Sheesh this is too easy. The sacramento bee is the best paper for politics in Ca, btw.
"Abortion politics proved a loser for Lungren"
sacbee.com
Abortion rights played a major role in the defeats of Lungren and Fong, as well as Sen. Al D'Amato in New York and other Republicans around the nation. Fong tried to fudge the issue by saying he supported abortion rights "in the first trimester." Lungren voted against abortion rights in Congress repeatedly, even in instances of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
"When we first put the abortion issue in focus groups, 65 percent of women figured both candidates were pro-choice," said Garry South, Davis' campaign manager. "This was the '90s. They couldn't believe anyone could be anti-choice. And when we focus-grouped Lungren's TV ad, where he said as a practicing Catholic he was pro-life, women were astonished that there was this hard-right guy on choice in a pro-choice state.
Los Angeles Times exit polling backs that up. Davis got the votes of two-thirds of self-identified moderates and independents, more than a third of moderate Republicans and nearly three in 10 conservatives. Boxer got two-thirds of the moderates and three in 10 Republican moderates -- a shocking figure, given her liberal politics and partisan reputation. In this election at least, to be anything but pro-choice was simply to be out of the mainstream.
The exit polls found 13 percent cited abortion as one of the two most important issues, far fewer than the 56 percent who cited education, and somewhat fewer than the 21 percen to 22 percent who cited taxes, crime, assault weapons and health care. But Davis pollster Paul Maslin said, "Abortion was much bigger than 13 percent. There's no way we get to a 20-point victory without it." |
