A Letter from Washington: Congress After the 1982 Election

As we go into the 1982 elections, we face two related but separate sets of questions:

(1) Will Democrats make significant gains in House elections and either weaken the GOP majority in the Senate or eliminate that majority altogether? And, conversely, will Republicans pick up enough Senate seats to ensure control for four to six more years and hold their own in the House?

(2) Will the rightward trend—which was reflected in a clear conservative majority in Congress at the mid-p...