Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post
Newsgroups: americast.wpost
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: ARIZONA<The closeness of the presidential race in Arizona was a measure of
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <31.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

ARIZONA<The closeness of the presidential race in Arizona was a
measure of Bush's weakness nationwide.

In this traditional home of conservative Republicanism, Bush
barely defeated Clinton, 39 percent to 37 percent, to take
Arizona's eight electoral votes. The president's lead had been
considered tenuous enough to warrant a visit from former
president Ronald Reagan late last week. Perot's unusually strong
showing, with 24 percent of the popular vote, suggested a discon-
tent with the status quo that was reflected only spottily in
congressional voting.

Sen. John McCain (R), one of the "Keating Five" whose relation-
ships with a savings and loan executive were the subject of an
ethics investigation, easily outpolled Claire Sargent, the Demo-
cratic nominee. Evan Mecham, a Republican governor who was im-
peached  and removed in 1988, came in third, with 11 percent of
the vote.

The House delegation, now lopsided with four Republicans and one
Democrat, will be one seat larger and evenly split between the
parties next session.

Sam Coppersmith, a Democratic lawyer from Phoenix, ousted Rep.
John J. Rhodes III, the Republican incumbent who was nearly de-
feated in the primary. In the newly created 6th District, Karan
English, a Democratic first-term state senator, handily defeated
Doug Wead, an Assemblies of God minister who moved to Arizona two
years ago after serving as liaison to the religious right for
Bush. The four other incumbents - three Republicans and one Demo-
crat - were reelected.<

NEW MEXICO<New Mexico, which had voted for Republican presiden-
tial candidates for the last 28 years, this year gave its five
electoral votes to Clinton, thanks in part to the Democrat's
strong showing among Hispanics.

Despite last-minute campaigning from Reagan, Bush got only 37
percent of the popular vote.  Clinton, who included New Mexico in
his cross-country blitz the morning before the election, took 46
percent, and Perot, 17 percent.

There was not, however, any detectable anti-incumbent mood in the
House elections. All three members of the delegation - two Repub-
licans and one Democrat - kept their seats, with margins of vic-
tory ranging from 12 percent to 37 percent. Neither senator, nor
the governor, was up for reelection.

OKLAHOMA<There were few surprises in Oklahoma, which has not vot-
ed Democratic in a presidential contest since 1964 and whose
eight electoral votes were written off early by the Clinton cam-
paign in this traditionally conservative state.

Bush captured 43 percent of the vote, a 9 percent advantage over
Clinton, while Perot's 23 percent fell only 11 points off the
Democratic president-elect's mark.

Sen.  Don Nickles (R), who felt secure enough in his bid for a
third term to accept the fractious role of chairman of the Repub-
lican platform committee, rolled up a 59 percent to 38 percent
victory over his Democratic challenger, former state representa-
tive Steve Lewis. Nickles increased his margin by 4 percentage
points over his last Senate reelection bid.

None of the five incumbents in the state's six congressional dis-
tricts was ousted, and the current House split of four Democrats
and two Republicans was retained.

With redistricting making Tulsa County's 1st District even more
Republican this year, Rep. James M. Inhofe (R) overcame personal
financial difficulties and won a 53 percent to 47 percent victory
over Democrat John Selph, a Tulsa County commissioner with strong
ties to the business community.

TEXAS<Texas gave its 32 electoral votes to Bush, as expected, but
by a much narrower margin than the president, who outspent Clin-
ton on direct media outlays by $3.5 million to a meager $50,000,
might have anticipated. The narrowness of Bush's 40 percent to 37
percent edge was attributed to Perot's 22 percent showing in his
home state, drawn largely from the vote-heavy Dallas-Fort Worth
corridor, and in Houston, where Bush had rolled up comfortable
pluralities four years ago.

In Texas's 30 House races, Democrats captured 21 seats to nine
for Republican candidates, a net gain of two seats that resulted,
in part, from the addition of three congressional seats in redis-
tricting aimed at achieving more equitable vote balances for
Democratic Party-leaning Hispanics.

In the face of nationwide anti-Washington and anti-incumbent
preelection fever, sitting House members were reelected in 26 of
the state's 27 existing congressional districts, with Rep. Albert
G. Bustamante (D) being the only incumbent casualty, in the San
Antonio-Laredo 23rd District.

Bustamante, who has represented his poor, mostly Hispanic border
district since 1985, was defeated, 61 percent to 39 percent, by
Republican Henry Bonilla, a Hispanic television executive who
focused voter attention on Bustamante's House Bank overdrafts and
on an as yet inconclusive three-year investigation of Bustamante
by a federal grand jury.  However, other Democratic incumbents
endangered by alleged improprieties, including Reps. Ronald D.
Coleman and Charles Wilson, were reelected by comfortable mar-
gins.< - William Claiborne, David Brown>and Elizabeth Hud-
son>02:23 11-05C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)