Voters speak: Tax cuts don't equal victory

If this year's elections carried one theme, it may be this: Facing a wobbly economy and feeling uneasy about security, voters tended to pick candidates with a pragmatic, can-do approach over those with ideological tinges or complicating political baggage.

In many cases, this means they went with the familiar, voting for incumbent mayors in Boston, Cincinnati, and Charlotte, N.C. In New York, the endorsement of incumbent Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who couldn't run again, helped lift Republican Michael Bloomberg to victory.

In statewide races, where a broader swath of the electorate turned out, voters seemed to turn from Republicans' tax-cutting, smaller-government ideology. Amid rising trust in government, the GOP lost its two biggest contests - gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.

On a national level, 2001 hints that President Bush's record-setting popularity doesn't easily translate into a grand new Republican era. Still, with Americans looking to government as a problem-solver, Mr. Bush's small-but-active vision for government may position his party well for 2002 - even if his tax-cutting tendency doesn't.

In all, the emerging pragmatism hints that "voters are looking for some kind of reality check - some sense that the person they're putting in office can actually do the job," says Christopher Arterton, a political scientist at George Washington University.

That seems particularly true in the New Jersey and Virginia governors races - though for different reasons.

In Virginia, Gov.-elect Mark Warner is a well-known quantity to Old Dominion's voters. The high-tech millionaire lost a 1996 US Senate race to Republican John Warner - and has been running for governor ever since. Though a Democrat, his nonpartisan approach and his strong get-out-the-vote effort helped him win in a largely Republican state.

Mr. Warner scored big political points with a pragmatic position of letting northern Virginia voters decide whether to raise taxes to fund new roads to ease traffic congestion.

Republican Mark Earley's objection to any transit-tax increase didn't help him. He was also weighed down by the perception that Republicans were responsible for the deadlocked state legislature.

In New Jersey, Democratic Gov.-elect Jim McGreevey narrowly lost the 1997 governor's race - and has been campaigning hard since. His platform includes promises of reform and accountability. But his winning strategy was to paint Republican Bret Schundler as a dogmatic conservative who supports gun ownership and restrictions on abortion. Mr. Schundler's tax-cutting message never took hold.

Indeed, these races hint that the Republican tax-cutting approach - which propelled the party to success in the 1990s - isn't as popular as it has been.

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