Social Security Reform Wins Big on Election Day

November 7, 2002

WASHINGTON—Tueday night's election was a resounding victory for proponents of Social Security Reform. With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, chances have dramatically improved for passing a plan to allow younger workers to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in individual accounts. But candidates favoring individual accounts were also big winners. Consider:

• Campaign for America's Future, a labor-backed umbrella group opposing individual accounts, has called the Senate campaigns in North and South Carolina "bellwethers" on the issue. But the pro-account candidate won both races. In North Carolina, Erskine Bowles made his opposition to "privatization" a centerpiece of his attack on Elizabeth Dole, featuring a barrage of commercials warning that Dole wants to "gamble" Social Security money in the stock market. Dole not only didn't back off, she attacked Bowles for not having a plan of his own to save Social Security, frequently showing a blank piece of paper as the "Bowles Social Security Plan." Despite being outspent by Bowles, Dole won 54 percent of the vote. In South Carolina, the Democratic candidate, Alex Sanders, ran ads equating individual accounts with Enron. But Lindsay Graham, a strong proponent of individual accounts, won by more than 10 percent.



• In the night's biggest upset, Georgia Representative Saxby Chambliss defeated incumbent Senator Max Cleland. Although the race turned largely on national security issues, Cleland had attacked Chambliss for wanting to turn "the Social Security benefits of people on Main Street over to Wall Street to play Russian roulette with." Chambliss, in contrast, signed a pledge, circulated by SocialSecurityChoice.org, promising to support individual accounts if he was elected. In Minnesota, Norm Coleman was another upset winner who signed the SocialSecurityChoice pledge.



• Pro-account candidates also won close Senate races in Missouri, New Hampshire, Texas and Colorado.



• House supporters of individual accounts also did well. Few congressmen have been as outspoken in their support for individual accounts as Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), despite the fact that his Democratic-leaning district has high concentrations of both senior citizens and union workers. Opponents of individual accounts poured money and manpower into the district trying to defeat Toomey. Yet he won by a larger margin this year than he had in 2000.



• Representatives Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) also won by larger margins than in 2000 in campaigns where Social Security was a major issue. Former Representative Jill Long Thompson may have been the first candidate in the country to air an ad attacking her opponent, Chris Chocola, for supporting "privatization." Chocola won, however, picking up an open seat previously held by Democrats. In New Mexico, Steve Pearce, another strong supporter of individual accounts, won a newly created seat in a competitive district.

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt in September said, "This election is a referendum on Social Security."

Responding today to that comment, Michael Tanner, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Social Security Choice said, "The third rail of politics has lost its juice. If this was a referendum on Social Security reform…reform won."

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