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Why Indonesia released Allan Nairn
A groundswell of international protest gets the Indonesian military to free its toughest critic.
By Bruce Shapiro
[09/20/99]

Allan Nairn freed, deported by Indonesia
The American reporter who revealed rights abuses in East Timor, detained by Indonesian soldiers last week, is released.
By Joan Walsh
[09/20/99]

How the Rodham girl lost her accent
These days, Arkansans might have a thing or two to say to New Yorkers about the woman who would be as one among them.
By Suzi Parker
[09/20/99]

Who harassed whom?
The former chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus claims he sexually harassed her, then fired her, but the senator tells an entirely different story -- that she was relentlessly abusing his staff.
By Susan Crabtree
[09/18/99]

Free Allan Nairn!
An American reporter faces 10 years in a brutal Indonesian jail. His crime: Refusing to turn away from acts of inhumanity. The United States must act -- now.
By Bruce Shapiro
[09/17/99]

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The political outlook is just as hazy. As voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect a successor to the late Rep. George Brown, a liberal Democrat in the heart of conservative San Bernardino County, the 42nd Congressional District has been transformed into a battleground for Washington generals. Republicans have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars this decade trying to wrest this district out of Democratic control. Democrats, meanwhile, have consistently sent in reinforcements to bolster Brown, guiding him through two recent elections in which he won by less than 1,000 votes.

Stuck in a no man's land between Los Angeles and the resorts of Palm Springs, the district is the last bastion of Democratic congressional representation in a region now dominated by Republicans. Republicans David Dreier, Jerry Lewis, Mary Bono and Buck McKeon are just some of the those whose districts border the 42nd. Somehow Brown, who died in July at the age of 79, withstood repeated electoral challenges from Republicans hungry to put this seat in their column.

With Republicans holding a slim, five-seat majority in the House, the stakes have been raised. But thanks to a profound demographic shift in the area, Republicans are taking a second look at the race, unsure whether to get into a million-dollar brawl with the eventual Democratic nominee, or save their resources for other pivotal races next fall. The surge in registered Latino voters has given the Democrats a new lease on life in this conservative region.

The fight for the Democratic nomination has turned into a down-to-the-wire battle between two Latinos: Brown's liberal, activist widow, Marta Macias Brown, and moderate NRA supporter state Sen. Joe Baca. The race is being closely watched, and not just by the Democratic and Republican functionaries looking for the next hot House race.

The race is shaping up as a test of even bigger themes with state and national ramifications: Will gun control emerge as a make-or-break issue for both parties? Can the recent resurgence of organized labor make a difference in a close Democratic primary? And can Republicans make any inroads with California's burgeoning Latino population, which voted Democratic 4-1 last fall? Or have Latinos made California Republicans -- who gave the nation Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan -- the minority party in this state for the foreseeable future?

Next page | "The 187 bounce"