In this issue
Edition: U.S.
Edition: U.S.
Vol. 144 No. 21
Monday, Nov. 21, 1994
When America woke up last Wednesday morning, it was to strangers they had briefly met, and hardly got to know, but who would now be running Congress. These strangers rode to victory on a shoeshine and a smile and a sample case full of miracle cures. They gave few specifics, but never mind. Voters were convinced that their generic bromides looked better than what the Democrats . had been peddling. Of those who uprooted hardy Democratic perennials, few were more unlikely than Texas Congressman-elect Steve Stockman and Tennessee Senator-elect Bill Frist.
Stockman was a pro-gun, pro-school prayer sometime house painter and occasional accountant. The most effective element of his platform was simply not being 21-term Congressman Jack Brooks, who, if he had been re-elected, would have been the most senior member of the House. Being a Congressman will be Stockman's first steady job. Bill Frist, a heart-and-lung surgeon from Nashville, Tennessee, knocked off 18-year Senate veteran Jim Sasser by campaigning against the things Sasser was for: gun control, abortion rights and Washington pols telling people not to smoke in Old Smoky country. The main requirements for success among the neophytes were work in a field unrelated to government, a life lived outside the Beltway except for the odd trip to see the monuments, and a Democratic incumbent as hoary as one of the marble buildings on the Gray Line tour.
Stockman, 37, didn't earn a college degree until 1990 and worked sporadically while raising money in the conservative churches of east Texas for a campaign that would spend little more than $100,000. But his limitations were a virtue because his target was so big -- and so maculate. Jack Brooks, an ex-Marine who chomped on a cigar in his seat as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee long after the ashtrays were removed, could be a poster child for term limits. More liberal than his east Texas constituents on issues like civil rights, he had hung tenaciously to office, power, perks and pork by fiercely protecting his constituents' love of guns, rice subsidies and the death penalty. He was also good at delivering federal building projects and disaster relief, as needed.
But Brooks' last grab for a slab of bacon proved too much for his sated constituency. After he managed to get $10 million for the Jack Brooks Criminal Justice Center at Brooks' alma mater Lamar College slipped into the crime bill, voters saw pork for the bad financial bargain it is -- two dollars in federal taxes for every one that might come back to the district in the form of pork. Stockman, who had been trounced by Brooks in 1992, saw his chance and tried again. Some Republicans in Texas ignored him as a wild man. (Stockman unfurled posters that said FIGHT CRIME. SHOOT BACK.) But he found ardent support among the pro-lifers, term-limit advocates, and gun owners, angry at Brooks' vote for the crime bill. And the giant fell: Brooks won only 46% of the vote.
The new Congressman says one of his heroes is Representative Dick Armey of Texas, who used to live in his office, sleeping on his couch and showering in the House gym -- practices Stockman plans to emulate. He knows he will have to work hard for the folks back home. "This is a tough district," he told TIME. "I know I got a lot of votes, not because they love Steve, but because they are mad at Brooks."
Bill Frist, 42, outspent his opponent Sasser nearly 3 to 2 -- $4.5 million to $2.8 million -- including $3.7 million of his own money from his family's chain of hospitals, Columbia/HCA. He imported an out-of-state gunslinger -- political consultant Tom Perdue who advised Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia in his upset win two years ago over Wyche Fowler. Frist went strongly negative on the "liberal, taxing, two-faced" Jim Sasser, running an ad picturing Sasser's face on Mount Rushmore alongside Ted Kennedy's and Dan Rostenkowski's and saying, "Eighteen years is long enough." Last February only 12% of Tennesseans had an unfavorable view of Sasser; by November 46% did. Frist came from 40 points behind to three in the fall after flying from one town to another across the state shaking hands. Meanwhile, Sasser was in Washington collecting commitments from his colleagues in his bid to become Senate majority leader after his presumed re-election.
By the time Sasser got serious, he couldn't adjust to the new landscape, where promising to bring a multimillion dollar federal wind-tunnel project was just what the voters had soured on. Sasser triumphed in their first debate, but Frist turned his lackluster performance into another sign that he wasn't a smoothie from the big city. Sasser then turned negative, pointing out that Dr. Frist had masqueraded as a pet lover to get cats from an animal shelter to use in lab experiments, that he had not even registered to vote until six years ago. The Senator pointed to the irony of a heart-and-lung surgeon saying it was up to parents -- not government -- to decide whether children should smoke. He also took Frist's proposal to cut $230 billion from the federal budget and showed that it couldn't be done.
But all was in vain. Doctors, even wealthy ones, rank well above politicians in public esteem. No one gave a hoot about the kittens, or where Frist would find the spending cuts, as long as he wanted to cut. Sasser lost by 212,843 votes.
< Amid the euphoria of Republican victories, Stockman was asked, "What are you going to do now?"and he joked, "Go to Disneyworld." Well, Washington is a certain kind of theme park that newcomers enter at their own risk. Old immunities disappear as members are forced to take positions and cast votes, providing the very specifics to voters and potential opponents they so carefully avoided this campaign. Unless overnight sensations like Stockman and Frist perform sensationally, they may find the broom that swept the old coots out of office ready to be used again.
COVER
THE ELECTION: A Pair of Giant Killers (THE ELECTION) THE ELECTION: Agreements in Principle (THE ELECTION)
THE ELECTION: Harrying Truman (THE ELECTION)
Is his fall and rise a valid model for Bill Clinton or merely a bedtime story for wishful Democrats?
THE ELECTION: Making and Breaking Law (THE ELECTION)
California's sweeping ballot initiative against illegal immigrants wins big before landing in court
THE ELECTION: Prodding Voters to the Right (THE ELECTION)
THE ELECTION: Right Makes Might (THE ELECTION)
The G.O.P. has thoroughly discredited Democrats in Congress, but now it must move beyond obstruction and heckling to win support for its own ideas
The Republican Romp Lets Clinton Feel the Voters' Pain (THE ELECTION)
The Republican romp lets President Clinton really feel the voters' pain
THE ELECTION: They Can Multiply Without Dividng (THE ELECTION)
The new flock of can-do, centrist Republican Governors is a far cry from the conservative wing headed for Congress
THE ELECTION: Victory By the Numbers (THE ELECTION)
No comments:
Post a Comment