Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993                   TAG: 9311020100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOP LOOKS TO POLLS WITH HOPE

Odd-numbered years are off years for politics, yet ballots from coast to coast are packed with open mayoral contests and questions on state and local policy, from school choice to gay rights to Sunday shopping.

Boston, Atlanta, Detroit and Miami are among the big cities that will elect new mayors. And Californians are deciding whether to dedicate a half-penny of the state sales tax to local police and fire departments, and whether to offer state-funded vouchers allowing parents to send children to private schools.

The contests being watched most closely are New Jersey, New York City and Virginia, each of which could carry implications beyond local borders.

In New Jersey, Democratic Gov. Jim Florio is seeking re-election against Republican challenger Christie Whitman, in a race dominated by crime and taxes. Florio, who became deeply unpopular three years ago after raising taxes $2.8 billion, had the edge in late polls.

New York's contest was a heated rematch of the closest mayoral race in city history, when Democrat David Dinkins defeated Republican Rudolph Giuliani by 2.6 percentage points. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-1, it was again a tossup as the candidates made election-eve get-out-the-vote appeals Monday in ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

In arguing for a second term, Dinkins said he had held the line on property taxes and that crime was on the decline.

But Giuliani said Dinkins had done little to stop violent crime and had been slow to act when blacks committed crimes against Jews and Asian merchants. Even Clinton waded into that contest's racial politics, suggesting whites were reluctant to support Dinkins because he is black.

While those contests got the attention - and money - of the national parties, they are hardly the only intriguing races on today's ballot.

Some others:

Detroit is choosing a successor to 20-year Mayor Coleman Young.

Acting Mayor Thomas Menino hopes to become Boston's first Italian-American chief executive. That job came open when longtime Mayor Raymond Flynn became Clinton's Vatican envoy.

Voters in Washington state decide whether to repeal a $1 billion tax package Gov. Mike Lowry won to close a budget gap and pay for a universal health-care program.

Maine voters decide whether legislators and four executive offices should be subject to term limits. New Yorkers also decide whether the mayor and other city officials should face term limits.

It's not all so weighty.

At issue in Bergen County, N.J., is whether to repeal a 1959 law banning Sunday shopping. And in San Francisco, a police officer is seeking public approval to carry a ventriloquist's dummy on patrol.

This year's voting is a prelude to 1994, when the stakes will be much higher. Then, the entire House, 34 Senate seats and 36 governors' jobs will be up for grabs in midterm elections. With a Democrat in the White House, history suggests Republicans have good odds of slicing the Democratic majorities in both chambers in Congress and their 31-17 advantage at the statehouse level.

Even before today's balloting, Republicans boasted they could do no worse than a draw in this year's big races.

Since Clinton's victory, the GOP has picked up two Senate seats and the mayor's office in Los Angeles.