Pell to Quit; Act May Help GOP Boost Senate Margin : Politics: R.I. Democrat is seventh in party to retire. Republicans could have chance to revive stalled agenda.

Six-term Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island on Tuesday became the seventh Democratic incumbent this year to announce his retirement, further bolstering the possibility that Republicans can increase their current 54-46 margin to a filibuster-proof majority of 60 or more next year.

Such a development--particularly if the GOP additions are as conservative as its current freshman class--could clear the obstacles that have stalled major parts of the GOP’s legislative agenda, despite the party’s sweeping victories last November. The 1994 elections gave Republicans numerical control of Congress for the first time in four decades but the Democratic minority in the Senate has been large enough to frustrate GOP strategists.

All year long, the overarching fact of life on Capitol Hill is that the Senate has become the burial ground for much of the vaunted “contract with America” agenda that originated in the House.

For instance, a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget fell one vote shy of the requisite two-thirds majority. Several other House-passed initiatives, including a tax cut, legal reform and curtailed government regulations, continue to languish in the Senate.

Local factors often mean more than national issues in Senate elections but the GOP can be expected to promote the notion that its “contract” can be fully delivered only if voters send more Republicans to the Senate in 1996.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for the GOP to build on its 1994 success,” Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said.

All 11 new senators elected last November were Republicans. Since then, Democrats Richard C. Shelby of Alabama and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado have switched parties, giving the GOP its present margin.

In 1996, 33 Senate seats will be on the ballot; 18 are now held by Republicans and 15 by Democrats.

Pell’s retirement means that nearly half of the Democratic senators up for reelection in 1996 have chosen to quit instead--a manifestation that the party is demoralized, according to D’Amato.

But his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, disputed that characterization.

Kerrey vowed to wage a spirited campaign to keep Pell’s seat in the Democratic column, as it has been for six decades. “The state of Rhode Island should have no trouble finding a worthy Democrat to counter the effects of the ideologically extreme conservatives the Republicans are so quick to recruit,” Kerrey said.

Among the likely aspirants for Pell’s seat are Rep. John F. Reed (D-R.I.) and Republican State Treasurer Nancy Mayer.

In 1958, six Republican senators chose not to seek reelection--a one-party record until now, according to Congressional Quarterly’s “Vital Statistics on Congress.” The record number of Senate retirements, regardless of party affiliation, occurred in 1978, when four Democrats and five Republicans chose to retire.

For 1996, a big question for the Republicans is whether they can successfully recruit strong prospective candidates who are not put off by the harsh partisanship permeating Congress that may yet drive other senators, Republicans as well as Democrats, into retirement.

A case in point arose after the August retirement announcement by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), who, like the others before him, decried the acrimonious gridlock that afflicts Washington.

Shortly after Bradley’s announcement, New Jersey’s popular Republican former governor, Thomas H. Kean, said that he would not enter the race, saying “Washington is not a civil place these days.”

In the final analysis, though, it is the Democrats who clearly have much more to lose in the Senate elections next year. In addition to those who already have announced their retirements, Sam Nunn of Georgia is widely considered likely to follow suit. Other Democrats who are voluntarily leaving the Senate are J. James Exon of Nebraska, Howell Heflin of Alabama, J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, David Pryor of Arkansas and Paul Simon of Illinois.

So far, only one Republican senator, Hank Brown of Colorado, has announced his retirement. But at least two others may do the same--Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas and Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon.

Pell, 76, was first elected to the Senate in 1960. Although he has Parkinson’s disease, Pell said Tuesday that physicians have assured him “there is no medical barrier” to another six-year term. “I feel strong and healthy and sharp,” said Pell, who remains a regular jogger.

Nonetheless, he said, “there is a natural time for all life’s adventures to come to an end and this period of 36 years would seem to me about the right time for my service in the Senate to end.”

Pell’s most enduring legacy may be the direct grants-in-aid to college students that bear his name.