The Democratic Sweep

There will, doubtless, be those who read some shift in local or national politics into Lincoln Chafee's election as Rhode Island's first independent governor. But Chafee was, for all intents and purposes, the Democratic candidate in this race. And the party swept the state's other major offices and gave up little ground in the General Assembly.

The Republican wave approached the Rhode Island shore - there were some close calls in the gubernatorial race, the secretary of state's contest and several Assembly races - but, in the end, amounted to little more than a trickle.

The much-ballyhooed revolution naver came to be here. Now, the question for the conservative stalwarts: do they get discouraged, or do they pick up a game that looked feeble next to that of organized labor and the Democratic Party?