Last of Its Kind - First of This Kind:

Scott Crass

Description

It was a tale of two cycles. The 1990 Senate election landscape rewarded popular incumbents and was largely devoid of national themes. There were colorful, headline grabbing moments and a near-shocker or two yet all but one Senator seeking another term was granted it. The 1992 landscape had no such clarity. A downward economy sparked the call for new ideas and backlash from the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill sexual harassment hearings started a furious movement that led to the “Year of the Woman.” Both themes converged to set the stage for “change.” The precursor was an unexpected race in Pennsylvania between those two cycles that, but for a plane crash would not have happened. This book profiles the most competitive races of those cycles. Readers will become acquainted with the issues, personalities and the men and women who personified the status quo, change and everything in between.

Sujets

• Elections
• Biography
• Politics
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669827955
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

LAST OF ITS KIND - FIRST OF THIS KIND:
 
Early 1990s Senate Campaigns - Transformed from Ordinary to Calls for More Women & Change
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SCOTT CRASS
 
Copyright © 2022 by Scott Crass.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-2796-2

eBook
978-1-6698-2795-5
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 07/21/2022
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
842393
Table of Contents
Prologue
Dedication
Chapter 1     One For The Ages: Helms’ Unrestrained, Racially Tinged Attacks Thwarted Gantt’s Chances of Becoming North Carolina’s First African-American Senator
Chapter 2     The Hatfield Magic In Oregon Enough For Longtime Pol To Stave Off Complacency And Late Surge From Lonsdale
Chapter 3     Wellstone’s Energy, Altruism and Boschwitz’s Missteps Made Him Only Challenger To Win Senate Seat In 1990
Chapter 4     Basketball Star Bradley Nearly Let The Ball Get Away In Squeaker Against Little Known Whitman
Chapter 5     Simon, The Frontrunner Throughout Expected Close Race With Martin But Authenticity Seals The Deal
Chapter 6     In Defeating Tauke, Harkin Became First Iowa Democrat To Win Second Term
Chapter 7     Rhode Islanders Shrugged Off Questions of Pell’s Effectiveness To Rebuke Schneider’s Call To Look Toward Future
Chapter 8     Akaka’s Special Election Win Over Saiki Preserved Hawaii’s Strong Democratic Tendencies
Chapter 9     Republican Nebraska Was No Hindrance For Exon’s Grandfatherly Demeanor In Race Against “Pit-Bill” Daub
Chapter 10   Kerry Had Unexpected Scare Ala Dukakis’s Low Approvals and Rappaport’s Big Money
Chapter 11    McConnell’s First Re-election Proved His Staying Power and Solidified His Ruthlessness
Chapter 12   In 1990, South Dakotans Sent Pressler A Warning Sign That Their Elvis Had Left the Building
Chapter 13   Coats Made Strong Enough Impression As Appointed Senator To Win Right To Complete Quayle’s Term
Chapter 14   “Harris Who” Turned Upset Senate Win Into Precursor For Bill Clinton A Year Later
Chapter 15   D’Amato Fended Off A Nest of Scorpions Following A New York Style Slugfest To Clinch Third Term
Chapter 16   Already Endangered, Specter’s Interrogation of Anita Hill Produced Race Of Political Life Against Yeakel
Chapter 17   Packwood/AuCoin Race Lived Up To Top Billing Entire Cycle
Chapter 18   Moseley-Braun Made History By Dethroning Dixon And Weathering Serious Personal Scrutiny In The Fall
Chapter 19   In California, Boxer and Feinstein’s Election Meant “The Year of the Woman” Times Two
Chapter 20   By Sending Murray To The Senate, Washington Voters Made Her The “Cinderella of the Political Scene”
Chapter 21   Ingenuous Ads and Shunning Squabbling Propelled Feingold Past Better-Known Primary Rivals and A Weak Incumbent in November
Chapter 22   Glenn Hung On But S&L Proved Sole Impediment to His Blasting Off to Fourth Term
Chapter 23   Sanford’s Determination To Become “Turnaround Terry” Thwarted By Heart Surgery At Campaign’s End
Chapter 24   Perpetual Irreverence and Gulf War Vote Tested Hollings’ Durability Against Hartnett as GOP Sought Southern Inroads
Chapter 25   Braves Fan Fowler’s Race Went Into Extra Innings As Coverdell Nipped Him In A Rare Georgia Runoff
Chapter 26   Though Gregg Prevailed, Rauh Nearly Dented The Granite State’s Staunch Republicanism
Chapter 27   Rothman-Serot Tried To Expand The Year of the Woman But Bond Took Race Seriously
 
Acknowledgements
Sources
COVER IMAGES
Top Row: Paul Simon (D-Illinois); Mark Hatfield (R-Oregon); Claiborne Pell (D-Rhode Island); Harvey Gantt (D-North Carolina); Pat Saiki (R-Hawaii)
Middle Row - Democratic female Senate candidates attend a Washington D.C. fundraiser on September 23, 1992. From Left to Right: Claire Sargent (D-Arizona), Senator Barbara Mikulski (Maryland), future Senator Patty Murray (Washington), Geri Rothman-Serot (Missouri), future Senator Carol Moseley-Braun (Illinois), Lynn Yeakel (Pennsylvania), Jean Lloyd-Jones (Iowa), future Senator Dianne Feinstein (California) and Gloria O’Dell (Kansas) Not Pictured: future Senator Barbara Boxer (California)
Bottom Row: Harris Wofford (D-Pennsylvania); Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) with Elvis; Terry Sanford (D-North Carolina); Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania)
PROLOGUE
P revious books that I have written encompassed Congressional “characters.” Each chapter was based on a specific member of either the House or Senate who had a story that needed to be told. Statesmen and Mischief Makers was a three-part series that portrayed members of Congress and governors from the eras of John F. Kennedy through Ronald Reagan. Departures on the House was my next endeavor with a different twist. It depicted members of the House of Representatives who left office in 1992. Esoteric it was but redistricting, retirements and the House Bank scandal resulted in the turnover of 110 seats and as an 18-year-old political junkie, I was fascinated. The book that immediately preceded this one was Beloved Workhorses which had an inherently positive theme. It portrayed roughly 50 House members from both parties during the early 1990s that didn’t have an enemy within. They were men and a few women (females in Congress were sparse and as you’ll see in this prologue, vastly underrepresented) who were greatly respected on both sides of the aisle. These were first-rate individuals without massive egos who were soft-spoken and truly cared about public policy.
This book is different. There are plenty of “characters,” but they fall under the theme of campaigns, not members of Congress. The time period is still between 1990 and 1992 but the place this time is not the U.S. Capitol but rather the states that sent them there. Last of Its Kind - First of This Kind is a rundown of competitive races for the United States Senate during all three of those years (a plane crash in Pennsylvania in 1991 necessitated a special election in a year that normally would have been without). Like my earlier pursuits, these Senate races occurred against the backdrop of national themes such as poor economic conditions or the “Year of the Woman.” They featured ingenuity, a new way of getting attention (usually in the form of creative ads by the candidates) and in many of these races, men and suddenly women who related directly to regular people. These cycles were also arguably the last that lacked intense polarization and ideological pigeonholing. Democrats could still win races in states that did not lean their way at the national level while the right kind of Republican, often incumbents, could hold seats in environments that were against their party, in some cases dramatically.
The cycles I profile are noteworthy too in that one served as a transition to the next - and the unexpected election in between played a big role. Consider this: 1990 was a fairly dormant cycle, at least as far as national themes were concerned. The year had several high-visibility Senate contests and the scorched earth re-election campaign of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms is exhibit one, two and three. Yet most of those races were conducted more on issues relative to their candidates’ respective states. Aside from disarray from the budget stalemate that dragged uncomfortably close to Election Day, 1990 was generally devoid of national themes. The 1991 special and 1992 regular elections offered no such thing. What transpired?
The contracting economy and Pennsylvania Democratic candidate Harris Wofford’s relentless promotion of a healthcare system put the Keystone State in the limelight during that special and his win carried that over to the Presidential landscape in 1992. Naturally, that ricocheted up and down the Democratic ballot. The Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings in October 1991 was another galvanizing event and one that was a calling for more female representation. As I’ll profile, a number of females, including seeming long-shots heeded calls to enter the races. Most were nominated and several won and that jolted the entire political world. All of those factors led to a single word: “change” and in 1992 that was the main ideal that wasn’t present two years before. Bill Clinton’s adoption of that theme at the Presidential level gave it more weight on the Democratic side while also having the effect of forcing Republican candidates to adapt to some degree. Though the number of Senators who lost in 1992 was greater than two years earlier – five as opposed to one, many other races were razor tight, and more Senators headed for the doors by simply declining to seek re-election. Frustration via gridlock was the cause for many but low approval ratings were the culprit behind convincing others to call it a career.
How do I explain my interest in this topic? My love during my pre-teen years was the presidency. I knew next to nothing about the United States Senate through age 14 in the fall of 1988 except that it was a body of a Legislative branch. Save for commercials and news coverage about the race between incumbent Democrat Senator Frank Lautenberg and R