Random Walk

Jim Carville has stopped returning my phone calls—and just a few weeks ago he was calling me almost daily with the news that Jim Florio’s trouncing of Christine Whitman would sound the death knell of supply-side economics. The Good Ole Boy even promised to console me with a glass or two of my favorite Veuve Clicquot. Well, hee-haw, Jim.

But the real shock would have been if Florio had won. Since 1990 eight pro-tax incumbent governors (five of whom were Republicans) have been de-elected. Three other tax hikers chose not to run again rather than face certain defeat. On the state level the Carville-Florio-Clinton strategy has an unblemished record: it has lost virtually everywhere it has been tried.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Ronald Reagan

Jim Carville has stopped returning my phone calls—and just a few weeks ago he was calling me almost daily with the news that Jim Florio’s trouncing of Christine Whitman would sound the death knell of supply-side economics. The Good Ole Boy even promised to console me with a glass or two of my favorite Veuve Clicquot. Well, hee-haw, Jim.

But the real shock would have been if Florio had won. Since 1990 eight pro-tax incumbent governors (five of whom were Republicans) have been de-elected. Three other tax hikers chose not to run again rather than face certain defeat. On the state level the Carville-Florio-Clinton strategy has an unblemished record: it has lost virtually everywhere it has been tried.