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Even G.O.P. Congressman Steven Symms, who beat Church by only 1% of the vote, feels that the New Right turned out to be a "wash." At first, he says, "they put the incumbent on the defensive, but eventually people became indifferent to them. They had no impact at the wire. The bottom line is that the same thing that elected Reagan elected me." Agrees Bayh: "With a couple of points off the inflation rate and a point off the unemployment rate, we'd have made N.C.P.A.C. look like the size of a pea."
Colorado Senator Gary Hart believes his narrow victory shows that a Democrat can beat back a New Right challenge. "I was not perceived as a knee-jerk ideologue," he says. "I did have a positive policy on defense."
Dolan has already named his targets for 1982. Among them: Ted Kennedy, who is given only a 6.5% conservative voting rating by N.C.P.A.C.; Michigan Senator Donald Riegle with a 7.75% rating; and Ohio's Howard Metzenbaum with 8.25%. But the group also includes some moderate and even hawkish Democrats: Texas' Lloyd Bentsen, New York's Pat Moynihan and Washington's Henry Jackson. Even a few Republicans have made the list: Vermont's Robert Stafford, Rhode Island's John Chafee, Connecticut's Lowell Weicker.
N.C.P.A.C. plans to start an advertising campaign against the offending Senators as early as next March, and estimates it will spend twice as much as in the past campaign. It also intends to spend more time and money on House races; its members are now searching the hustings for conservatives to challenge incumbents.
But in 1982 the New Right will find its opponents prepared. "I'm not surprised to be on N.C.P.A.C.'s list," says Kennedy, "but I'm not intimidated either. I'm looking forward to the campaign." Says Jackson: "I just laugh. I get on all kinds of lists. Most of the time I've been on the lists of the far left. Now I'm right in the middle, where politicians strive to be."
Missouri's Eagleton, who was also targeted but won re-election handily, believes that N.C.P.A.C.'s tactics helped him. He is now preparing a report on how Democrats can fight back. The defeated McGovern is forming a Common Sense Coalition to battle the right-wing forces. Says Cranston: "We'll have a body of information to pass on to those who face the next assault."
Dolan acknowledges that it will be tougher to topple liberals in 1982 because most come from heavily populated states where the organization's funds will not have as much impact as the conservatives feel they did in Idaho and South Dakota. The N.C.P.A.C. had no success in California this election trying to dislodge Cranston, the Democratic whip in the Senate.
Whatever the immediate effect of the