Triumph of the Status Quo

By Richard Stengel

Three Democrats triumphed in traditionally Republican Virginia, and the party crowed. A Republican Governor waltzed to re-election in predominantly Democratic New Jersey, and the G.O.P. cheered. Incumbent mayors, regardless of party, breezed to victories just about everywhere and were smugly confident.

In an era of good feeling and continued prosperity, voters in last week's humdrum off-year elections thumped for the status quo. New Jersey's Republican Governor Tom Kean, who won by only 1,797 votes four years ago, crushed his young Democratic challenger, Peter Shapiro. In a state where just 20% of the voters identify themselves as Republicans, Kean won more than 70% of the vote and every major city and district. The G.O.P., hitching a ride on the Kean juggernaut, achieved a majority in the state assembly for the first time in more than a decade.

While Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf boasted that Kean's victory "destroys the old Democratic coalition," others argued that it was simply a vote of confidence for an amiable Governor who had turned New Jersey's $500 million deficit into a $600 million surplus and reduced the state unemployment rate from 9% to 5%. " Kean, who has approved the withdrawal of New Jersey investments from companies doing business in South Africa, won more than 60% of the black vote and was endorsed by the state's AFL-CIO. In what may become a model for moderate Republicans, the Governor preaches and practices the politics of inclusion: if the G.O.P. wants to become the majority party, he suggests, it must reach out to groups it has excluded.

Democrats got their own back in Virginia, where they won a sweep of the races for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and attorney general. Governor-elect Gerald Baliles, a lackluster former attorney general, is a protege of popular current Democratic Governor Chuck Robb, who was barred by law from another term. Some suggested that Baliles was simply a stand-in for Robb, Lyndon Johnson's son-in-law and a founder of the conservative Democratic Leadership Council.

L. Douglas Wilder's victory as Lieutenant Governor marked the first time a black has won a state-wide office in the South since Reconstruction, and it made Wilder, 54, the highest-ranking black state official in the U.S. It was a deeply satisfying achievement for the polished lawyer who had once worked as a busboy at an all-white club frequented by Virginia legislators. New Attorney General Mary Sue Terry became Virginia's first woman to be elected to statewide office. Paul G. Kirk, the Democratic national chairman, took the results as an omen: "The unified Virginia ticket," he said, "proved that diversity within the Democratic Party can once again be a strength."

In the races for mayor, the Incumbency Party captured the majority nearly everywhere. New York City's flamboyant Ed Koch joined Fiorello La Guardia (1934-45) and Robert Wagner (1954-65) as the Big Apple's only other three-term mayor in this century. Detroit's Coleman Young was re-elected to his fourth term and Cleveland's Republican Mayor George Voinovich was returned for his third term in a predominantly Democratic town. All three cities are enjoying economic revivals. Incumbent mayors also won easily in Minneapolis, Seattle, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Hartford.

In Houston a present incumbent whipped a past one. Kathy Whitmire, Houston's first woman mayor, a no-nonsense former accountant who runs the city like a large corporation, breezed to her third two-year term by defeating a former five-term mayor and chamber of commerce president, Louie Welch. Welch attempted to make Whitmire's support from the homosexual community a campaign issue, but it backfired when he remarked that one way to get rid of AIDS was to "shoot the queers."

In Miami the rise of Cuban political power led to the fall of Puerto Rican-born Mayor Maurice Ferre in a blustery eleven-man race. For the past twelve years Ferre had adroitly managed to hold together a coalition of Miami's black, Hispanic and white voters. He lost black support when he pushed out black City Manager Howard Gary last year; Cubans, who now compose 36% of Miami's electorate, also turned out in large numbers against him. After a close race in which outrageous charges and name-calling were routine, two Cuban-born candidates, Raul Masvidal and Xavier Suarez, were left to battle it out in a runoff this week. --By Richard Stengel. Reported by Joseph N. Boyce/New York and Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta

With reporting by Reported by Joseph N. Boyce/New York, Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta