Going Local

It was widely expected that the Republicans would make significant gains in 1994. The Democrats were in disarray, suffering from powerful anticongressional sentiment and from too close an identification with their president, Bill Clinton, a man plagued by bad political judgment and even worse press coverage. But few expected the landslide that occurred.

The result: the Republicans control both houses of Congress for the first time in almost fifty years; they have captured a number of high-profile governorships and state legislatures; and the public policy agenda has been moved drastically toward the right. More ominously, the electorate has been mobilized by organized and interconnected conservative groups, including the Christian...