Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 26, 1994 TAG: 9405260080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOHN KING ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The Republican special election victory Tuesday for a Kentucky House seat that had been in Democratic hands for 129 years again put national Democratic officials on the defensive, arguing that the candidate lost not because of Clinton, but because he ran from Clinton.
"Instead of running on the party's record of fighting for the economic interests of working Americans, Joe Prather ran away from it," said Democratic National Committee Chairman David Wilhelm. "He lost."
Prather did run a lackluster campaign against GOP winner Ron Lewis, and the personal popularity of the late Rep. William Natcher kept the seat in Democratic hands even as the district turned more and more Republican in the past decade.
Nonetheless, there were troublesome messages for Clinton and his fellow Democrats.
In Kentucky and in the Oklahoma special election in which Republicans picked up a Democratic seat three weeks ago, the GOP candidates aggressively criticized Clinton's health care plan, especially the employer mandate and government-regulated regional alliances that are the president's gateway to universal coverage.
"These elections are the death knell of Clinton's socialized health care," said Rep. Bill Paxon of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports GOP House candidates.
Already, because of Clinton's rocky political standing in the South, Democratic strategists were urging candidates there to show independence from Clinton.
The new election results added considerable volume to that advice - just as Clinton enters a stretch in which he needs some tough votes on health care reform.
Rep. Vic Fazio of California, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, agreed that local politics would dictate that many Democrats distance themselves from Clinton and the national party from time to time.
Still, Fazio predicted health care would be an area of broad agreement among Democrats. But others in the party disagreed, saying the two GOP victories would deliver a sober message to Democrats in tough races.
The two victories give Republicans a head start in a year in which history suggests they will gain 15 to 20 seats. Lewis' victory in Kentucky brought to 178 the number of Republicans in the House. There are 256 Democrats and one independent.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB