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Election 2002: Six Scoops of Vanilla
By Mike Bayham
September 12, 2002

If politics were ice cream, this would be a bad year for "rocky road" and a great time to be "vanilla." The midterm congressional elections for 2002 have not been kind to, how can I put it, the bipartisan "controversy" caucus... and we are still in the primaries. So far four congressional incumbents have failed in their attempts to be renominated by their own party and two Democratic front-runners were denied what at one point seemed to be inevitable endorsements by their party.

In New York, Andrew Cuomo was forced out of the race for the gubernatorial nod on the eve of the primary when it became apparent that he was going to lose. In Florida, Clinton administration lightning rod Janet Reno was defeated in an upset for the Democratic nomination for governor. Taking a page out of her old boss Vice-president Gore's political playbook, Reno has stated that she is going to protest the election for voting irregularities even though she lost decisively to a fellow Democrat.

As we approach the beginning of the general election campaign when both Republicans and Democrats will make the transition from attacking members of their own party to attacking their opponents in the other party, the list of political casualties from the primaries is remarkable.

In Georgia, political opposites Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney were both defeated for their respective party nominations. And while congressional reapportionment had much to contribute to their demise, the wounds that proved most mortal to their continued stay in Congress were inflicted with their razor tongues and fiery rhetoric.

Bob Barr was the favorite of the GOP's most conservative-libertarian crowd. He was the most prominent leader in the drive to impeach and remove President Bill Clinton from office and remained in the political spotlight after the rest of the impeachment advocates had shuffled off the political stage. Possibly for overstaying his time, the voters decided to give Barr the hook. One amusing tactic by Barr's considerably more bland rival was having a person dressed up as cartoon character Yosemite Sam appear at Barr rallies.

Barr's most recent cause was fighting many of the homeland security measures that President Bush proposed to give more authority to Federal agencies.

In the case of McKinney, she had the misfortune of angering both sides of the political spectrum by engaging in finger pointing in the aftermath of September 11th and for her pro-Palestinian positions. Because Georgia does not have party registration, Republican voters, motivated by her negative comments about President Bush, were able to participate in the Democratic primary and contribute to McKinney's defeat. McKinney's father bluntly put the blame for her defeat on Jewish political groups who had targeted her and Alabama Congressman Earl Hilliard in the Democratic primaries.

Personally, I was cheering for both Cuomo and Reno because they were the easiest candidates for Pataki and Jeb Bush to defeat in November. A number of Democrats saw this as well and voted to save their party's hopes in winning the two races. McKinney's renomination would have kept a radical mouthpiece prominently in the Democratic Party and Barr's loss removes from the Republican Party one of the few politicians that was ready, willing, and able to battle the Democrats in rhetorical duels.

Machiavellian politics aside, the most disappointing primary election took place in New Hampshire yesterday when two term Republican US Senator Bob Smith was defeated for renomination.

Of all of the Republicans in the US Senate, Bob Smith practically mirrored my political philosophy. Smith is a staunch pro-life, pro-second amendment, and pro-national sovereignty politician who is also genuinely concerned about the environment and has endorsed reasonable proposals concerning this foreign land for most Republicans.

Though he was chastised for "deserting" the GOP in 1999, his brief defection did not alter the control of the body since he maintained his support for the GOP in terms of organization, unlike the nefarious Jim Jeffords. Smith decided to return to the Republican fold and campaigned for Bush in the general election. It should be remembered that the Granite State had gone Democrat in 1992 and 1996 and with Bush's 2000 margin being very narrow in New Hampshire, Smith's support helped push his one time rival over the top.

But in some Republican circles, Smith may as well have never come back. The country club crowd, who I bet would welcome a prodigal Jeffords back with open arms with all previous sins forgiven, never recognized Smith's contributions to the party and his very real grievances. But Smith is a conservative and his browbeating of the moderate (and controlling) wing of the GOP was unpardonable.

On Tuesday evening, Smith paid a heavy price for speaking his mind (and for that matter, the truth) about the state of affairs in the post-Dole/pre-W Republican Party. Being the big picture person he is, Smith did not hesitate in announcing his support for the same man who trashed him in the primary and pledged to do his part to keep his US Senate seat in the Republican column. So much for the charge of being a traitor.

With Cuomo, Reno, McKinney, and Hilliard off the November ballot, the Democrats have emerged from the intra-party contests in a better shape than they entered. On the other hand, Republicans lost a good partisan warrior in Georgia and conservatives lost one of their best champions in the US Senate. The best analogy to describe the 2002 primaries would be to say that the Democrats lost a lot of fat while the Republicans lost a lot of muscle.