October 29, 1992

Congressional campaign spending has soared to record levels this year as far more lawmakers than usual face tough fights to hold on to their seats, Federal Election Commission records show. The trend is apparent in races for both chambers but is especially obvious in campaigns for the House. In past years incumbency has almost guaranteed re-election for House members, but in 1992, voter hostility, aroused in part by some lawmakers' abuse of checking-account privileges at the House Bank, has frequently made it an obstacle.

Karen Daden sits on her porch on the East Side of Bridgeport and watches the cars spin down her street, "fancy cars with those resident beach stickers for Stratford and Fairfield and Westport." "Mostly they're white males in their 20's," she said. "They pull over, get their drugs and head back to the highway. Meanwhile, we've got older people in this neighborhood who are prisoners of their homes. They can't go out because not only is there gunfire every night, there's gunfire in the daytime, too."

Fred Mosley was in his pickup truck Monday morning, making a sandwich run on his break, and brooding, as usual, over the General Motors plant closing next year. Would he be transferred to another plant -- and how long would the next auto plant stay open? Would his wife quit her job and follow him, or would she insist they stick it out in Michigan? Was Bob Stempel in or out?

Issuing the latest in a series of inconclusive economic reports, the Commerce Department said today that new orders for durable manufactured goods eased four-tenths of 1 percent in September, while personal incomes climbed seven-tenths of 1 percent. Economists cautioned against taking either report at face value, saying the orders were stronger than they appeared, while the income figures were weaker. The reports followed Tuesday's report that the economy expanded at a 2.7 percent annual pace in the summer quarter, compared with 1.5 percent in the spring, a pace analysts considered unsustainable.

Trying to put his populist campaign back on track, Ross Perot used a Denver rally to assert that President Bush cannot win and to declare that he and his supporters had revolutionized American politics. Article, page A22.