When local means national - political trends from 1992, developments in 1993 and prospective changes for 1993 resulting from various elections - Editorial

Nation's Business, Dec, 1993

With untypical speed, the Senate took up an anti-crime bill, more than doubled the funding level, and passed the measure overwhelmingly.

The $22.3 billion approved would finance the addition of 100,000 officers to state and local law-enforcement agencies, build prisons and other penal facilities, and finance other anti-crime initiatives.

The timing was significant. The vote came two days after off-year state and local elections that spotlighted crime as one of the top issues of growing concern among voters.

While all politics might be local, according to the famous dictum of former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, the crime-bill vote showed that political currents generated in local elections can reach even such remote places as Washington, D.C.--and do so quickly.

The results of the Nov. 2 election will resonate in Washington in other ways. Along with crime, strong concern about taxes and an equally strong desire for change were principal considerations in voters' decisions.

Those sentiments are already beginning to set the tone for next year's congressional elections, and some political analysts even see the outlines of the 1996 presidential campaign beginning to emerge.

The continuing power of taxes as a critical political issue was particularly evident in New Jersey. Incumbent Gov. James Florio was denied re-election after a campaign centering on a record tax increase imposed at his bidding and the tax-cut pledge of his victorious opponent, Republican Christine Todd Whitman.

Texas voters took into their own hands the power to decide whether an income tax should ever be imposed. As a result of a measure that gained landslide approval, no such tax can be implemented without approval of the electorate.

In Virginia, Republican George Allen won an overwhelming victory after pledging to deny parole to violent criminals and to veto any legislative efforts to raise sales or income taxes. In New York City, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1, a former federal prosecutor with a strong law-and-order image became the city's first GOP mayor-elect in 20 years.

Washington state voters approved a provision for life imprisonment without parole for criminals convicted of a third felony, a provision that the U.S. Senate quickly added to the pending federal crime bill. The power of the crime issue was dramatically evident in California, the birthplace of the tax revolt, when voters agreed to retain a sales-tax increase dedicated to public safety. Of four bond issues, Texans approved only the one providing $1 billion to build prisons. The action involves the possibility of higher taxes not only to pay off the bonds but also to operate the institutions.

In addition to the changes manifest in the election results-- winners in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City all beat candidates of the incumbent party--voters indicated their displeasure with the political status quo in other ways.

Term limits were imposed on elected state officials in Maine and city officials in New York, adding impetus to a growing national movement.

A state constitutional amendment approved in New Jersey will enable voters to recall their elected officials at all levels of government after one year. A recall vote must be scheduled if 25 percent of registered voters sign a petition to that effect.

In San Francisco, long a bastion of benevolent liberalism, voters endorsed anti-fraud moves aimed at welfare recipients.

The overall results of the 1993 elections obviously do not constitute a broad referendum on major national issues, but they do provide enough substance to give national lawmakers both a warning and an opportunity.

Voters want tax and spending restraint. They want forceful action against crime, and they want more accountability from their elected officials.