Lawmakers Target Core Supporters With Preelection Agendas

For the remaining 40 or so days that Congress will be in session between now and election day, lawmakers will serve up an ideological smorgasbord of legislation, from raising the minimum wage and expanding health insurance to cutting taxes and abolishing federal agencies.

But most of the offerings have less to do with trying to get good laws on the books than with improving incumbents’ chances of clinging to power into the next millennium.

In advancing red-meat agendas cherished by party faithful--but considered long shots for enactment--Democrats and Republicans are attempting to lend energy to their core constituents and to make sure that their turnout is high on Nov. 3.

“That’s the name of the game. We do this every time,” said Rep. John Linder of Georgia, head of the House GOP campaign committee. “The Democrats are stating their priorities and we are stating ours.”

With less than six months until the elections, the task of wooing true believers is especially urgent for Republicans.

Their anxiety was evident when House leaders sought to make peace with influential Christian conservatives earlier this month. Some of the activists, led by broadcaster and author James Dobson, were so fed up with the GOP’s lack of action on social issues that they recently threatened to walk out on the party.

The three-hour meeting averted a colossal rupture. Dobson and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said afterward that they agreed Republicans must vigorously advance what Gingrich called “a pro-family conservative agenda.” At the top of the list is legislation to curtail funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, ban “partial-birth” abortions and abolish the income tax “marriage penalty.”

Many Republicans had hoped to coast into their reelection campaigns by touting the booming economy and last year’s historic balanced-budget legislation. But protests by social conservatives forced GOP leaders to take another look at their legislative objectives, elevating such issues as education vouchers, new abortion curbs and protection of religious freedom.

“There’s a growing realization among the Republican leadership that they’ve disappointed a great many people across the country,” said Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.). “It’s good some of these things are getting attention.”

Last week, House GOP leaders staged another vote on killing affirmative action--despite its certain defeat--simply to demonstrate their renewed allegiance to social conservatives. On Thursday, the House approved trade sanctions on countries that practice religious persecution. And closer to election day, the House will vote again to override President Clinton’s veto of a bill to ban the controversial abortion procedure, a proposal that seems certain to fail again in the Senate.

“There’s no question that we’ll sometimes bring up proposals we know are unlikely to succeed but that reflect the principles to which we’re committed,” acknowledged Rep. Charles T. Canady (R-Fla.).

On that score, Democrats are no slouches either. They recently forced unsuccessful votes on hiring 100,000 new teachers and rebuilding public schools, two signature Democratic issues. Clinton has joined the fray too: While in California recently, he said that Prop. 226, an initiative that would require unions to get annual consent from their members before using dues for political purposes, should be defeated.

The increasingly partisan rhetoric threatens to further poison an already vitriolic atmosphere in Washington. With Gingrich leading the escalating attacks on the White House over the Monica S. Lewinsky investigation, some fear that little, if any, noteworthy legislation will become law this year.

One notable exception may be the Internal Revenue Service reform measure that passed the Senate recently and is expected to get Clinton’s signature. But two other key and once-popular bills--tobacco regulation and managed-care reform--are in jeopardy, threatened by increasingly partisan jockeying.

At the same time, Republicans are taking fresh aim at Clinton’s foreign policy, harshly criticizing the president for being too tough on Israel and planning an investigation of administration-approved exports of satellites to Beijing.

GOP strategist Ed Gillespie explained the party’s newly confrontational style this way: “We need to give them something to vote for. . . . Where we’ve been so far this year hasn’t done it.”

Added Rep. David M. McIntosh (R-Ind.): “Unless we show our base [that] we are continuing to push on the agenda they care about and sent us here to push, there’s a danger they will sit home next fall.”

In seeking to inspire their core constituencies, Republicans face a daunting task. Handicapped by a slim 27-seat majority in the House, they are so sharply divided on key issues that several powerful committee chairmen are openly defying Gingrich and his leadership team.

Rep. James A. Leach (R-Iowa), chairman of the Banking and Financial Services Committee, is backing a major campaign finance reform proposal that Gingrich has tried repeatedly to kill. Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, wandered off the reservation after Gingrich squelched his attempt to end a $600-million-a-year subsidy for the production of ethanol-based fuel.

House Budget Committee Chairman John R. Kasich (R-Ohio), frustrated by waning fervor for shrinking the size of government, is promoting a plan to slash federal spending and cut taxes far deeper than was envisioned in last year’s budget agreement.

Meanwhile, House and Senate Republicans are feuding over the size of tax cuts, with many in the House openly deriding the Senate’s budget plan for containing what they regard as a puny tax cut of $30 billion.

“Do Republicans really mean it when they say they want smaller government?” asked Rep. Tom A. Coburn (R-Okla.).

Among other issues that Republicans hope to bring up this year are a constitutional amendment banning flag desecration, abolition of the tax code and elimination of the estate tax.

The mere mention of these issues has galvanized the GOP base, according to Linder. “People are getting excited again. . . . We’re beginning to show some differences [between the parties].”

And that’s just fine with Democrats.

In addition to pushing for another minimum-wage increase, Democrats led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) plan to promote a Clinton-style health care reform bill that would require all employers with 50 or more workers to provide medical insurance, an initiative popular with labor.

“With the economy booming, if we don’t do it now, when will we?” asked Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), who is promoting an even broader measure.

Referring to a recently passed GOP bill to allow the use of public funds for private-school tuition, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) observed confidently: “We’re happy to take this issue to the elections.”

Times staff writers Janet Hook and Alissa J. Rubin contributed to this story.