbent.

“Politics as usual just doesn’t cut it anymore,” insisted DeWine, Glenn’s opponent. “This year, you’ve got to be able to show the voters that you can do things differently.”

In fact, there probably would be many more incumbents in trouble on Nov. 3 as a result of their ethical misdeeds if some of the most vulnerable--such as Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), also tainted by the Keating affair--had not already voluntarily bowed out without running for reelection.

No race better demonstrates the difficulties facing these scandal-scarred incumbents than Glenn’s.

In Ohio, Glenn always has been a highly revered, larger-than-life figure whose name adorns many schools, roads and bridges. Even children who were not born when he orbited the Earth in 1962 have learned his name in their history books.

And before the Keating scandal, Glenn in his Senate career had forged a home-state reputation for integrity and honesty by refusing to take honorariums, voting against pay raises and speaking out on behalf of injustice.

In fact, Glenn occupies such a unique niche in Ohio politics that DeWine, in his negative campaign against the three-term incumbent, must walk a very fine line between legitimate criticism and what might be viewed as a gratuitous assault on the patriotism and heroism that Glenn represents.

“John Glenn is a hero for what he did 30 years ago,” DeWine said in an interview. “But I sense people are willing to judge John Glenn as senator.”

DeWine’s carefully calibrated TV attacks not only emphasize Glenn’s relationship with Keating but also criticize the senator for failing to repay $3 million in debts accrued during his failed 1984 presidential bid. Glenn contends that the ads have badly distorted the truth.

Glenn has been particularly critical of one ad that the senator suggests has demeaned his service to the nation. A takeoff on the Energizer bunny commercial, it shows a tiny, battery-driven astronaut marching across the television screen, banging a drum, while the announcer--referring to Glenn’s presidential campaign debt--says that he just “keeps on owing and owing.”

While polls show that Glenn is still running ahead, DeWine’s attacks obviously have cut deeply into the senator’s traditional popularity in Ohio. A recent Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper poll showed the incumbent 15 percentage points ahead, but a mail-in survey by the Columbus Dispatch gave him no more than a three-point margin.

As a result, Glenn has responded with negative ads of his own.

His latest television commercial alleges that DeWine, while serving in the House, made eight free trips to Las Vegas, where he collected more than $40,000 in honorariums. It does not mention that such junkets were entirely legal at the time.

Despite the negative ads, the Glenn-DeWine race is civilized compared to the contest between Oakar and her Republican opponent, businessman Martin Hoke. Although he is a political novice, Hoke has had little trouble making an issue of Oakar’s overdrafts and other charges against her that were dismissed by the Ethics Committee.

“Power does corrupt,” Hoke said. “No more do we have it more exemplified than with Mary Rose Oakar in northern Ohio.”

Appearing with Hoke last week at the Cleveland City Club, Oakar responded with an unusually vitriolic tirade in which she charged that Hoke was arrested more than 10 times, abused drugs and mistreated his employees.

“This man wants to talk about my integrity,” Oakar said. “So, I’m going to look at his.”

Hoke acknowledged that he was arrested for disorderly conduct once for spontaneously playing a piano at a local shopping mall, but he said his other brushes with the law amounted to a number of speeding citations.

Oakar has also questioned Hoke’s credibility by suggesting that he fabricated his involvement with the Sikh religion. Hoke has reluctantly admitted that he was a Sikh adherent in the 1970s. Referring to that admission, he asked: “Why would I make that up?”

Oakar’s campaign seems to arise from desperation. She went on the attack shortly after the Plain Dealer published a poll showing her trailing Hoke by 10 percentage points. Oakar claims that the poll was skewed toward Republicans.

The Ohio congresswoman is one of 15 Democratic and two Republican incumbents seeking reelection who still have not yet received letters of exoneration from the prosecutor who has been looking into the House banking scandal.

Roll Call, the newspaper that focuses on Congress, estimates that the overdraft issue could prove crucial in as many as 11 of these races.

In Texas, for example, Coleman’s opponent, Chip Taberski, is running a commercial saying: “Three weeks ago, some congressmen were cleared by the Justice Department for their role in the check bouncing scandal. But not Ron. Ever ask yourself why?”

The race is judged by local observers as close.

Elsewhere, some incumbents with highly publicized problems are doing surprisingly well, considering the potency of the anti-incumbent mood.

Mavroules, who was indicted last August on a variety of corruption charges, remains competitive in his race for reelection. Local analysts say Mavroules’ resiliency can be attributed not only to his familiarity with the people in his district, but to the support he has received from other Massachusetts Democrats, including Reps. Barney Frank and Joseph Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Likewise, McCain appears to be overcoming what once seemed as a huge hurdle facing his future political career: His onetime friendship with Keating. Current polls show him far ahead of his two opponents, Democrat Claire Sargent and former GOP Gov. Evan Mecham, who is running as an independent.

To McCain’s advantage, neither of his opponents have had enough money to mount the kind of advertising attack that DeWine has directed at Glenn. Furthermore, McCain’s recent success in obtaining records from Vietnam concerning American POWs and MIAs has diverted attention away from the Keating affair and onto the senator’s own distinguished history as a prisoner of war.