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The long shot
Gary Bauer talks about why he's running for president.
By Susan Crabtree
[11/08/99]

Together at last
Now that Buchanan is taking his followers over to the Reform Party, the extreme right and extreme left can finally be united in their isolationist vision of the world.
By David Horowitz
[11/08/99]

Killer: Shepard didn't make advances
A just-unsealed confession demolishes the "gay panic" defense. Too bad the media wasn't around to hear it.
By Dave Cullen
[11/06/99]

The survivor
The reason nothing seems to work in getting rid of Slobodan Milosevic is that the entire post-communist Serbian system remains geared toward authoritarian abuse.
By Laura Rozen
[11/05/99]

Bush gets an F in foreign affairs
The Texas governor who would be president can't identify the leaders of Chechnya, Pakistan or India. Has he been taking lessons from Dan Quayle?
By David Corn
[11/05/99]

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Lynch showed Rangel and Dalley an analysis he had prepared of "toss-up districts" where the African-American population potentially held the balance of power. "And he had the statistical data to show," Rangel recalled, "that no matter how small or how large these African-American votes were, it was the swing vote in these congressional districts."

What Lynch suggested was a project to transform these voters from party constituents to party activists. This meant convincing African-American voters to put aside their short-term goals to achieve a majority that would favor their interests. More specifically, it meant backing white candidates -- white centrist candidates, including some who might undercut the goals of the black Democrats once they were in Congress. "If you can split the white vote and develop the African-American vote, that's a strong combination," one top Rangel associate explained. "You're cooking with some gas." A marriage of convenience was born.

Almost five years later, Rangel presides over a voter mobilization effort that many party strategists believe has been critical in bringing the Democrats within five seats of the majority. Although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where or how Rangel's operation has been decisive, several of the party's most critical pick-ups in 1998 -- white freshman lawmakers such as Joe Hoeffel of Pennsylvania, Ronnie Shows of Mississippi and Shelley Berkley of Nevada -- were from districts near the top of Rangel's target list. At the same time, no incumbent Democrat from any of the 26 originally targeted "toss-up" districts has lost his or her seat in Congress.

Certainly, House Democratic leaders appear to have been convinced by Rangel's effort. They've significantly expanded his operation this election cycle, supplementing the African-American program with new programs for Hispanics and Asian-Americans -- all overseen by Rangel from a co-chairmanship created for him at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with a budget to match. In 1998, the DCCC dedicated over $1 million to the effort, and the budget is expected to grow significantly this time around.

A related development that may prove to be even more important to the outcome of next year's elections has been a fundamental change in outlook at the Congressional Black Caucus. Members of the CBC tend to come from safe districts and have traditionally shunned involvement with a national party apparatus from which they have never needed favors.

But now they've entered the electoral fray. Over the past four years, CBC members such as Reps. Maxine Waters of California and Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, as well as House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers of Michigan, have become some of the most aggressive organizers in the party.

The strength of the operation, insiders say, is a major reason Democrats are targeting lawmakers like Georgia GOP Rep. Charlie Norwood, who represents a district that is 38 percent black, but who doesn't otherwise appear vulnerable. (Norwood won in 1998 with 60 percent of the vote.)

And it's a key reason Democrats believe they will be able to protect party-switching Rep. Michael Forbes, D-N.Y., whose district is 8 percent black and Hispanic. They even believe the seat being vacated by Ohio Rep. John Kasich, a Republican whose district is 21 percent African-American, is potentially now in play -- though Democratic strategists admit internal analyses have shown poor "party performance" figures in the district.

Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost, the former chairman of the DCCC and a top party fund-raiser, said the efforts of Rangel and the other CBC members will "clearly have been" a key factor if the Democrats win the majority. "There is no question about that," Frost said. "We would not be able to do it without them."

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