THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Cal Thomas
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Six weeks before an ``off-year'' election that could produce a greater upheaval than the 1980 presidential year in which Republicans captured the White House and Senate, the GOP is drooling over the possibility of taking control of both houses of Congress and knocking off some of the nation's most prominent Democrats.
Everywhere you look, Democrats seem to be in trouble. Nowhere do Republican hearts beat faster than in Spokane, Wash., home of House Speaker Tom Foley. Polls show Foley's Republican challenger, George Nethercutt, leading the speaker by 19 points. Only 38 percent think Foley should be re-elected. No speaker has been defeated for re-election in more than 130 years. The ``De-Foley-ate Congress'' campaign is on its way toward raising $500,000, with a lot coming from out of state through a campaign on the Internet computer network.
Another liberal icon, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, was said to face relatively easy re-election over New York State Sen. George Pataki, the ``hand-picked'' candidate of Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato. Now polls show Pataki is the front-runner.
In Virginia, The Washington Post carried a front-page story that said Senate Republican candidate Oliver North is winning converts among skeptical voters, and that the withdrawal of former Gov. Douglas Wilder did not help incumbent Democratic Sen. Charles Robb, as pundits theorized. Public and private polls show North with a comfortable lead over Robb.
In Ohio, Republican Gov. George Voinovich has left all challengers in the dust as he seeks a second term. The Ohio Senate race between Joel Hyatt (retiring liberal Democrat Sen. Howard Metzenbaum's son-in-law) and his Republican challenger, Lt. Gov. Michael DeWine, finds DeWine with a substantial lead - 51 percent for DeWine to 34 percent for Hyatt, according to a Cincinnati Post-University of Cincinnati survey of registered voters.
Incumbent Tennessee Democratic Sen. James Sasser has a slight lead over Republican challenger Bill Frist, but the state's other Senate race, between Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper and Republican challenger and political novice Fred Thompson, is rated up for grabs.
The Democratic establishment in Maryland was shocked when a WBAL-TV poll found that the race for governor in a state that rarely elects Republicans (Spiro Agnew was the last one more than 25 years ago) is a dead heat. Republican Ellen Sauerbrey is running against Democrat Paris Glendening for the office being vacated by retiring Gov. William Donald Schaeffer.
Then there was the primary defeat of Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Mike Synar and the struggle of the biggest liberal kahuna of them all, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, along with the general reluctance of most Democratic candidates to have President Clinton within a television camera's view of their state or district.
Republicans are trying to take advantage of this avalanche of good news. This week they issued a ``contract'' with the American people, pledging to do certain things if they gain power - among them a balanced budget amendment, welfare reform, term limits and line-item veto. It is described by supporters as a positive, pro-active agenda or ``vision'' for the country. It had better be and, given the chance to implement it, Republicans had better fulfill its promises and more.
In their anger and frustration with the size, cost and failure of government, voters may indeed try one more time to launch a revolution within the two-party system. But if Republicans fail to produce, then what Kevin Phillips suggests in his new book, ``Arrogant Capital: Washington, Wall Street and the Frustration of American Politics,'' may be next. And that is a destruction of the two-party system and a genuine political upheaval that would disperse and deflate government and remove power from the ruling classes, returning it to the people.
MEMO: Mr. Thomas' column is distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate,
Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053.
by CNB