That would have enabled legislators to extend Mr. Gephardt's district north, into the heavily black -- and securely Democratic -- terrain of St . Louis
That would enable legislators to extend Mr. Gephardt's district north, into the heavily black -- and securely Democratic -- terrain of St . Louis
Mr. Lazio, she asserted, repeatedly sought to obscure parts of his record to accommodate the Democratic electoral terrain in New York, while Mr. Bush has run more explicitly as a Republican.
That position has clearly helped him survive, politically, in Democratic-leaning terrain.
Her Southern Colorado district is heavily Hispanic and reliably Democratic, hardly ideal terrain to oust a lawmaker with Mexican roots whose mother once worked picking beans.
"Republicans have many more opportunities to pick up seats in favourable political terrain as Democratic members leave the House," wrote conservative Wall Street Journal reporter John Fund a few months after the election.
At overflowing political rallies, at house parties and in television commercials, the partisan roar softened a bit as Republican and Democratic candidates navigated the complicated terrain of late-deciding voters.
Nonetheless, with his speech, Mr. Green sought to navigate what will be tricky terrain for all Democratic candidates seeking to succeed the Republican mayor: to at once promise a continuation of Mr. Giuliani's success at reducing the crime rate without losing the support of some Democrats, particularly in minority neighborhoods, who have attacked the police force under Mr. Giuliani as excessive.
Green activists say they are watching whether Clinton moves beyond talking vaguely about the climate – politically safe terrain for any Democratic candidate – to backing strategies that could make a difference but incur a political price, such as imposing new caps on carbon emissions or opposing the Keystone oil pipeline to run from the Canada tar sands to the Gulf Coast.
Having awarded their electoral votes to Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 and to Bill Clinton in the next two presidential elections, Washington and Oregon would seem to be immensely hospitable terrain for a Democratic aspirant to the White House -- perhaps so much so that neither major party candidate would worry much about bothering with campaigning here.
