On the Record

■ Election post-mortem: Jesse Jack- son could be big loser in 1989 off-year elections, in which two black candidates, David Dinkins and Douglas Wilder Jr., became, respectively, first black mayor of New York City and first elected black governor of any U.S. state. Both campaigned as centrists; Evans & Novak say efforts by Wilder’s opponent, Marshall Coleman, to tab him a “liberal activist lacked credibility.” So: Is Jesse Jack- son’s inflammatory, race-oriented rhetoric going out of fashion? Will next generation of successful black politicians be moderates on the Tom Bradley, Wilder, and Dinkins model? . . . Jackson has other worries. In a number of states, notably Vermont and Maine, leaders of Rainbow Coalition are rejecting his leadership, demanding a free hand to build progressive forces outside Democratic Party. The live-wire in restive Maine Rainbow Coalition is John Case, who is also Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont district organizer for U.S. Communist Party. . . . Jackson could, however, still run for mayor of Washington, D.C. Most recent poll shows him leading corruption-prone Mayor Marion Barry 65 to 18 per cent among Democrats. . . . Rudolph Giuliani’s performance in final days of N.Y. may- oral campaign—he narrowed Dinkins’s two-digit lead to two percentage points— lends interest to possible challenge to Republican Sen. Al D’Amato next year. . . . Despite his failure to put Giuliani over the top, GOP campaign consultant Roger Ailes has been engaged to zip up staggering campaign by Rep. Lynn Martin (Ill.) to replace Paul Simon in Senate. . . . In numbers of city and state referenda, voters showed themselves to be cost-conscious. Spending initiatives were turned down in San Francisco, St. Louis, Orange County (Calif), and Texas. Comments Patrick McGuigan, of the Washington newsletter Initiative and Referendum Report: “The electorate looks pretty conservative fiscally.” . . . But Republican hope—with reapportionment looming following 1990 census—of capturing more state legislatures foundered. Post Nov. 7, Democrats are in control of both legislative houses in 28 states, Republicans in only eight. The others (apart from Nebraska, which has only one chamber) are split. . . . Proabortion forces undoubtedly contributed to GOP defeats in both New Jersey and Virginia. Meanwhile, Media Monitor, which examined 33 news stories in first nine months of 1989 (New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, NBC, ABC), found stories reported by women were 2 to 1 pro-choice, stories reported by men 50—50 pro-choice and pro-life. But organizations most quoted on the issue were overwhelmingly pro- choice: NOW (National Organization for Women) 75 times, NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) 72 times, Planned Parenthood 40 times, for 187 total pro-choice; National Right to Life, 65 times.

■ Bad news for Daniel Ortega. A poll partially sponsored by Sandinistas El Nuevo Diario found opposition leader Violetta Chamorro leading Ortega 36 to 32 per cent among registered voters, with 32 per cent undecided, for February 25 election. Poll the following week, partially sponsored by Mrs. Chamorro’s La Prensa, but also by Miami Herald and La Nation (Costa Rica), showed she had widened lead to impressive 44 to 18 per cent. But recent State Department cable questions Sandinista voterregistration procedures. Government obstructionism, it says, “is depriving tens of thousands of potential voters” from casting their ballots. . . . Carlos Denton of Gallup organization in Costa Rica, which conducted earlier poll, found that “hundreds of Miskito Indians” were denied access to registration booths and said opposition poll watchers were hindered in monitoring registration procedures. . . . Amnesty International has accused Sandinistas of killing unarmed peasants in recent unprovoked operations against Contras. . . . Meanwhile, Secretary of State James Baker has accused Ortega & Co. of continuing arms shipments to the rebel FMLN forces in El Salvador. Human Events quotes Baker: “We know from discussions with the driver [of a truck stopped on the Honduran border ten days or so ago, that the East-bloc arms he carried] had come from Nicaragua and were going to the FMLN.” Baker stopped short of blaming USSR for shipping arms to Nicaragua in the first place. . . . Communist People’s Daily World was outraged that 21 Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader George Mitchell and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell, voted for continued “humanitarian aid” to Contras. Among the 21 was freshman Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. His Connecticut colleague, Christopher Dodd, voted against aid package. . . . On the down-with-Amerika circuit, a big draw these days is “Cocktails with Philip Agee,” the renegade CIA agent whose newest lecture is on Nicaragua.

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■ Election post-mortem: Jesse Jack- son could be big loser in 1989 off-year elections, in which two black candidates, David Dinkins and Douglas Wilder Jr., became, respectively, first black mayor of New York City and first elected black governor of any U.S. state. Both campaigned as centrists; Evans & Novak say efforts by Wilder’s opponent, Marshall Coleman, to tab him a “liberal activist lacked credibility.” So: Is Jesse Jack- son’s inflammatory, race-oriented rhetoric going out of fashion? Will next generation of successful black politicians be moderates on the Tom Bradley, Wilder, and Dinkins model? . . . Jackson has other worries. In a number of states, notably Vermont and Maine, leaders of Rainbow Coalition are rejecting his leadership, demanding a free hand to build progressive forces outside Democratic Party. The live-wire in restive Maine Rainbow Coalition is John Case, who is also Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont district organizer for U.S. Communist Party. . . . Jackson could, however, still run for mayor of Washington, D.C. Most recent poll shows him leading corruption-prone Mayor Marion Barry 65 to 18 per cent among Democrats. . . . Rudolph Giuliani’s performance in final days of N.Y. may- oral campaign—he narrowed Dinkins’s two-digit lead to two percentage points— lends interest to possible challenge to Republican Sen. Al D’Amato next year. . . . Despite his failure to put Giuliani over the top, GOP campaign consultant Roger Ailes has been engaged to zip up staggering campaign by Rep. Lynn Martin (Ill.) to replace Paul Simon in Senate. . . . In numbers of city and state referenda, voters showed themselves to be cost-conscious. Spending initiatives were turned down in San Francisco, St. Louis, Orange County (Calif), and Texas. Comments Patrick McGuigan, of the Washington newsletter Initiative and Referendum Report: “The electorate looks pretty conservative fiscally.” . . . But Republican hope—with reapportionment looming following 1990 census—of capturing more state legislatures foundered. Post Nov. 7, Democrats are in control of both legislative houses in 28 states, Republicans in only eight. The others (apart from Nebraska, which has only one chamber) are split. . . . Proabortion forces undoubtedly contributed to GOP defeats in both New Jersey and Virginia. Meanwhile, Media Monitor, which examined 33 news stories in first nine months of 1989 (New York Times, Washington Post, CBS, NBC, ABC), found stories reported by women were 2 to 1 pro-choice, stories reported by men 50—50 pro-choice and pro-life. But organizations most quoted on the issue were overwhelmingly pro- choice: NOW (National Organization for Women) 75 times, NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) 72 times, Planned Parenthood 40 times, for 187 total pro-choice; National Right to Life, 65 times.

■ Bad news for Daniel Ortega. A poll partially sponsored by Sandinistas El Nuevo Diario found opposition leader Violetta Chamorro leading Ortega 36 to 32 per cent among registered voters, with 32 per cent undecided, for February 25 election. Poll the following week, partially sponsored by Mrs. Chamorro’s La Prensa, but also by Miami Herald and La Nation (Costa Rica), showed she had widened lead to impressive 44 to 18 per cent. But recent State Department cable questions Sandinista voterregistration procedures. Government obstructionism, it says, “is depriving tens of thousands of potential voters” from casting their ballots. . . . Carlos Denton of Gallup organization in Costa Rica, which conducted earlier poll, found that “hundreds of Miskito Indians” were denied access to registration booths and said opposition poll watchers were hindered in monitoring registration procedures. . . . Amnesty International has accused Sandinistas of killing unarmed peasants in recent unprovoked operations against Contras. . . . Meanwhile, Secretary of State James Baker has accused Ortega & Co. of continuing arms shipments to the rebel FMLN forces in El Salvador. Human Events quotes Baker: “We know from discussions with the driver [of a truck stopped on the Honduran border ten days or so ago, that the East-bloc arms he carried] had come from Nicaragua and were going to the FMLN.” Baker stopped short of blaming USSR for shipping arms to Nicaragua in the first place. . . . Communist People’s Daily World was outraged that 21 Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader George Mitchell and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell, voted for continued “humanitarian aid” to Contras. Among the 21 was freshman Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. His Connecticut colleague, Christopher Dodd, voted against aid package. . . . On the down-with-Amerika circuit, a big draw these days is “Cocktails with Philip Agee,” the renegade CIA agent whose newest lecture is on Nicaragua.