Not Much of a Pattern Either

By Russ Hoyle

In dozens of local ballots, voters are of several minds

In cities and towns across the country last week, voters were in an unpredictable and slightly cranky mood. In tiny (population: 1,200) Enoch, Utah, Mayor Worth Grimshaw was re-elected handily only days after he was jailed for demolishing his 1962 Chevy with an ax so that his ex-wife would not gain custody of the car. In Kingston, N.Y., Mayor Donald Quick won his race despite campaign accusations that he had fixed parking tickets. Voters of Belmont County, Ohio, elected Wayne Hays, 70, who resigned from Congress in 1976 after the Liz Ray sex scandal, to the county board of education. So idiosyncratic or cynical were voters that even Mayor Grimshaw was chastened. "What worries me," he remarked, reflecting on the car-bashing episode, "is that some people voted for me after that who hadn't intended to before."

If there is any message in the way voters responded to this year's ballot initiatives and local races, it seems to be that, at a time of cutbacks in federal spending, many Americans want their local governments run efficiently, and never mind how, so long as the price does not come out of their hides. There were exceptions: in New York State, voters narrowly approved a $500 million bond issue for prison construction, and in New Jersey they supported $350 million in bonds to improve the state's water supply. But generally the electorate shied from proposals that would have added to their tax burden. They frequently turned back measures that would have handed more power to politicians. West Virginians, for example, refused a $750 million bond issue backed by Democratic Governor Jay Rockefeller for state highway improvement, thus delivering a slap to Rockefeller's well-known presidential aspirations. In Kentucky, voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have abolished the state's one-term limit on state officeholders, including the governorship. Democratic Governor John Y. Brown, who has presidential hopes of his own, considered the vote a personal rebuke. Said he: "Government is wasteful and the public doesn't trust it. They were fearful they would have a Governor who would abuse the office." Brown's supporters had spent over $175,000 on a media campaign to sell the amendment.

The electorate's faith in government was tested in other states as well. A measure calling for dismissal of striking county employees passed 2 to 1 in San Diego. In Washington State, a proposal to give voters a voice in approving public power projects passed by a vote of 495,013 to 356,784, throwing into doubt a $23.9 billion, five-reactor nuclear power system that has been under construction since 1973. The decision, which may be challenged in court by the Washington Public Power Supply System bondholders, would limit the rights of municipalities to issue revenue bonds for power plants without voter approval. The repercussions are sure to be closely scrutinized by pro-nuclear advocates within the Reagan Administration.

In Ohio, voters chose to continue the state's monopoly on the sale of workers' compensation insurance, rejecting a $4.3 million promotional blitz by the insurance industry. In Texas a plan that would have set aside half of the state's surplus revenues for water projects was defeated 57.4% to 42.5%, despite the backing of powerful Texas politicians. Opponents, including the League of Women Voters, teachers' groups and environmentalists, charged that the measure amounted to a blank check and circumvented normal budgetary processes.

A controversial initiative in Washington, D.C., that would have provided tax breaks for students wishing to attend private schools was resoundingly defeated. The proposal, which would have allowed credits of up to $1,200 against District of Columbia income taxes for tuition, was opposed on the grounds that it would drain the city treasury and only further damage the already strapped District of Columbia school system. Senator Daniel P. Moynihan of New York, who has been a leading proponent of tuition tax credits. criticized the plan as a "caricature" because of the large sums involved. President Reagan favors the tuition tax credits, and conservatives had hoped that a win would put to rest fears that the scheme would harm minority students most.

Only in the older big cities did voters behave predictably, sweeping well-established incumbents back into office on promises of fiscal toughness and economic revitalization. New York Mayor Ed Koch won a second term virtually unopposed (he was endorsed by both the Democratic and Republican parties) despite some heavy criticism for insensitivity to minorities. Boasted Koch grandly: "I am mayor of all the people." Coleman Young of Detroit, elected the city's first black mayor in 1973, marched to a landslide third-term victory over a virtually unknown opponent; the winner offered only equivocal support for a defeated measure that would have legalized casino gambling and helped fill the coffers of his financially strapped city. Among the other incumbent mayors re-elected were Republicans George Voinovich of Cleveland and Margaret Hance of Phoenix, and Democrats Richard Caliguiri of Pittsburgh, Donald Eraser of Minneapolis and Charles Royer of Seattle. Former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane, a Democrat, returned to office with 66% of the vote. In Hartford, Conn., Democratic State Representative Thirman L. Milner, 48, easily defeated two opponents to become the first elected black mayor of a major New England city. The moderate and low-keyed Milner, a former New York civil rights worker who effectively mobilized Hartford's large black and Hispanic population, had earlier unseated five-term Incumbent George Athanson in a series of grueling primaries.

Key mayoral races in two fast-growing Sun Belt cities remain to be decided in weeks to come. The front runners amply reflect the preoccupations of the Reagan era. Houston Controller Kathryn Whitmire, 35, is running against another Democrat, Harris County Sheriff Jack Heard, on a platform of sound fiscal management. In Miami, where an influx of Caribbean refugees and a burgeoning drug trade have caused a paroxysm of violent crime, Cuban-born Challenger Manolo Reboso, 46, is counting on heavy Cuban support to unseat four-term Incumbent Maurice Ferre. Reboso is an outspoken admirer of the late Nicaraguan Dictator Anastasio Somoza and was a leader of Democrats supporting Reagan. Perhaps the most direct, if quixotic, challenge to Reagan Administration policies came in a nonbinding referendum in Boston. Proposed was an increase in "quality education, public transportation, energy-efficient housing and other essential services--by reducing the amount of our tax dollars spent on nuclear weapons and programs of foreign military intervention." It passed by a comfortable margin.

--By Russ Hoyle

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