Starting
Over
A new cast of characters
on Capitol Hill
could spell trouble
for pro-Israel forces.
JAMES D. BESSER/Washington Correspondent
32
In the so-called "year of the women," California could send two — ex- San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Barbara Boxer—
to Congress.
or Washington insiders, the 1992 congres-
sional elections are looking more and more
like a natural disaster. A record-high
turnover of legislatk. - will drastically alter
the political landsco.p=. - Capitol Hill; the
memory of the cataclysm will have f'iRgering impact
on politics for years to come.
'''''
For pro-Israel activists, all this upheaval is pro-
foundly unsettling.
A number of impor*'
,.(-3ssional friends of the
Jewish communi ' --'''.
Aiready packed their bags
and headed for hoh;,-. 7ictims of primary defeats, re-
districting, scandal or simple exh An. They in
dude Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.), Vir 4.444er (R-Minn),
Larry Smith (D-Fla.), MO LP- * ' 0Q:C al if. ) , Bill
Lehman (D-Fla.), Howard vr: z (Th-IVlich.) and Dante
Fascell (D-Fla.), chairma:_ , ._.: 1:lel-louse Foreign Af.,
fairs Committee. Many iii,...fe awin jeopardy as a
restive electorate gets ready to go to the palit. Je::- : ,, ,
The results are almost certain foindu de a difffe';Ult
. .: 4d,
period of adjustment as pro-Israel '.`,.:.: ,,asts - educ -:_te,s
new members about the Middle Ear::ind begin ,t4w
painstaking process of building political networks
with the newcomers and their staffs.
IN THE SENATE
0
n the Senate side, Democws are expecting
to win enough new seats t41)• _overcome Pres- --
ident Bush's penchant for 1 -,,,_;,aes — or, if there
is a change in the Oval Office, enough to give
Bill Clinton a head start in enacting his do-
mestic agenda.
California: The most intriguing races are here,
where three of the four candidates for two open seats
are Jewish.
.-,
Former San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein en-
joys a comfortable lead over Sen. John Seymour, the
Republican who was appointed to fill the term of now-
Gov. Pete WiLson.
Rep. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, is squaring off
against conservative TV commentatorBruce Her-
schensohn, another Jew. Ms. Boxer's lead has declined
in recent weeks — due in larg
s e measure to Mr. Hersch-
ensohn's effective television campaign. But with the
Bush-Quayle team virtually :conceding California o
the Democrats and with r c , iomic angst at a pe4,,,
Mr. Herschensohn is still figt, : ting an uphill battle.",
Missouri: Gerri Rothman- Serot, a political new-
comer from St. Louis, is gaining ground on Sen. Kit
Bond, a Republican, who led the fight in Congress fr
the sale of F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia — not a sur-
prising position, since the plane's manufacturer is a
leading employer in Missouri.
Wisconsin: Sen. Bob Kasten — one of Israel's stead-
iest defenders in the Senate — is fighting for his sur-
vival against state Sen. Russ Feingold, who
confounded the pollsters by burying two better-known,
better-financed opponent„a the Democratic primary
last month.