For the Record

It was like a litany when Democratic Party pros—not the ideologues—performed their post-mortems on the election. The party, they concluded, was dead in its tracks. Gov. Bruce Babbitt (Ariz.): “The Democratic Party has got to let down the drawbridge and move out of Washington and discover America.” . . . Gov. Richard Lamm (Colo.): “The party . . . should quit catering to single-interest groups, and it should take the lead in reforming those ‘actuarial nightmares’ it created, such as Social Security and Medicare.” . . . National Democratic Committee member Sharon Pratt Dixon, at St. Thomas meeting of state chairmen and vice chairmen: We must “move our party to the economic center. We have to become the party of growth. The New Deal wasn’t about social welfare, it was about economic welfare.” . . . Christopher Matthews, aide to Democratic leadership in House: “We haven’t done a good selling job with a lot of young people. The Republicans have portrayed us as the party of the poor, rather than the party of the people working their way up.” . . . Richard Moe, former Carter-Mondale aide: “As a national party, we forfeited optimism, hope, and opportunity, things the Democratic Party must reclaim if it is ever going to elect another President.” (Moe added, incidentally, that the Reagan people “ran the most flawless campaign I’ve seen in my lifetime.”) . . . Said Rep. Jim Jones (Okla.), head of powerful House Budget Committee: “I think we should adopt the slogan of ‘compassionate conservatism.’ ”

Some final election facts and figures: The three North Carolina Republicans to upset Democratic House members were: Bill Cobey over Ike Andrews; Howard Coble over Robin Britt; and former Rep. Bill Hendon who took out James McClure Clarke, the man who beat him last time around. … In California, former GOP Congressman Robert K. Dornan unseated the very liberal Jerry Patterson, but John Paul Stark failed to tumble the equally liberal George Brown. . . . Unseating an incumbent is not all that easy: 96 per cent of incumbents were re-elected. . . . Women running for House seats had so-so record this year: 65 ran; all twenty incumbents were re-elected, but only two challengers made it. . . . Interesting shift in Maine where a state Equal Rights Amendment once favored 2 to 1 in polls was defeated— 2 to 1. . . . Kevin Phillips’s immediate reaction to slim Republican gains in House was that “You can forget realignment talk.” . . . But Christian Science Monitor Washington bureau chief Godfrey Sperling believes Ronald Reagan may have a working majority. Many Democratic congressmen, he says, who were narrowly re-elected believe there has been a sea change and that they will ignore the conservative mandate Reagan received at their peril. .. . It was just fifty-fifty for Peter, Paul, & Mary, who raised big sums for prominent liberal candidates. John Kerry ($50,000) and Paul Simon ($26,000) won their senatorial races in Mass. and Ill., but Lloyd Doggett ($53,000) and Jim Hunt ($47,000) lost theirs in Tex. and N.C.

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It was like a litany when Democratic Party pros—not the ideologues—performed their post-mortems on the election. The party, they concluded, was dead in its tracks. Gov. Bruce Babbitt (Ariz.): “The Democratic Party has got to let down the drawbridge and move out of Washington and discover America.” . . . Gov. Richard Lamm (Colo.): “The party . . . should quit catering to single-interest groups, and it should take the lead in reforming those ‘actuarial nightmares’ it created, such as Social Security and Medicare.” . . . National Democratic Committee member Sharon Pratt Dixon, at St. Thomas meeting of state chairmen and vice chairmen: We must “move our party to the economic center. We have to become the party of growth. The New Deal wasn’t about social welfare, it was about economic welfare.” . . . Christopher Matthews, aide to Democratic leadership in House: “We haven’t done a good selling job with a lot of young people. The Republicans have portrayed us as the party of the poor, rather than the party of the people working their way up.” . . . Richard Moe, former Carter-Mondale aide: “As a national party, we forfeited optimism, hope, and opportunity, things the Democratic Party must reclaim if it is ever going to elect another President.” (Moe added, incidentally, that the Reagan people “ran the most flawless campaign I’ve seen in my lifetime.”) . . . Said Rep. Jim Jones (Okla.), head of powerful House Budget Committee: “I think we should adopt the slogan of ‘compassionate conservatism.’ ”

Some final election facts and figures: The three North Carolina Republicans to upset Democratic House members were: Bill Cobey over Ike Andrews; Howard Coble over Robin Britt; and former Rep. Bill Hendon who took out James McClure Clarke, the man who beat him last time around. … In California, former GOP Congressman Robert K. Dornan unseated the very liberal Jerry Patterson, but John Paul Stark failed to tumble the equally liberal George Brown. . . . Unseating an incumbent is not all that easy: 96 per cent of incumbents were re-elected. . . . Women running for House seats had so-so record this year: 65 ran; all twenty incumbents were re-elected, but only two challengers made it. . . . Interesting shift in Maine where a state Equal Rights Amendment once favored 2 to 1 in polls was defeated— 2 to 1. . . . Kevin Phillips’s immediate reaction to slim Republican gains in House was that “You can forget realignment talk.” . . . But Christian Science Monitor Washington bureau chief Godfrey Sperling believes Ronald Reagan may have a working majority. Many Democratic congressmen, he says, who were narrowly re-elected believe there has been a sea change and that they will ignore the conservative mandate Reagan received at their peril. .. . It was just fifty-fifty for Peter, Paul, & Mary, who raised big sums for prominent liberal candidates. John Kerry ($50,000) and Paul Simon ($26,000) won their senatorial races in Mass. and Ill., but Lloyd Doggett ($53,000) and Jim Hunt ($47,000) lost theirs in Tex. and N.C.