Yeakel

Self HelpI read a book about eight years ago on how to become a millionaire by buying real estate, with no money down, of course.The thrust being that the interest on each mortgage payment was deductible. So if you had enough property, you conceivably would pay no income tax at all.I loved the idea and pursued it vigorously. Only trouble was, after I had acquired numerous houses and buildings, lo and behold, along came the 1986 Kemp-Roth tax law eliminating deductions on all rental properties -- at least in my income bracket.

Boston. -- In the aftermath of the Pennsylvania primary, this campaign watcher has had the oddest sense that something is missing from her regular political diet. What could it be?Ah, yes, that's it. What's absent is apathy. Alienation from the political process. That old familiar dusty taste of powerlessness.Until now, we've all been told that people are voting with a sour taste in their mouths. Their appetite has been dampened by disappointment and disillusionment. Expect nothing except dyspepsia.

"I was thunderstruck, as I think most Americans were, with the composition of the Judiciary Committee," said Lynn Yeakel just before the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday. She is explaining her decision to run for the Democratic nomination for Senate. "It just seems clear to me to have 98 men, two women and no people of color in the highest legislative body in this land is inappropriate."She also found Sen. Arlen Specter's questioning of Anita Hill in the Thomas confirmation hearings inappropriate.

Lynn Yeakel, who won the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania, says, "I was in the right place at the right time."If Pennsylvania is the right place for a woman candidate, that is great news for the Democratic Party. Pennsylvania has been a hostile state to women politicians. It has no women members of Congress. (Maryland has three women representatives and a senator.) Only 7 percent of its state legislature is female (Maryland: 24 percent). So if a woman can win election there, the fact that 18 of the 21 women running for the Senate this year are Democrats could mean big gains for the party.

PHILADELPHIA -- A virtually unknown woman, outraged over the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings last fall, defeated experienced politicians yesterday to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in Pennsylvania.Lynn Yeakel, a political newcomer who was even less well-known in Pennsylvania than Carol Moseley Braun was in Illinois, rode a wave of voter anger to win the right to challenge Republican Sen. Arlen Specter in the fall.Mr. Specter was the chief inquisitor of Anita Hill in October in the confirmation hearings on Mr. Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON -- Political newcomer Lynn Yeakel's smashing defeat of a one-time favorite to claim Pennsylvania's Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate suggests that this year of upheaval may finally put more women in the nation's top jobs.Ms. Yeakel, a charity fund-raiser, is the second woman this year, following Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, to come from nowhere and best a field of male Senate contenders. Both capitalized on a combination of feminist outrage, anti-incumbent sentiment and resources built by two decades of women who plowed the ground before them.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton rolled over essentially token opposition in presidential primaries in Pennsylvania yesterday and moved a step closer to a head-to-head confrontation in the general election Nov. 3.Mr. Clinton defeated former Gov. Jerry Brown of California by what appeared to be a margin impressive enough to give the Arkansas governor a strong case to make when he flies to Washington today to seek the support of uncommitted "superdelegates" from the Senate and House.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa.-- When someone asked Lynn Yeakel for her views on adult education, she confessed: "I don't know enough about that issue to give you a reply." Her listeners, gathered for a coffee here the other morning, applauded enthusiastically.The same thing happened a moment later when she admitted that, although she was "very wary" of President Bush's proposals on education, she just didn't "know enough" to comment on his plan for providing college funding with $25,000 lines of credit.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Pennsylvania primary campaign gettin the closest attention from political professionals over the final weekend is not Bill Clinton vs. Jerry Brown, but rather one that has been relatively ignored by the national press -- the contest for the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican Sen. Arlen Specter on Nov. 3.The favorite in the five-candidate Democratic field all along has been Lt. Gov. Mark S. Singel, who enjoys the backing of...

Series tickets IRob Turnipseed of Smyrna, Ga., spent $1,000 on tickets for Game 5 of the World Series, and didn't use them.Turnipseed considers the tickets, stubs intact, an investment. He's encasing them in plastic, and when the Series ends, plans to sell them to a collector."I went to Hank Aaron's game when he broke the home-run record. I was there and had an extra ticket and wound up giving it [away]," Turnipseed explained. "I've always regretted that because it would be worth a fortune now. That's my same thinking here."