University Daily Kansan / Thursday, March 26, 1992
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Sen. Specter battles image before primary elections
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter got the message Voters are angry this political season, and Spector is running feverishly to avoid the fate of his Senate colleague, Alan Dixon.
Dixon lost the Illinois Democratic primary to Carol Moseley Braun, who entered the race in disgust regarding Dixon's support for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
Specter, a Republican who gained national attention for his prominent role in the Thomas hearings, does not want that to happen to him. So he's campaigning hard to assure voters in Pennsylvania's April 28 primary that he hasn't lost touch. In the last two weeks alone, Specter has made 30 appearances in the state.
"These are very dangerous times," said University of Maryland political scientist Roger Davidson. "With all of the uncertainty, with all of the incumbras off, there's a major case of jitters on Capitol Hill."
Specter, a one-time Democrat who lost races for Philadelphia mayor and governor before winning a Senate race on his second try, faces a conservative state legislator, Stephen Freind. Freind, an outspoken abortion opponent, has tried to portray Spector as a "consummate insider" who is out of step with middle-class values.
Specter argues that the nation's anti-incumbent fever stems from losing touch with voters. In appearances, he has emphasized his repeated visits to local communities — more than 1,600 visits since 1980. Philadelphia on Tuesday, he told an AFL-CIO convention, "I cover this state like nobody else."
Specter has displayed an Odyssean durability since stepping onto the political stage nearly three decades ago. He began the 1992 campaign with more than $3 million stockpiled for his re-election. The 62-year-old Republican is cautious when asked about his prospects for a third term but says he does not have the same weaknesses that sank Dixon.
Lt. Gov. Mark Singel is widely expected to be
Specter's Democratic opponent in November. Singel is running against two lesser-known candidates, Lynn Yeakel and Freddy Mann Friedman.
In recent months, Specter has faced angry questions about his interrogation of Anita Hill, the Oklahoma law professor who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. He also has been put on the defensive by the movie "JFK," which attacks his work on the commission that investigated President Kennedy's assassination.
"I have been concerned about the election for a long time," Specter said last week. "I see how furious people are, what they need to have done and what they want to have done. ... I think it's going to be a tough election year."
Some say Specter, like Dixon, may face voter backlash about the Thomas hearings. Specter accused Hill of perjury in the hearings and was widely criticized by women's groups for his interrogation. His questioning won him points, though, from conservatives, who have been uneasy with Specter since his 1987 vote against then-Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.
"Just as Arlen Specter don't feel the need to go to the defense of Anita Hill, Republican women won't feel the need to go to his defense," said Jane Danowitz of the Women's Campaign Fund in Washington.
Otherwise, the pro-choice Specter has a strong record on women's issues. Feminists do not expect Freind to win any votes from their camp, regardless of the Specter-Thomas flap.
"JFK" brought Speeter a mix of celebrity and notoriety, but he does not think attention from the movie will affect the race. Speeter was a chief interrogator on the Warren Commission, which concluded that Lee Har寅 Oswald acted alone in killing the president. He helped fashion the single-bullet theory, which holds that one virtually undamaged bullet passed through President Kennedy's neck and caused then-Texas Gov. John Connally's wounds.
The movie ridicules the theory, as well as Specter.
Justin Knupp/KANSAN
Slap happy
before their Acting II class, Alexandra Goodpasture, Topeka senior, and James Blue, Denver, Colo., work on a scene from "The Shadow Box." Goodpasture and Blue were working on their slapping techniques yesterday afternoon.
Effort to save rare owl leaves loggers jobless
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan said yesterday the loss of 31,000 logging jobs in the Northwest to protect the spotted owl was not acceptable and urged Congress to pass legislation that would reduce the job losses.
But Lujan at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing came under attack from Rep. Les AuCoin, D-Ore., who accused the Bush administration of failing to come to grips with the spotted owl issue. He said the result had been a series of court rulings that had halted timber sales from federal lands.
AuCoin, who is running for the Senate in Oregon, accused the Republican administration of using loggers as paws in a broader attempt to persuade Congress to rewrite the federal Endangered Species
"We could have had a solution much more quickly," he said of the longstanding controversy over how best to protect the spotted owl in the Northwest's oldgrowth forests, without tens of thousands of loggers being put out of work.
Lujan had the appropriations panel that the Interior Department's latest owl recovery plan had been completed and predicted 21,000 lost jobs as a result of reduced timber cutting.
"That's not acceptable. I don't like the idea of losing 31,000 jobs in the Northwest area," said Lujan. He reiterated that he planned to submit to Congress an alternative owl protection proposal next month when the formal recovery plan, which is required by law, is announced.
Lujan announced in February that he was forming an Interior task force to develop an alternative plan aimed at limiting job losses. He acknowledged yesterday that an alternative plan would require legislation from Congress.
AuCoin expressed doubt that Congress in this election year would tackle the politically sensitive endangered-species issue.
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