Republican victories move Senate to the right

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 9, 1996 | by Michael Rust

Majority Leader Trent Lott, who was Newt Gingrich's mentor before election to the Senate, has moved into the spotlight. The mood is one of cooperation, but a conservative Senate is like to be proactive.

The political winds seem to be blowing from one side of the Capitol to the other. For two years, attention has focused on the House of Representatives, where Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican majority first confronted and then cooperated with the Clinton administration. Now, sensitive political noses are twitching as the balance of power suddenly seems to be shifting toward the

Some politicians are following. Eight members of the House - four Republicans and four Democrats - are moving to the other side of the Capitol, where the GOP majority already has a strong cadre of House alumni, starting with Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was Gingrich's mentor in the House before being elected to the Senate.

"You've got more of a dynamic with these House members going over there," says Marty Dannenfelser, director of government relations for the Family Research Council, a bastion of social conservatism. Republicans Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas, Colorado's Wayne Allard, Kansas, Sam Brown-back and Pat Roberts will be joining Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum, who made the jump from House to Senate two years ago. "This should produce a more energetic crew [in the Senate]; they're used to a more proactive mode in the House," says Dannenfelser.

But just how energetic is Dannenfelser talking? Is it enough to cause uneasiness at the White House? "I don't think the Senate being more conservative necessarily means that it won't be more cooperative with the White House," Hutchinson tells Insight. "I don't think those are mutually exclusive." At the same time, Hutchinson, a former Baptist minister, owner of a Christian radio station and the first Republican senator from Arkansas since the Reconstruction era, says the Senate is "demonstrably more conservative."

And if incoming Republicans are more conservative, they also seem to be moving faster than the average junior senator. Sources on Capitol Hill say rule changes scheduled to go into effect next year may make it easier for junior senators to obtain subcommittee chairmanships. GOP members of the "class of '94" such as Santorum and Missouri's John Ashcroft almost certainly will chair subcommittees, but it also is possible that some incoming senators, including Hutchinson and Brownback, will be awarded such cherished posts.

So in January the new Senate will be slightly less familiar, slightly more Republican, slightly more conservative and slightly more ideological. Slightly more expensive, too, with a new record for party spending on Senate races. The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent a reported $54 million to keep control of the Senate, while their Democratic counterparts poured about $24 million into their races.

The four former GOP congressmen will be joined in the Senate by former House Democrats Bob Torricelli of New Jersey, Rhode Islands Jack Reed, Illinois, Richard Durbin and South Dakota's Tim Johnson. Substantial political experience also is the norm for other incoming senators; for all the voter dissatisfaction, 1996 was not a year for political outsiders. Georgia Democrat Max Cleland, a triple-amputee veteran of the Vietnam war, served as director of the Veterans Administration during the presidency of his fellow Georgian, Jimmy Carter. Mary Landrieu, the Democrat who edged past conservative Republican Woody Jenkins to win Louisiana's Senate seat, bears a name prominent in Louisiana politics - her father was mayor of New Orleans. Wyoming's Mike Enzi, a bespectacled accountant who linked Democrat Kathy Karpan with the policies of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, is a 10-year veteran of the Wyoming Legislature. In Alabama, Attorney General Jeff Sessions of the GOP is replacing Democrat Howell Hellin. Oregon Republican Gordon Smith has been president of the state Senate and came within 1 percentage point of holding Bob Packwood's seat early this year.

Perhaps the closest thing to an "outsider" victory came in Nebraska, where millionaire investment banker Chuck Hagel came from behind to defeat popular Democratic Gov. Ben Nelson to replace retiring Sen. James Exon. Hagel, a decorated Vietnam veteran and former Reagan administration official, had trailed Nelson by well over 20 points but closed the gap by Election Day.

Of the eight incoming Republicans, only one - Susan Collins of Maine - probably would draw a raised eyebrow from conservative activists. A supporter of abortion rights and gun control, Collins narrowly defeated former Gov. Joseph Brennan to win the seat of retiring GOP Sen. William Cohen. While Cohen had won plaudits from conservatives for his defense and intelligence views, overall, he was regarded as a moderate with a lifetime 48 percent rating from the American Conservative Union. The other seven new Republicans all actively were supported by conservative elements with in their state parties. And Washington conservatives are rubbing their hands with delight.