Voters angry over the House bank scandal heeded a cry to "Bounce Beryl" and sent Rep. Beryl Anthony away after seven terms in Congress.
Despite help from Gov. Bill Clinton, Anthony lost a close race to Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen on Tuesday.Anthony became the second Arkansas congressman - and one of several from around the nation - to be ousted this year because of bad checks and voter disenchantment.
"It's obviously a mood of change all around the country, and I think to some extent my campaign got caught up in that," he said. "Being an incumbent this year is a detriment rather than a help."
The contest highlighted primary elections in four states. In other races:
- Maine Republicans picked L.L. Bean's granddaughter, Linda Bean, as their congressional candidate. Bean, a conservative, got 46 percent of the vote, defeating advertising executive Tony Payne and toolmaking company executive John Purcell. She will challenge Democratic incumbent Tom Andrews in the fall.
- Virginia state Sen. Robert Scott got 67 percent of the vote in defeating two Democratic primary opponents in the new black-majority 3rd Congressional District. He could become Virginia's first black congressman this century. The district, which stretches from Norfolk to Richmond, is heavily Democratic, giving Scott the early advantage over the GOP candidate, Dan Jenkins, who is also black.
- Virginians also picked GOP nominees for Congress in two districts in the suburbs of Washington. In the new 11th District, George Mason University law professor Henry Butler topped a field of five, including Andrew Schlafly, son of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. In the neighboring 8th District, lawyer Kyle McSlarrow won a three-way race.
In Arkansas, McCuen had 44,653 votes, or 51 percent, to Anthony's 43,004 votes, or 49 percent, according to final, unofficial results.
McCuen had hammered away at the congressman for writing 109 bad checks at the House bank and for supporting the 1990 congressional pay raise.
The bounced checks were effective as a campaign issue because "it speaks to a double standard," McCuen said after his victory. "It speaks to not understanding how the real world operates."