If it does, it will cap a trend that has been visible in big-city politics for some time - the end of absolute Democratic rule.

It's a small village," he said, "and all of a sudden you've got people who want to bring in big-city politics.

THEY vaulted into office as outsiders spouting reform slogans and pledging to upset the liberal apple cart that has been big-city politics for most of this century.

But after two years of putting big-city politics under a microscope, he disagreed.

D1 Houston's two mayoral candidates are in an unusual fight for big-city politics.

Small-town politics are as tangled as big-city politics, and often just as ethnically oriented.

This is about little minds in big-city politics.

Nationally, a "beach politics" is developing that may eventually rival big-city politics.

But behind the contrast also lies a remarkable example of how race, class, labor unions and big-city politics can affect cultural institutions.

The invigorating influence of the Irish-Americans on the Roman Catholic church, the emerging labor unions, the Democratic Party and big-city politics are duly noted.