Word: vanderveen
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...hand, Strauss was notably impressed that the Democrats' most spectacular victory in the recent round of special congressional elections was scored by the candidate who most strongly made Watergate an issue and advocated impeachment-Richard VanderVeen, winner of the Michigan House seat that was occupied by Vice President Gerald Ford for 25 years...
...becoming Vice President. Ford had always been re-elected with more than 61% of the vote; a Democrat had not held the seat since 1912. One month before last week's special election to fill Ford's seat, his hand-picked candidate, Robert VanderLaan, led Democrat Richard VanderVeen by 60% to 28% in the polls. But on election day in Grand Rapids and environs, VanderVeen won by 51% to 44%, with the rest of the votes going to splinter candidates. It was a stinging rebuke for the G.O.P. and an early alarm bell for every Republican running...
Though VanderLaan and VanderVeen are not exactly Tweedledum and Tweedledee, their personalities and politics were not big issues. Both are sober, churchgoing, solid citizens- well tailored for an industrious, no-nonsense community in America's heartland. Republican VanderLaan, 43, had won six elections to the state senate, where he is majority leader. Democrat VanderVeen, 52, a lawyer, noted that he "comes from a long line of Democrats who have lost." He had been elected to the suburban East Grand Rapids school board in 1969, but he lost by a landslide the only big race he ever entered - to Congressman...
This time, however, VanderVeen got considerable help from the United Auto Workers and the Boston political-consulting firm of Marttila, Payne, Kiley & Thorne, which had helped engineer up set victories for Father Robert Drinan in a Massachusetts congressional race in 1970 and for Joseph Biden in a 1972 U.S. Senate election in Delaware. The Democrats never let the voters forget that VanderLaan was a man from Nixon's party, while their candidate was "his own man." In a district where Republicanism is considered next to godliness, the Democrats emphasized how far the idols had fallen. In one campaign...
...Grand Rapids area is very Republican and a Democratic victory there tells the Congress that people are mad, Ujifusa said. VanderVeen's victory may cause a lot of fence-straddling congressmen to take a more active role in the impeachment effort, he added...