40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan
(4 of 7)
The most startling Democratic Senate triumphs came in the South. In Louisiana, Congressman W. Henson Moore had seemed a good bet to become the first Republican Senator to represent the state in this century, but Breaux closed in on him in the final weeks of campaigning. In Alabama and Georgia, class of '80 Senators Jeremiah Denton and Mack Mattingly each blew enormous early leads and lost to Democratic Congressmen Richard Shelby and Wyche Fowler, respectively. North Carolina Republican Senator James Broyhill, who took over John East's seat after East's suicide last summer, was upset by Terry Sanford, the former Governor and Duke University president. The black vote may have been the deciding factor in these close contests. ABC News exit polls indicated that in each of the four states, more than 90% of the black voters chose the Democrats.
The one Southern Democratic triumph that surprised no one occurred in Florida, where the hapless Paula Hawkins, a first-term Republican who has compared herself to Joan of Arc, was clobbered by Governor Bob Graham, a fairly conservative Democrat who projects a more down-home image. Since summer, Hawkins had trailed by as much as 20 points in some polls.
The West was also a disappointment for the G.O.P. In California, Democratic Incumbent Alan Cranston, a probusiness liberal, narrowly defeated Republican Congressman Ed Zschau, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur for whom Reagan made three campaign appearances. In Washington, the President may have helped Brock Adams, Jimmy Carter's Secretary of Transportation, beat class of '80 Republican Slade Gorton; on a Halloween campaign stop, Reagan refused to assure voters that a national nuclear-waste site would not be created in their state. Retiring Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, a Republican presidential hopeful, had to endure the embarrassment of seeing his handpicked, would-be successor, Jim Santini, lose to Democratic Congressman Harry Reid. By contrast, Colorado's Gary Hart, who also retired from the Senate with an eye toward a presidential race, was replaced by his friend Tim Wirth, a bright neoliberal Democrat who has been a leader in pushing high-tech issues.
If Reagan's policies were an issue anywhere, it was in the Midwestern heartland, where farmers have been facing rising foreclosures because of low prices, bad debts and depressed exports. In South Dakota, Democratic Congressman Tom Daschle focused his criticism of Senator Jim Abdnor on the freshman Republican's support for Reagan's 1985 farm bill. Kent Conrad, North Dakota's Democratic state tax commissioner, used the same strategy against another class of '80 incumbent, Mark Andrews. Both Democrats won narrow victories. Six other G.O.P. incumbents won in the Farmbelt, however, and Missouri's Bond, who edged out Lieutenant Governor Harriett Woods, became the only Republican to pick up a Democratic Senate seat (Incumbent Thomas Eagleton is retiring).
In the East, two members of the class of '80 -- New York's D'Amato and Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter -- swept to easy victories. Democrats picked up one seat in the region, that of retiring Maryland Republican Charles Mathias. Barbara Mikulski, a populist fighter who practically defines the word feisty, wiped out former Reagan Aide Linda Chavez.