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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992                   TAG: 9203190443
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TERM LIMITS THAT WORK

Three incumbent congressmen, including two-term Sen. Alan Dixon, were defeated in Democratic primaries. Moreover, the voters were selective. While general anti-incumbent sentiment no doubt contributed, the defeats of all three can be traced to voter anger with specific aspects of each of their performances in office.

Five-term Rep. Charles Hayes was apparently bounced out of Congress for his role in the rubber-check racket. Among the House's most prolific kiters, Hayes could not convince enough voters in his predominantly black constituency that it was a "false issue." Primary winner Bobby Rush, a Chicago alderman, will probably be the next congressman from his heavily Democratic inner-city district.

Six-term Rep. Gus Savage, also from a black-majority Chicago-area district, has been one of the country's worst congressmen. His overtly anti-Semitic views have put him at odds with other Democratic officials; his congressional attendance record is abysmal. The primary winner, unopposed in November, is Mel Reynolds, a former Rhodes scholar.

"We have lost to the white racist press," said Savage when the returns were in, "and to the racist reactionary Jewish misleaders." Said Reynolds, who also is black: "This should send a clear message to all elected officials, black and white, that if you run on racial politics as your theme, you will not be successful." Score one for the nation, and for voters of the Illinois 2nd.

Dixon's downfall most likely was his vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. That led Carol Moseley Braun, the elected recorder of deeds in Cook County (Chicago) and a former state legislator, to mount a low-money campaign against a seemingly invulnerable incumbent.

Braun won the three-candidate primary with only 38 percent of the vote; this could be a seat the GOP wins in November. Still, her refreshing victory is in a way more important than the others - and not simply because a Senate seat's at stake, or because of Braun's race (black) and gender (female).

Rather, it's because Dixon was felled not by dishonorable conduct but by a policy decision he made. Even in this era of (heretofore) incumbent security, voters have proved willing to force term limits via the ballot box on manifest incompetents and wrongdoers. Voters have been extremely reluctant, however, to dismiss incumbents because of policy disagreement.

One result has been Republican presidents and Democratic congresses, and a governmental gridlock that fuels public cynicism toward politics. Less deference to incumbency and personality, and more attention to voting records and policy differences, would be a healthy thing.