Election '82: Fresh Faces in the Mansion

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"What beat Clements," said Jim Francis, the loser's campaign manager, "was this revolt based on unemployment, Social Security and fear." Joblessness is at a high 8.3% in Texas. White also exploited popular antipathy toward Texas power companies, suggesting that as Governor he would make the state's utility regulatory agency "a watchdog, not a lapdog." Said Don Ring, Clements' media consultant: "Texas politics snapped back to party lines just like a rubber band around a batch of Social Security checks."

The Mexican-American electorate, which has doubled since 1976, helped to swing the election. Clements made much of White's opposition to the 1965 Voting Rights Act extension, and referred to himself as un hombre de palabra (a man of his word). White countered with slogans like Ya basta . . . de los Republicanos (Enough of Republicans). Chicanos agreed: the Democrats took more than 85% of the Hispanic vote. Statewide turnout was unusually high (49%), and in some black neighborhoods in Houston, which were carried heavily by White, it approached 70%.

NEBRASKA. In a state that gave Reagan his third largest majority (72%) in 1980, and where the unemployment rate (5.5%) is among the lowest in the U.S., how does a liberal young Democrat, a former antiwar activist, beat a conservative, competent G.O.P incumbent? "Extraordinary political organization," says Democratic State Chairman Dianna Schimek, "and his charismatic ability to motivate people."

Extraordinary indeed. Bob Kerrey, 39, a successful entrepreneur, had never held an elected office. His most spectacular achievement came in Viet Nam in 1969: after leading a Navy commando assault in which he lost half of his right leg, Kerrey was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As a member of the human rights commission in Lincoln, his home town, Kerrey is remembered chiefly for his unsuccessful advocacy of a homosexual-rights ordinance. Moreover, Republican Charles Thone, 58, was the quintessential Nebraskan of his generation, prudently plain-spoken and a bit stolid. He had won four terms in Congress before becoming Governor in 1979.

But neither Kerrey's panache nor his good looks won the election. He promised to attract jobs with more aggressive economic development, and took advantage of the fact that Thone had made enemies. The state's education lobby was angered by Thone's support of unaccredited fundamentalist schools. Other voters were upset by his approval of increases in state sales and income taxes. Thone also had irked some farmers, even though he had nothing to do with the fact that agricultural prices have fallen for three years.

Kerrey won a third of the normally Republican farm counties, as well as Omaha (54%) and the Lincoln area (61%). Even so, the state is surprised to find that it has picked such a Governor. The North Platte Telegraph was not just being snide with its headline over an editorial about Kerrey: STRANGELY, A NEBRASKAN.