1992.11.22: November 22, 1992: Headlines: Figures: Directors - Coverdell: Congress: New York Times: Coverdell hopes to win Senate seat
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1992.11.22: November 22, 1992: Headlines: Figures: Directors - Coverdell: Congress: New York Times: Coverdell hopes to win Senate seat
Coverdell hopes to win Senate seat
Mr. Coverdell, a 53-year-old insurance executive who has been director of the Peace Corps, is still struggling to become an effective campaigner. His main effort has consistently been to portray Mr. Fowler as too liberal for Georgia. "If you take your marching orders from Teddy Kennedy, you're going to be out of synch with Georgia," he said on Friday, as Barbara Bush campaigned for him in Roswell, an Atlanta suburb. When Mr. Fowler found himself in the runoff, the race immediately shifted from one he was expected to win, to one in which he faced an uphill fight because fewer voters were expected to go to the polls. With turnout expected to be perhaps a third of the 72 percent of eligible voters who cast ballots Nov. 3, Mr. Coverdell's suburban Republican base seemed more likely to come back to the polls than Mr. Fowler's coalition of rural whites, and urban blacks, women and moderates. But after two weeks of campaigning that has turned unremittingly negative, both sides say their polls show the race as almost dead even. Paul Coverdell was the 11th Director of the Peace Corps.
Coverdell hopes to win Senate seat
The Transition: The Senate; A 2D STRETCH RUN IN A GEORGIA RACE
By PETER APPLEBOME,
Published: November 22, 1992
"I'll tell you the truth," Barbara Bush said here Friday as she campaigned for Paul Coverdell, who is seeking to unseat Senator Wyche Fowler Jr. in Georgia's Thanksgiving week runoff election. "After 350 visits to 38 states, the last thing I thought I would be doing Nov. 20 was making a campaign speech."
No one else expected to be making one either. But Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter for the Democrats and Mrs. Bush, Jack Kemp and Bob Dole for the Republicans are among the cast of thousands showing up for the bitterly fought race being called The Election That Would Not End.
Because of a Georgia law requiring that a candidate receive a majority of the vote, Mr. Fowler who received 49 percent of the vote on Nov. 3 and Mr. Coverdell, who received 48 percent, find themselves in a runoff on Tuesday.
A Libertarian candidate got most of the remaining votes. Affects Margin in Senate
The race will help determine whether Democrats hold 56 to 58 seats in the Senate and will provide an important test of Republican strength in what has been the most solidly Democratic state in the South. But despite the scores of national party leaders who have come to campaign for each candidate, the outcome is likely to hinge on whether Mr. Fowler can revive what has been considered a lackluster campaign and the lethargy of the last voters in America who still have to dodge the same attack ads and flying mud that played out on their television sets before Nov. 3.
"This is a very tired electorate," said Matt Towery, a prominent Georgia Republican. "It's very hard to know who's going to turn out to vote."
The very last dog to die in Politics '92 plays out in North Dakota on Dec. 4, where there is a special election between former Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, Jack Dalrymple, to fill the seat of Senator Quentin N. Burdick, a Democrat who died on Sept. 8.
Mr. Fowler's own polls always showed the potential for a tight race, but he ran what even his supporters say was a desultory campaign that left him in a runoff in a state that has elected only one Republican Senator, Mack Mattingly in 1980, since Reconstruction. 'Out of Synch With Georgia'
Mr. Coverdell, a 53-year-old insurance executive who has been director of the Peace Corps, is still struggling to become an effective campaigner. His main effort has consistently been to portray Mr. Fowler as too liberal for Georgia.
"If you take your marching orders from Teddy Kennedy, you're going to be out of synch with Georgia," he said on Friday, as Barbara Bush campaigned for him in Roswell, an Atlanta suburb.
When Mr. Fowler found himself in the runoff, the race immediately shifted from one he was expected to win, to one in which he faced an uphill fight because fewer voters were expected to go to the polls.
With turnout expected to be perhaps a third of the 72 percent of eligible voters who cast ballots Nov. 3, Mr. Coverdell's suburban Republican base seemed more likely to come back to the polls than Mr. Fowler's coalition of rural whites, and urban blacks, women and moderates.
But after two weeks of campaigning that has turned unremittingly negative, both sides say their polls show the race as almost dead even.
Mr. Fowler, a former Atlanta Representative who got high marks from the Senate leadership but gained a reputation for at times out of touch or aloof, has had two main tasks in a race that has always been a referendum on his performance. Mr. Coverdell, who does not appear in any of his own advertisements, has run more against Mr. Fowler than on any platform.
Mr. Fowler has also begun running negative ads questioning Mr. Coverdell's business ethics, Peace Corps record and voting history. Increasingly Personal Attacks
Combined with Mr. Coverdell's steady stream of attack ads, they have turned the race into an increasingly personal one.
There was much question whether Mr. Clinton would risk spending political capital on a vulnerable incumbent who was conspicuously absent last spring when Gov. Zell Miller helped organize a solid show of support for Mr. Clinton in the crucial Georgia Democratic primary.
But Mr. Clinton is scheduled to campaign for Mr. Fowler on Monday. Republicans hope his appearance could energize as many voters for Mr. Coverdell as for Mr. Fowler. But despite the questions about spending political capital on a tough race, many feel that Mr. Clinton stands to gain more from helping keep a Democratic seat in the Senate then he would lose in prestige if his campaigning fails to put Mr. Fowler over the top.
"As far as any damage to his prestige, that makes a good story, but it's nonsense," said Mr. Towery, the prominent Republican. "The man is going to be sworn in as President of the United States Jan. 20. He's got all the clout he needs right now. By then, no one is going to remember that this race took place."
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Peace Corps Annual Report: 1992; Paul Coverdell; Figures; Paul Coverdell (Director 1989 - 1991); Congress; Georgia
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Story Source: New York Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; Directors - Coverdell; Congress
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