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Subject: An Experienced Freshman Class;Diverse Group of House Newcomers Is Largest
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <70.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

An Experienced Freshman Class;Diverse Group of House Newcomers Is
Largest Since 1948<By Kenneth J. Cooper=Washington Post Staff
Writer=

The first candidates elected to the House Tuesday counted among
their number the mayor of Lexington, Ky., an African-American
woman who is a state senator and a Hispanic state senator, both
from Florida.

It was a representative slice of the freshman class of 1992, at
least 110 strong and the biggest since 1948, even larger than the
storied post-Watergate class of 1974. Nearly three of four new
members on Capitol Hill in January will arrive with experience in
government or politics, one as governor of a small state, Michael
N. Castle of Delaware. Two of five newcomers to a historically
white, male institution will be women or racial minorities.

So Lexington Mayor Scott Baesler (D), Florida Sen. Carrie Meek
(D) and Sen. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American Republican
from Miami, could stand as apt representatives of the 110.

No one could be sure how such a diverse group would reshape a
demoralized legislative body that at times this year seemed to
have lost its collective self-esteem. House leaders groped for
analogies from the past: the Class of '74 reformers who set out
to snatch power from aging southern chairmen; the Class of '64
social activists who fell into step with the Great Society.

"Many of them are already holding positions of public responsi-
bility," said House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.). "This
class, I would say, is similar to the one I joined in 1964" and
shared "unifying aspects of public policy."

Judging from its unusual composition and scattered press notices,
the incoming Class of '92 is likely to differ from either of
those predecessors.

Unlike the post-Watergate class, a predominantly Democratic one,
about 40 percent of these freshmen will be Republicans. "That
Watergate class was (almost) all Democrats. There weren't any
Republicans in it," said Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-
Ill.), a member since 1957.

About a half-dozen members of the Class of '74 have departed to
make way for the large class, including Reps.  Thomas J. Downey,
Stephen J. Solarz and Matthew F. McHugh, New York Democrats all.

Michel remembered that class for the former academics and ac-
tivists in its ranks and observed the newest one has a "more
traditional" grounding in politics.

Rather than seeking to seize power, as candidates many members of
the '92 class often talked about placing curbs on the powerful
offices they are about to occupy - advocating limits on terms,
staffs, perks and pay raises. Common Cause said 67 freshmen-elect
pledged to back changes in campaign finance laws that would, for
instance, reduce interest group contributions.

There was also campaign talk about stimulating the economy,
reducing the deficit and improving the nation's health-care sys-
tem, but consensus on those issues was no more apparent among the
newcomers than it has been among more senior lawmakers. Some
Republican newcomers argued for tax cuts to increase federal
revenue in a latter-day version of Reaganomics.  Several Demo-
cratic winners urged pub-No one could be sure how such a diverse
group would reshape a demoralized legislative body that at times
this year seemed to have lost its collective self-esteem.<

>

lic works programs to jump-start the economy in the old Keynesian
style.

Every woman in the Class of '92, irrespective of political affil-
iation, agreed on one social issue: They support abortion rights.

The 24 women, many of whom defeated men to become
representatives-elect, will bring a range of political and
government experience to Congress. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and
Tillie Fowler (R-Fla.) served as White House aides, Harman in the
Carter administration and Fowler in Nixon's. Eddie Berniece John-
son (D-Tex.) has served in the state legislature for two decades,
while Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) has sat as a county judge since
1985. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has served on New York's City
Council for a decade.

The election increased the number of women lawmakers to a record,
at least 47, with the outcomes of several close races undeter-
mined yesterday. The large increase nevertheless left women far
below representation proportional to their share of the general
population.

The numbers of African-American and Hispanic members jumped to
historic highs. The Class of '92 includes 16 blacks, all Demo-
crats, all but a few from the South and most members of the Baby
Boom generation.

Meek, state Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) and former federal judge
Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) are the first blacks their home state has
sent to Congress since Reconstruction, a milestone also set by
state Sen.  Robert Scott (D-Va.), state Sen. Earl Hilliard (D-
Ala.), former state senator Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), county commis-
sioner Eva Clayton (D-N.C.) and former state cabinet officer
James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

"I sense the hopes and prayers, the pains and fears of my ances-
tors," Clayton told the Associated Press. "And I also sense their
jubilation and joy."

Of the 16 blacks, five or nearly a third are women, a relatively
high proportion. There will be 38 African-Americans with full
voting rights in the House, still less than their proportion of
the nation's populace.

The eight new Hispanics, pushing the total with full voting
rights to 17, have heritage broadly representative of the
nation's Hispanics.

Four of the newcomers are Mexican Americans, two are Cuban Ameri-
cans and two are Puerto Ricans, including the first Puerto Rican
woman, Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.). It is also a bipartisan group
with Republicans Diaz-Balart and Henry Bonilla of Texas. State
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who doubles as mayor of Union
City, is a rare Cuban-American Democrat.

Menendez and Chicago Alderman Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a Puerto
Rican, are the first Hispanics elected to Congress from their
states.

House Democratic leaders suggested that the net increase of 17
minority Democrats could offset the party's loss of at least
seven seats. "It certainliy offsets the losses in some cases,"
Foley said, "I think the traditional Democratic position is prob-
ably strengthened."

One certain newcomer is Asian: Jay C.  Kim, Republican mayor of
Diamond Bar, Calif. Born in Seoul, Kim will become the first
Korean American to serve in Congress.

Kim, 53, is a civil engineer by training and a businessman by
trade who expresses conservative views on economics but supports
abortion rights. "I'm self-made, and I love this country," he
said in explaining his decision to run for Congress in a Southern
California district.<Staff writer George Lardner Jr. and staff
researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.<02:55
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.

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