(FORTUNE Magazine) – Grover Norquist, a longtime adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, thinks he's figured out a way to populate the country with a whole new subspecies of Right-thinking Republicans: Push legislation that would induce more people to buy stock.

Citing polls published by the Cato Institute, Norquist asserts that voters tend to lean Republican if they own a stock portfolio worth $5,000 or more. The larger the number of serious investors, he says, the more voters there'll be for GOP candidates. This is an American variation of the old Margaret Thatcher theory that union members would be likelier to vote for Conservative candidates if they owned their own homes.

Since plenty of blue-collar Americans out there are homeowners already, Norquist is pressing for union members to own their own pensions. Through his nonprofit group, Americans for Tax Reform, he's been lobbying states to permit their unionized employees to save through 401(k)s rather than forcing them into union-controlled pensions. So far he has succeeded in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, and Vermont, and is looking for successes soon in Florida and Ohio. Has it made a difference for the GOP? No one will know for sure until November 2000.

--Jeffrey H. Birnbaum