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Subject: POLITICS=Female Candidates Got Major Boost From Contributors<
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 09:22:42 EST
Message-ID: <13.1992Nov8.092243@AmeriCast.com>

POLITICS=Female Candidates Got Major Boost From Contributors<

The record number of women elected to Congress last week were
helped to power by the extraordinary increase in funding they re-
ceived from women's political organizations.

Leaders of EMILY's List, the National Women's Political Caucus
and the Women's Campaign Fund said the surge in their membership
followed the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Clarence Tho-
mas and the allegations of sexual harrassment against him by Ani-
ta F. Hill.

EMILY'S List, which funds Democratic female candidates for House
and Senate, grew to be the biggest contributor in the 1992 cam-
paign to House and Senate candidates, giving $4.6 million as of
the Sept. 30 Federal Election Commission reports. The National
Association of Realtors, which had been the previous giant, gave
$2.4 million to candidates as of the same date.

Money Troubles for Mauro<Garry Mauro, chairman of the Clinton-
Gore campaign in Texas, had about a day to bask in the glory of
the Democratic ticket's victory. The Houston Chronicle reported
Friday that Mauro, who is Texas land commissioner, is on the
brink of bankruptcy and could be liable to the federal government
for more than $4 million in bad debt.

The timing could not be worse for Mauro, who has been mentioned
as a possible Clinton adminstration appointee.  The paper report-
ed that Mauro's trouble grew out of his participation in specula-
tive real estate deals.

Mauro, who makes about $77,000 a year as land commissioner, told
the newspaper that the debt resulted from construction of con-
venience stores in Bryan that failed as a business venture during
the mid-1980s. He said his three business partners have filed for
bankruptcy, leaving him with the debt.

A Difference of Opinion<A survey of newly elected House members
suggests they may be as gridlocked on major issues - even though
they don't want to be - as their senior colleagues have been.

Different priorities would seem to be the first problem. Most
Democratic members-elect cited jobs and health care reform as top
goals, while their Republican counterparts put deficit reduction
and congressional reform at the top of their list, according to a
survey conducted for U.S. News and World Report.  Of 110 newco-
mers elected Tuesday, a total of 77, or 70 percent, responded to
the survey.

Another problem is which congressional reforms each party's
freshmen favor. More than two-thirds of Republicans but only 2
percent of Democrats rated term limits as most important. Just
less than half of Democrats exalted campaign finance changes as a
top priority, compared to 10 percent of Republicans.

If these interparty disagreements sound familiar, don't despair.
Nearly nine of 10 members-elect surveyed said they want to "work
across party lines better than previous Congresses." -  Maralee
Schwartz>and Kenneth J. Cooper>02:15 11-08C9999-----

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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