`Weld Revolution' Stalled By Vote

The people of Massachusetts voted for change yesterday.

They voted overwhelmingly for Gov. Bill Clinton, giving him a plurality of the popular vote.

And they voted for change on Beacon Hill, by bringing in more Democrats to both the house and senate and by casting uncertainty onto the formerly unstoppable "Weld Revolution" of 1990.

Sixteen was the magic number for Gov. William F. Weld '66 two years ago when he managed to get two more than the required 14 senate votes to carry a veto. President Bush's large coattails brought in eight new GOP senators and gave Weld the power to veto, a necessary policy tool for a Republican governor in a Democratic State House.

But this year, it's Clinton's coattails that are sweeping in Democrats at every level across the country. State Democrats this year benefitted from the landslide presidential election.

The next two years will be crucial for Weld, whom many have pegged as a potential Republican nominee for president.

But for Weld to run for a higher office, or even for re-election, the fiscally conservative/socially liberal needs to "fashion his own policy," according to Sondra Sheir, a Democratic Cambridge election commissioner. And without the power to uphold his veto of Democratic legislation it won't be easy for Weld to push his agenda.

"He will no longer be at liberty to promote a program he can call his own and this might rain on his parade," Scheir said.

The new Democratic stronghold in the legislature will be a challenge to the governor who has been called a presidential contender in 1996.

"Weld will feel like his hands are tied somehow," said Susan Hackley, the communications director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

But Republicans say the crucial seats in the State House and Senate won't be in Democratic hands for long.

"The way things are in Massachusetts for the Democrats voting for change this year will be the way things will be for the Republicans next election," said Alan P.G. Safran, executive director for the Massachusetts Republican Party.

According to Safran, after a term of Democrat-controlled policy making, voters will want to change again and install Republicans. "The state won't do as well economically, but there will be an explanation for it," he said.

But Hackley says the new crop of Democrats in the state house and senate are part of the "new wave of the future." Fiscal stability, the creation of jobs and health care will be central themes for the Democrats over the next term.

And with yesterday's wins in the Great and General Court of Massachusetts many Democrats may be hoping to nip Weld's political ambition early by besting him in the 1994 gubernatorial elections.

Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn, former Sen. Patricia McGovern and Boston University President John Silber are all potential Democratic challengers to Weld in 1994.