Scientists Lament Lowell Weicker's Election Defeat

WASHINGTON—Elections are supposed to bring change. But the November 8 vote that denied Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.) a fourth term in office was not the sort of change scientists had in mind. “I have to talk through my tears,” laments lobbyist Lynn Morrison of the American Federation for Clinical Research. “Losing Lowell Weicker from the Senate is going to be tough for the entire biomedical community.” Weicker’s narrow defeat at the hands of Connecticut’s Attorney General Joseph Lieberman was the most dramatic of a number of election results affecting science (see story, page 27). And it was a decid edly unpleasant reminder to the scientific community not to become complacent when counting up its friends in Congress. A maverick liberal Republican, Weicker was a tireless advocate for increased health funding. Sometimes he lost. Last year, for example, he failed in an ambitious effort to transfer $200 million from the defense budget to health-related programs. At other times, he won major victories, as when he bullied the Reagan administration to increase funding for AIDS research during the early years of the epidemic. But win or lose, he showed scientists that he cared about their concerns. “Biomedical research has other friends,” Morrison admits. “But I don’t know whether there’s someone who’s willing to take up the banner and wave it, like he’s done for all these years.” In fact, Weicker’s standing in the research community is so high that many prominent scientists went to hat for him during the final days of the election campaign. Such scientific luminaries as David Baltimore, Lewis Thomas, Robert Ballard, and Donald Fredrickson took the unusual step of lending their names and signatures to full-page ads in three Connecticut newspapers, The ads proclaimed that Weicker “was there when we needed him—Be there when he needs you!” The ad campaign was the idea of Terry Lierman, president of Capitol Associates, a political consulting firm that specializes in health issues. “I heard that he was in trouble [in the election, so I went to work,” explains Lierman. The consultant contacted friends in the research community and, within three days, collected more than 25 signatures from top scientists and raised $12,000 from a dozen or so individuals to pay for the four full-page ads that appeared the day before the election. But it wasn’t enough. “I think that the entire health community was remiss in not doing more to let the people of Connecticut know what Sen. Weicker has meant to health research in this country,” says Lierman, who worked with Weicker as staff director when the senator chaired the health appropriations subcommittee. In another tribute that came too late to help him in the polling booth, Weicker last month received a public service award from the Albert and Mary Leaker Foundation, long-time benefactors of medical research whose scientific awards often presage the Nobel Prize (see story on page 24). Weicker was cited for his “compassion and dedication in the fight to eradicate disease and disability through federal funding of medical research and public health programs. Weicker wasn’t everything scientists want in a politician. His status as a frequent opponent of the Reagan administration and a member of the minority party in the Senate undoubtedly limited his legislative clout. In fact, several lobbyists are hopeful that his successor, although only a freshman, may eventually be equally effective as a supporter of science. But it’s clear that the scientific community will miss Weicker’s willingness to fight for it's causes. "Health research has lost a friend," says Alan Kraut, head science directorate at the American Psychological Association. "Weicker is not going to be easily replaced."

Scientists Lament Lowell Weicker's Election Defeat

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