And they’re off! First Republican to enter ring for Alan Cranston’s Senate seat in California is Rep. Thomas Campbell, a liberal on affirmative action and abortion. Conservative TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn is expected to enter race, as might Rep. Bob Dornan. . . . White House is putting heavy pressure on Gov. Carroll Campbell of South Carolina to run against Sen. Fritz Hollings next year. Hollings’s vote against Gulf War was badly received in his home state, which hosts three major military installations: the Charleston naval base, Fort Jackson (an infantry training base), and Sumter Field. . . . In Connecticut, where the battle over Gov. Lowell Weicker’s proposed 6 per cent income tax is heating up, Weicker’s personal popularity has plummeted from 57 excellent/good in January to 28 in late March. … In New Jersey, Hackensack Record poll finds $2-billion-in-new-taxes Gov. Jim Florio with diminishing popularity: 17 excellent/good and 48 poor. . . . Chalk up significant victory for GOP Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts, who persuaded Democratic legislature to repeal a new and unpopular 5 per cent state sales tax on a wide range of services. . . . Palm Beach scandal could put paid to political ambitions of yet another scion of Camelot, Michael Kennedy, younger brother of Rep. Joseph Kennedy II (D., Mass.). Michael was considering a race, also in Massachusetts, against gay activist Rep. Gerry Studds. . . . Four months into office, noisy far-left freshman Sen. Paul Wellstone (D., Minn.) carries a 35 per cent approval rating, 14 points behind other Minnesota senator, Dave Durenberger (R.), who was reprimanded by Senate ethics committee in January. . . . Kevin Phillips postulates that large-scale resignations by House Democrats who can retire in 1992 and pocket campaign kitties, plus new open seats from redistricting, could mean up to 75 vacant seats in next election.
Washington Post analysis of research findings suggests “many once-loyal Democratic voters in the white working class now see civil-rights legislation and leaders as advocating special preferences instead of equal opportunity.” . . . Thomas B. Edsall, in The Atlantic Monthly, finds Democrats responsible for new polarization of voters based on race issues. Edsall says most Americans see link between race policies and higher taxes, social dysfunction, increasing crime rates, and welfare dependency. . . . U.S. now spends four times more on welfare than the entire budget under Lyndon Johnson. . . . According to McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, since World War II every new dollar in taxes has been matched by $1.52 in federal spending. . . . Paul Taylor reports in Washington Post that “in 1990, the family that earned $21,500—one-half of the median family income—paid 23 per cent of its income in federal, state, and Social Security taxes. In 1948, the family earning half the median income paid just 2 per cent of its income in those taxes.” . . . The steady shrinking in union membership continues. In 1990 organized labor represented 16.1 per cent of the work force, down from 35 per cent in peak union year of 1954. There were only 45 major strikes in 1990, down from an average of 350 during the Sixties, heyday of George Meany.
Comments