The United States Senate elections of 1982 were held on November 2, 1982. They were elections for the United States Senate following Republican gains in 1980. A total of four seats changed hands between parties, and the lone independent, Senator Harry Byrd, retired. Democrats made a net gain of one seat in the elections. A special election in 1983 was then held after the winner of Washington's 1982 election died at the beginning of the term.
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C.
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.
Howard Walter Cannon was an American politician. He served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1959 until 1983 as a member of the Democratic Party.
Nevada is a state in the Western United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 32nd most populous, but the 9th least densely populated of the U.S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the state's four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital, however, is Carson City.
Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt is an American geologist, retired NASA astronaut, university professor, former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and, as a crew member of Apollo 17, the most recent living person to have walked on the Moon.
Later changes
In 1983, Henry M. Jackson (D-WA) died, and a Republican, Dan Evans, was appointed to fill the vacancy, holding on to the seat in a special election later that year.
Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative (1941–1953) and U.S. Senator (1953–1983) from the state of Washington. A Cold War liberal and anti-Communist Democrat, Jackson supported higher military spending and a hard line against the Soviet Union, while also supporting social welfare programs, civil rights, and labor unions.
Daniel Jackson Evans is an American attorney and former politician who served three terms as the 16th Governor of the State of Washington from 1965 to 1977, and as United States Senator represented Washington State from 1983 to 1989.
Interim appointee retired. New senator elected. Democratic gain. Incumbent resigned December 20, 1976 to give successor preferential seniority. Winner appointed December 27, 1976.
Incumbent Democrat Dennis DeConcini won re-election to a second term over Republican Pete Dunn, State Representative.
Dennis Webster DeConcini is an American lawyer, philanthropist, politician and former Democratic U.S. Senator from Arizona. The son of former Arizona Supreme Court Judge Evo Anton DeConcini, he represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 1977 until 1995. He was the most recent Democrat to be elected to the United States Senate from Arizona until Kyrsten Sinema was elected in 2018.
Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University, and then as U.S. Senator from California from 1977 to 1983.
Peter Barton Wilson is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator and as the 36th Governor of California.
The Mayor of the City of San Diego is the official head and chief executive officer of the U.S. city of San Diego, California. The mayor has the duty to enforce and execute the laws enacted by the San Diego City Council, the legislative branch. The mayor serves a four-year term and is limited to two successive terms.
Wilson was known as a fiscal conservative who supported Proposition 13, although Wilson had opposed the measure while mayor of San Diego. However, Brown ran on his gubernatorial record of building the largest state budget surpluses in California history. Both Wilson and Brown were moderate-to-liberal on social issues, including support for abortion rights. The election was expected to be close, with Brown holding a slim lead in most of the polls leading up to Election Day. Wilson hammered away at Brown's appointment of California Chief Justice Rose Bird, using this to portray himself as tougher on crime than Brown was. Brown's late entry into the 1980 Democratic presidential primary, after promising not to run, was also an issue. President Ronald Reagan made a number of visits to California late in the race to campaign for Wilson. Reagan quipped that the last thing he wanted to see was one of his home state's U.S. Senate seats falling into Democrats' hands, especially to be occupied by the man who succeeded him as governor. Despite exit polls indicating a narrow Brown victory, Wilson won by a wide margin.
Rose Elizabeth Bird served for 10 years as the 25th Chief Justice of California. She was the first female justice, and was the first female chief justice of that court. She was appointed by then-Governor Jerry Brown. In the November 1986 state election she became the only Chief Justice in California history to be removed from office by voters.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975.
After the 1980 Census, the Indiana General Assembly redistricted Indiana's congressional districts, pushing Democratic representative Floyd Fithian's district into more conservative territory.[9] After redistricting, Fithian, the three term incumbent of Indiana's 2nd congressional district, decided to run for Secretary of State of Indiana, but withdrew from the primary to ultimately run for the United States Senate.[10] He challenged fellow Democrat and one term Indiana State Senator Michael Kendall of Jasper, Indiana, who Fithian earlier encouraged to run for the Senate.[11] Kendall, who represented Indiana's 47th Senate district and formed the Notre Dame Students for Robert Kennedy organization during the 1968 presidential election,[12] was seen a young progressive alternative to Fithian, who he called the "ideological twin of Richard Lugar."[13] After the bitterly contested primary, Fithian prevailed over Kendall, winning with 59% of the vote.[14]
Incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy won re-election to his fourth full term over Republican Ray Shamie, a millionaire businessman and metalwork entrepreneur.
Dayton, 35, self-financed his campaign. Married to a Rockefeller and heir to a department store, his net worth was an estimated $30 million. Durenberger, who in 1978 and won the special election to finish the term of the late Hubert Humphrey, was largely unknown. He was considered a moderate, but supported Reagan's tax cuts. Dayton ran against Reaganomics. He has also campaigned against tax breaks for the wealthy and even promised "to close tax loopholes for the rich and the corporations—and if you think that includes the Daytons, you're right."[19] By the end of September, the senate election already became the most expensive election of all-time, with over $8 million being spent. Dayton spent over $5 million,[20] while Durenberger spent over $2 million.[21]
Incumbent John Melcher, who was first elected to the Senate in 1976, opted to run for re-election. He won the Democratic primary after he faced a tough intraparty challenger, and advanced to the general election, where he faced Larry R. Williams, an author and the Republican nominee, and Larry Dodge, the Libertarian nominee. Though his margin was reduced significantly from his initial election, Melcher still comfortably won re-election to his second and final term in the Senate.
During his first term in the Senate, Melcher's relative conservatism for a Democrat prompted a primary challenger in Michael Bond, a housing contractor who campaigned on his opposition to nuclear war. Bond attacked Melcher for voting to increase spending on nuclear arms, and pledged to reduce military spending to $60 billion and to use the savings to reduce interest rates.[23] During the campaign, Bond came under fire from the state branches of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans for turning in his draft card in 1967 to protest the Vietnam War, who put out a statement, saying, "There is no place in the U.S. Senate for any draft dodger, draft card burner or draft protester of any kind."[24]
Democrat Frank Lautenberg won for the seat held by retiring incumbent Republican Senator Nicholas Brady. Lautenberg won the seat with a margin of 3.19% over Congressperson Millicent Fenwick.
Cresitello dropped out of the race on May 27 but remained on the June 8 primary ballot.[27]
The seat had been occupied by Democrat Harrison A. Williams, who resigned on March 11, 1982, after being implicated in the Abscam scandal. After Williams' resignation, Republican Governor Thomas Kean appointed Republican Nicholas F. Brady to the seat. Brady served in the Senate through the primary and general elections but did not run for the seat himself.
In the general election, Lautenberg faced popular Republican congresswoman Millicent Fenwick. She ran on a very progressive platform and polls in the Summer of 1982 put her ahead by 18 points. Even Lautenberg quipped that she was "the most popular candidate in the country."[29] Lautenberg spent more of his own money, eventually out-spending Fenwick two-to-one. He emphasised President Reagan's unpopularity, reminded the voters that she would be a vote for a Republican majority in the Senate and called Fenwick, who was 72, "eccentric" and "erratic" but denied that he was referring to her age.[29][30] He did however point out that she would be almost 80 at the end of her first term and was therefore unlikely to gain much seniority in the Senate.[29] Coincidentally, the age issue would be used against Lautenberg in his own re-election bid in 2008.
Lautenberg won by 51% to 48%, in what was considered a major upset.[29] Brady, who had just a few days left in his appointed term, resigned on December 27, 1982, allowing Lautenberg to take office several days before the traditional swearing-in of senators, which gave him an edge in seniority over the other freshman senators.
Only Burdick filed as a Dem-NPLer, and the endorsed Republican candidate was cattle rancher Gene Knorr. Burdick and Knorr won the primary elections for their respective parties. Burdick's campaign was known for employing more television advertisement spending when compared with his campaigns in the past, as well as making several negative portrayals. Knorr had the support of Vice President George H. W. Bush, who campaigned in state to support his candidacy. The election was also noted as the first where Burdick's age began to become an issue. Burdick, who was 74 during the year of the election, faced a much younger Knorr, who was 41. At one point, Burdick challenged Knorr to a fistfight to prove his vitality; but the challenge, assumed to be a joke, never occurred. After being defeated, Knorr moved to Washington, D.C., where he took the position of staff vice president with Philip Morris International.
One independent candidate, Anna B. Bourgois, also filed before the deadline, running under her self-created party titled God, Family, and Country. Bourgois would later run for North Dakota's other United States Senate seat as an independent in 1986, challenging Mark Andrews. She received over 8,000 votes in the election, which is rather high for an independent. Some attribute her large number of votes to the name of her party – which was based on things that North Dakotans valued. Despite the result, Bourgois' campaign still had little impact on the outcome.
Prior to the 1982 Senate campaign, Knorr had been working in Washington, DC since 1970 when he worked for the Department of Treasury. He began working in Washington, DC, residing in McLean, Virginia after receiving a Juris Doctorate from Northwestern University where he was celebrated in debate. From Treasury, he worked as a lobbyist with Charls E. Walker Associates.
John Heinz's Democratic opponent in the 1982 election was Allegheny County commissioner and former coronerCyril Wecht, who lacked significant name recognition outside of Pittsburgh, his home town. Although the 1982 elections were a setback nationally for incumbent President Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party, neither Heinz nor incumbent Republican governor Dick Thornburgh, who was also up for re-election in 1982, were challenged by Democrats with statewide prominence. Wecht ran a low-budget campaign lacking the assets to boost his name recognition; the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a headline dubbing the race "The Race for Senator No One Seemed to Notice."[33] Despite this, Heinz ran a cautious campaign, running as a moderate due to Pennsylvania's unemployment, 11%, one of the highest in the nation at the time, as well as the declining health of Pennsylvania's coal mining, manufacturing and steel industries. In the end, Heinz won the election by a wide margin, winning 59.3% of the popular vote. Wecht won 39.2% of the popular vote.[33]
There was a special election to fill the seat which had been held by longtime Senator Henry Jackson. Daniel J. Evans, who had been appointed by Governor John Spellman, won the special election.
Washington United States Senate special election, November 3, 1983[39]
Incumbent Democrat Robert Byrd won re-election to a fifth term over Republican Cleve Benedict, a freshman congressman.
Benedict made great note of Byrd's record of high office in the Ku Klux Klan, his avoidance of service in World War II, and the fact that Byrd, then alone among members of Congress, owned no home in the state he represented. His campaign represented the last serious and well-funded effort to unseat Byrd, spending $1,098,218. Byrd was Minority Leader at the time.
↑ "Cresitello Quits Jersey Senate Race". The New York Times. May 28, 1982. Retrieved June 25, 2016. TRENTON, May 27— Former Mayor Donald Cresitello of Morristown withdrew today from the race for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator and endorsed former Representative Joseph A. LeFante of Bayonne.
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