Short of time and facing mounting opposition, the chairman of the House Banking Committee today abandoned an ambitious election-year effort to overhaul the financial-services industry.

Abortion would remain a lawful option, thereby blunting an election-year effort to pass a Federal abortion rights bill that is now the top legislative priority of the abortion rights movement.

Yet it was treated by nearly all commentators as a purely political document--an election-year effort to accentuate the positive.

To the Editor: In an election-year effort to show toughness on crime, New York State legislators have limited prisoners' access to work release.

Ms. Rice's presentation is considered critical to the White House's election-year effort to put questions about the Sept. 11 attacks behind it.

Republicans on the subcommittee were generally silent as Democrats branded them as sheep following their leaders' election-year efforts to satisfy conservatives.

Democrats Make Their Move Democrats, worried about President Bush's popularity, are beginning an election-year effort to criticize his handling of the economy.

With the Presidential election at hand, Mr. Cuomo reports that he has been recruited to speak on behalf of the President, part of a standard election-year effort.

Supporters of Mr. Kerry have dismissed the administration's sudden push in Afghanistan as an election-year effort to produce a foreign policy success to counter continuing problems in Iraq.

Americans will be receiving smaller tax refunds for 1992 as a result of the Bush Administration's election-year effort to spur activity by reducing the tax withheld from paychecks.