Capital Scene: Housekeeping

FOR six weeks, Democrats thought they had a chance to retake control of the House of Representatives this fall. The dream began on April 25, when Republican Rep. Wes Watkins announced that he was retiring. There was no way Republicans could hope to hold on to Oklahoma’s traditionally Democratic Third District; they held it now only because Rep. Watkins, who had originally been elected to Congress as a Democrat, switched parties.

Democrats believed they could very well narrow the GOP’s 11-seat majority even before November, thus gaining momentum for themselves. They were already following their state-of-the-art campaign strategy in a special election in New Mexico. They had recruited an airbrushed multi-millionaire, State Sen. Phil Maloof, to run and were presenting him as the candidate of the working man; meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, no less, was saying that a vote for the Republican, Heather Wilson, was a vote for Newt Gingrich.

FOR six weeks, Democrats thought they had a chance to retake control of the House of Representatives this fall. The dream began on April 25, when Republican Rep. Wes Watkins announced that he was retiring. There was no way Republicans could hope to hold on to Oklahoma’s traditionally Democratic Third District; they held it now only because Rep. Watkins, who had originally been elected to Congress as a Democrat, switched parties.

Democrats believed they could very well narrow the GOP’s 11-seat majority even before November, thus gaining momentum for themselves. They were already following their state-of-the-art campaign strategy in a special election in New Mexico. They had recruited an airbrushed multi-millionaire, State Sen. Phil Maloof, to run and were presenting him as the candidate of the working man; meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, no less, was saying that a vote for the Republican, Heather Wilson, was a vote for Newt Gingrich.