Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Not one Republican incumbent lost a re-election bid for House, Senate or governor in what Republican Party Chairman Haley Barbour on Wednesday called ``the largest midterm-election majority sweep in this century.''
Foley, D-Wash., was the first speaker to be ousted since the Civil War and one of the Democrats' final casualties. The 30-year House veteran more or less conceded Wednesday to Republican newcomer George Nethercutt, who held a 2,174-vote lead with 14,000 absentee ballots uncounted.
His voice quivering, a controlled but emotional Foley thanked his constituents, his Democratic colleagues and the seven chief executives he served with since coming to Congress three decades ago.
``If the final result is as it appears to be now, the 5th Congressional District of Washington will have elected a new representative,'' Foley said in Spokane. ``Let me now congratulate George Nethercutt and promise him the full support of my office in the coming two months of transition.''
After anchoring his campaign on the theme that the his district enjoyed extraordinary political influence because he was speaker, the speakership now belonged to the party of the victor, Nethercutt, a 50-year-old attorney.
The House takeover was viewed as the longest shot for Republicans, but even there they posted a net gain of at least 48 seats; 40 were needed to wrest control from the Democrats and change Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich's title next year from minority whip to speaker.
Pledges of huge tax cuts were central to Republican George Pataki's victory over three-term New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and in Republican Ellen Sauerbrey's unexpectedly strong showing against Democrat Parris Glendening in Maryland.
A winner in the Maryland gubernatorial race was not expected to be declared before today, when absentee ballots were to be counted. Also undecided was a deadlocked contest for Alaska's open governor's seat, sought by Republican Jim Campbell and Democrat Tony Knowles.
To the relief of Democrats, three of their most vulnerable senators managed to win re-election. California's Dianne Feinstein fended off Michael Huffington's $27 million challenge in the most expensive race in Senate history. Charles Robb of Virginia and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts also won.
The Republican surge propelled even the party's most vulnerable governors to re-election, among them Iowa's Terry Branstad and Arizona's Fife Symington. The party seized 11 Democratic-held statehouses, ousting four sitting governors. It captured seven of the eight most populous states, and its first statehouse majority since 1970.
Neither major party managed to win Maine. Businessman and public TV commentator Angus King will become the country's only independent governor next year, on the strength of a self-financed, Ross Perot-style campaign.
The Washington Post contributed information to this story.
by CNB