Citing results from a Tuesday night poll by his organization, Tate said Republican support among religious conservatives declined dramatically in 1998. Four years ago, he said, religious conservatives supported Republicans over Democrats 67 percent to 20 percent. On Tuesday, they favored GOP House candidates 54 to 31 percent. Two leaders of the Christian-social right, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, said Gingrich and the rest of the House leadership should be ousted. But other Republicans warned against a shift to the right.
Republicans have no choice but to govern that way.
Democrats, who had expected some modest losses in Congress, celebrated gaining a platform from which to assault the narrow Republican majorities in Congress. Of the 14 Democrats up for reelection in 2000, only five appear to be potentially vulnerable. Republicans must defend 19 seats, including nine where the winner received 56 percent of the vote or less in the banner Republican year of 1994. Democrats pointed out they lost no seats this year in Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania, despite the coattails of popular GOP governors, and said the odds will be more favorable in 2000. Either those seats will be open in 2000 or those Republicans will have to explain their change of heart, Frost said.