When the news came Sunday night that Barbara Keating died at 82 following a stroke, there was sadness among conservatives on both the East and West Coasts. As the U.S. Senate nominee of the insurgent New York Conservative Party in 1974, Keating, a widow and mother of five, impressed audiences with her speaking style and no-holds-barred conservative stands on issues. On a shoe-string budget and with an almost exclusively volunteer campaign, she drew 16% of the vote and held veteran liberal GOP Sen. Jacob Javits to a career-low 45% in his reelection. By 1992, having relocated to Northern California and...