While the US was riveted and divided by OJ, the GOP used the distraction to takeover Congress.

[onenote]

19. If you can find even a single political scientist that supports your thesis, I'll eat my hat

It is ridiculous on its face. Among other things, it is historically expected for a party that is in the majority in Congress and holds the White House to lose seats in an off year election. Moreover, turnout in the off year elections of 1994, for both the House and Senate, was greater than it had been in the off year elections of 1982, 1986,and 1990 and was greater than the turnout in the off-year elections of 1998.

I was working on campaigns in 1994 and not once did I ever hear anyone suggest that the OJ trial was having an impact on the elections. Rather, we could sense a tidal wave building on the right. Indeed, there had been a string of elections, all predating not just the Simpson trial, but the murder itself that foreshadowed what happened in November 2004 (in an election held the day after Judge Ito ruled the trial could be televised and several months after the televised pretrial hearing had been held).

For example, Guiliani defeated defeated Donald Dinkins (the Democratic incumbent) to become the first Republican mayor of New York in nearly three decades. Los Angeles also elected a Republican mayor in 1993. Christine Todd Whitman knocked off an incumbent Democrat for the governorship of New Jersey; George Allen knocked off a prominent Democrat to become Virginia's governor (a governorship that had been in Democratic hands the two previous terms). There also were a number of special elections to fill vacancies in the House where seats held by Democrats were filled by Republicans. All long before OJ was known for anything other than running through airports.


And by the way, tv ratings for the World Cup in 1994 were significantly BETTER than expected. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-22/sports/sp-18607_1_world-cup