PETE LANEY AND RULES REFORM

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A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES NOVEMBER 27, 1992 • $1.75 ' • ,,EOPate

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MICHAEL ALEXANDER '92 ELECTIONS TAKING STOCK DIALOGUE

Mothball Prisons For Realpolitik The Observer is always interesting, but Nancy Folbre's article ("Remembering the I found the October 16th issue exceptional. Alamo Heights," TO 11/13/92) reminds "Pay Now or Later: The Exploding Prison us why it's important for progressives not

. Bryce shares extremely A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES Budget" by Robert to be as pure'as Erwin Knoll suggests in We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to important information while Ronnie Dugger's his letter in the same issue. It's true that the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are insightful review of William Wayne Justice: Clinton is no great progressive, but Texans, dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all A Judicial Biography is truly inspirational. of all people, should understand why it's interests, to the rights of human-kind as the foundation When my wife, Pauline, and I left Texas so vital to keep the Pat Buchanan wing of of democracy: we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent for Washington in 1985 to expand our prison the GOP from picking another Supreme the truth to serve the interests of the poweditl or cater reform organization nationally, we stopped Court Justice, not to mention another 200 to the ignoble in the human spirit. in Tyler and visited with Judge Justice. Up to other federal judges — in this past elec- Writers are responsible for their own work, but not then, we had refrained from such social con- tion or any to come.. for anything they have not themselves written, and in pub- lishing them we do not necessarily imply that we agree tact because we had been totally involved in In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled with them, because this is a journal of free voices. Ruiz litigation. 5-4 against Demetrio Rodriguez's lawsuit Over a sandwich and yogurt, the three of against the Independent SINCE 1954 us talked about the need to speak out even School District that would have forced Publisher: Ronnie Dugger though society may not be ready for the mes- the state to equalize school finance among Editor: Louis Dubose sage. The visit was a highlight of our lives! rich and poor school districts. Appointees Associate Editor: James Cullen The message of Judge Justice in Ruiz was of Richard Nixon sealed that majority. Layout and Design: Diana Paciocco, Peter Szymczak that prisons should only be used for those Had the liberals who snubbed Hubert Copy Editor: Roxanne Bogucka Mexico City Correspondent: Barbara Belejack. who absolutely have to be in them. Thus, Humphrey in the exceptionally close 1968 Editorial Interns: Paula George, Lorri J. Legge my only criticism of Mr. Bryce is when he presidential race (an understandable move, Contributing Writers: Bill Adler, Betty Brink, Warren states that the state was forced to build more given Vietnam etc.) held their noses and Burnett, Brett Campbell, Jo Clifton, Terry FitzPatrick, prisons because of this lawsuit. voted Democratic, it's very likely that at Gregg Franzwa, James Harrington, Bill Helmer, Ellen Hosmer, Steven Kellman, Michael King, Deborah Community corrections should be the least one Humphrey appointee would have Lutterbeck, Tom McClellan, Bryce Milligan, Debbie impact of Judge Justice's court order, not voted with Justices Brennan and Marshall Nathan, Gary Pomerantz, Lawrence Walsh. more prisons. From the experience of other to find a First Amendment right to equal- Editorial Advisory Board: David Anderson, Austin; states, we know that you cannot build out ized school finance. Instead, it took until Frances Barton, Austin; Elroy Bode, El Paso; Chandler Davidson, ; Dave Denison, Cambridge, Mass; of the overcrowding problem. 1987 for the Texas Supreme Court to Bob Eckhardt, Washington, D.C.; Sissy Farenthold, In fact, new prisons are not being used require substantial equity in school fi- Houston; Ruperto Garcia, Austin; John Kenneth Galbraith, because of the state's lack of funds to operate nance — and the battle continues. Even if . Cambridge, Mass.; Lawrence Goodwyn, Durham, N.C.; them. These mothball prisons exist as far a halfway equitable plan emerges from the George Hendrick, Urbana, Ill.; Molly Ivins, Austin; Larry L. King, Washington, D.C.; Maury Maverick, north as Michigan and as far south as Florida. upcoming special session and is upheld by Jr., San Antonio; Willie Morris, Oxford, Miss.; Kaye Even Arkansas, Clinton's state, has one. the Supremes, two generations of Texas Northcott, Austin; James Presley, Texarkana; Susan Reid, Rather than end with a mothball prison, schoolchildren will have been condemned Austin; Geoffrey Rips, Austin; A.R. (Babe) Schwartz, Congress decided this year to hold back on to inequitable, sometimes abominable Galveston; Fred Schmidt, Fredericksburg. start-up funds for a prison, citing the lack of public schooling. They probably have certainty of operating monies. This was the little sympathy for the 1968 liberals' Poetry Consultant: Thomas B. Whitbread Contributing Photographers: Bill Albrecht, Vic Hin- first time in recent years that the Federal anguish. Any number of cases likely terlang, Alan Pogue. Bureau of Prisons did not receive every dollar to reach the Court in the next four years Contributing Artists: Michael Alexander, Eric Avery, they have requested for the construction of might have a similar impact. Tom Ballenger, Richard Bartholomew, Jeff Danziger, more prisons. Yes, we have to stop waiting for salva- Beth Epstein, Dan Hubig, Pat Johnson, Kevin Kreneck, Michael - Krone, Carlos Lowry, Ben Sargent, Dan Texas should follow the lead of this "law- tion from Washington, and yes, we should Thibodeau, Gail Woods, Matt Wuerker. and-order" Republican administration and organize to get more progressive candidates cancel its proposed massive prison building a real shot at federal office, whether through Managing Publisher: Cliff Olofson program. The state's leadership should, but the Democratic Party or some other means. Subscription Manager: Stefan Wanstrom they probably won't. But in the meantime, let's at least keep Executive Assistant: Gail Woods In fact, a few years from now when brand- things from getting worse and pick the Special Projects Director: Bill Simmons Development Consultant: Frances Barton new but unused prisons dot the Texas land- lesser of evils. (Besides, I think Clinton scape, someone will probably blame Justice's will turn out to be a pleasant surprise.) SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year $32, two years $59, three years $84. Full-time court order in Ruiz as the reason for these You may not love , or the students $18 per year. Back issues $3 prepaid. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm editions available from University Microfilms mothball prisons. next Democratic nominee. But don't take Intl., 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Any current subscriber Charles Sullivan, Executive Director, it out on the rest of the country. who finds the price a burden should say so at renewal time; no one need forgo reading the Observer simply because of the cost. National CURE (Citizens United for the Brett Campbell INDEXES: The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplententaty Index to Periodicals; Texas Index and, for the years 1954 through 1981 ,The Texas Rehabilitation of Errants, Washington D.C. San Antonio Observer Index. THE TEXAS OBSERVER (ISSN 0040-4519/USPS 541300). entire contents copyrighted. © 1992, is published biweekly except for a three-week interval between issues in January and July (25 issues per year) by the Texas Observer Publishing Co.. 307 West 7th Stregt, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone: (512) Send a Friend the Texas Observer 477-0746. Second-class postage paid at Austin. Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE TEXAS OBSERVER, 307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Contact Stefan Wanstrom at (512) 477-0746, or write TO, 307 West 7th St., Austin, TX 78701.

2 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 EDITORIALS rdmh, THE TEXAS 11 IP server School Finance Famine NOVEMBER 27, 1992 ARL PARKER has a gift for telling stories that is available for fiScal years 1994-95 is VOLUME 84, No. 23 C that provide a certain insight into problems $650 million in new state funds — about one- and processes. At a Senate Education Committee fifth of the money anticipated. And this year FEATURES hearing held during the first week of the spe- there is an $845 million shortfall of funds that cial session, the Port Arthur senator offered school districts were to receive under the fund- Uneasy Incumbents up what might be the most insightful metaphor ing formulas in SB 351. By Molly Ivins 6 of this year's education finance special session: So this special session becomes a gathering "It was, I believe, up in Senator Haley's dis- of school districts fighting for resources insuf- trict that I saw this fella walk out to a pen where ficient to educate the state's children, as well Taking Stock of the Election he kept a bunch of hound dogs and throw a as an attempt to devise a mechanism to distribute By James Cullen 7 bunch of squash over the fence for the dogs. those resources. That perhaps explains the And those dogs tore into the squash, fighting unusually high number of lobbyists registered Election Year in Review over them and eating every one of them like it to work an education session. These dogs are By James Cullen 12 was meat. So I just had to ask him, 'How do you about to fight over gourds. get those dogs to eat squash?' It's easy,' he said. And this is really a session about the state Mourning in Houston `First you feed 'em gourds for three weeks.' " income tax the governor refuses to propose By Jane Grandolfo 14 There is a metaphor that works on two lev- and the Legislature refuses to consider. What els, both within the Legislature and beyond it. has been proposed, by Gov. , Lt. Rocking in Little Rock Whether Parker intended it or not, he described Gov. and House Speaker Gib By Stephen Buel 15 the process by which the Governor is attempt- Lewis is The Fair Share Plan — a constitutional ing to persuade legislators to swallow a school amendment that would define school funding Crazy in finance system that is as unappetizing to them equity, thereby removing the question of equity By Terry FitzPatrick 16 as gourds are to East Texas hounds. And, out- from the courts. Then, the enactment of a new side the cramped confines of the temporary delivery system in the form of a school finance One Vote, One Judge Senate chamber, the most serious problem is law. The constitutional amendment would also Carroll G. Robinson 17 not the system for distributing resources to the allow for "recapture" of wealth. Recapture is 1,050 not-so-independent school districts in the a term that describes the transfer of tax revenues state. The problem is that there are not suffi- from wealthy to poor school districts. DEPARTMENTS cient resources to distribute. Parker knows that. In recent Legislative history, equity in school "Give me four billion dollars and almost any of finance has been defined in terms of percent- Editorials 3, 4 the plans look better," he said. And most of ages of students — for example by requiring the legislators summoned to Austin to fix the that 95 percent of all the state's children would Books & the Culture system know it, too. have access to the same amount of revenue Senate Bill 351 — enacted during the last per student, regardless of what school districts Friday Night Revisited session to distribute the state's education funds they live in. The constitutional amendment By Robert Bryce 20 more equitably -- was considered by many, proposed by the governor would define equity including the plaintiffs in the Edgewood school in dollars, requiring that 95 percent of educa- Media Observer finance lawsuit, a reasonable solution to the tion revenue will be distributed equally. The Big 'Whoosh' state's unequal and inadequate system of pub- There are, according to advocates of equi- By Christopher Cook 21 lic education. Passage of the law proved it is table funding, serious defects in the Fair Share possible to devise a system that will more fairly Plan. Among Kauffman's concerns is the plan's Afterword divide the state's wealth among all its defining equity in a very vague fashion — in Come Home to Lubbock, George schoolchildren. "We were satisfied with what the Constitution. "... In the future the courts By. Phillip Parker 23 Senate Bill 351 would have achieved in its would look at what the Constitution demands, final year of funding," said Al Kauffman, the rather than what historically has been required Political Intelligence 24 Mexican American Legal Defense and and what other cases have talked about," Education Fund attorney who with several col- Kauffman said. The vagueness of the proposed Cover art by Michael Alexander leagues has three times taken this case to the amendment, and the legislative history of fund- Texas Supreme Court. The problem that ing schools, make the proposal "a little scary," Kauffman sees with SB 351 is that it "never got according to Kauffman. What it amounts to, there." Even if it had not been challenged in although Kauffman wouldn't say it, is chang- court, where one of its components was ruled ing the rules of the game after the plaintiffs unconstitutional, it would not be adequate have won. because there is not nearly enough money to Paul Colbert, the Houston Democrat who is ERRATUM fund it. one of very few House members who actually A review of William Wayne Justice: A Senate Bill 351's funding formulas required understands the arcana of school fmance, agrees . Judicial Biography in the Oct. 2 Observer $3.5 billion in new state spending on education with Kauffman. In the past, equity in education incorrectly stated Judge Justice's birth- in fiscal years 1994 and 1995. As Kauffman funding has been determined by statute and place. He was born in Athens. said, when fully funded it would probably be has used as its measure the number of the state's adequate. It will never be fully funded. All students included in a system in which an equal

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 3 increase in the local property tax rate would funds are excluded, it becomes easier to exclude be done with this issue and be on our way." result in an equal amount of tax revenue. For other funds. Colbert was more direct: "It's an Not even in the subtext was there a line about example, a tax increase of one cent in Alice I.S.D equity standard that doesn't provide equity." social justice, or the very obvious fact that the would provide the same amount of revenue for There is greater consensus among both equity Edgewood suit the governor seeks to end is school children in Alice as a tax increase of one advocates and those resigned to a more fair sys- part of a civil rights struggle that has been 50 cent in Eanes I.S.D. would provide for chil- tem that the second component of the Fair Share years in the making in this country. Instead, the dren in West Austin. And if it didn't, the state amendment, recapture, is acceptable. School- governor clearly defines an adversarial rela- would provide the funds to equalize. children in Texas will be better served if the Fair tionship between schoolchildren and taxpayers The Fair Share Plan defines equity in dol- Share equity standard dies and the recapture — then comes down on the side of the taxpay- lars — the amount of state dollars that would provision, which mandates that rich districts share ers. Rather than resolve the school finance law- flow into equalized school districts. "It talks their wealth, is enacted. Recapture, by the new suit, the governor hopes to end it. This is the key about a number of dollars rather than talking County Education Districts, was the only com- to understanding the Fair Share Plan. about whether they are achieving an equitable ponent of SB 351 ruled unconstitutional, accord- But even as taxpayer advocates, proponents result," Colbert said. "So you can have vast dif- ing to the Equity Center, an advocacy group of the Fair Share plan fail. School boards are ferences in ability to spend [among districts] representing moderate- and low-wealth school already faced with either raising local taxes or and still meet the test." districts. Fix it, they argue, and continue with cutting programs to adjust to this year's $845 Irma Rangel, a Kingsville representative and something similar to SB 351. million shortfall. And they have yet to begin to member of the House Mexican American At the beginning of the special session, Gov. grapple with the difference between the antici- Caucus, which most closely represents the posi- Richards addressed a joint session of the pated $3.8 billion and the $650 million they tion advocated by MALDEF, said the equity Legislature and presented her case for the will actually receive over the next three years. standard is vague. "Ninety-five percent of what?" enactment of the "Fair Share Plan." The gov- Some observers have speculated that the Fair Rangel asked. "We don't know what the 95 per- ernor said nothing about generations of chil- Share Plan is supported by Bullock, who rec- cent stands for; 95 percent of general revenue? dren educated in inadequate schools, and noth- ognizes the fairness and equity of a state income 95 percent of revenue not including money for ing about the current generation of children tax, because it will push the property tax to an special programs?" Rangel' s concern is shared that has just begun to benefit from the new intolerable level and therefore broaden sup- by Kauffman, who said that in the past bureau- equity standard and the additional state money port for an income tax — a once forbidden mea- crats have interpreted such funding guidelines added to public education by SB 351. Her sure which these days is even being discussed "as not to include facilities money, not to include speech instead was a dispassionate discourse in editorials in the Dallas Morning News. co-curricular spending, not to include some about finding a way to end the school finance What does all of this portend? Well, that par- administrative expenses." And if you don't lawsuit and to avoid a new tax bill. "We are ents in this state are going to be feeding their include all of these expenses, the real equity brought to this point by the courts and this is school age children gdurds for two years. High- standard falls well below 95 percent, Kauffman the only way we know to get the courts out priced gourds, paid for with local and not state said. He added that once certain categories of of our school system," Richards said. "...Let's tax dollars. In 1995 we'll get squash. — L.D.

Pete Laney and Rules Reform

HEN HALE-CENTER Democrat Pete that discouraged Austin Democrat Elliott reform and suggesting that whatever reform a W Laney produced a list of 86 "pledged" Naishtat from signing on at the last minute, as majority of House members support will be supporters and announced that the speaker's did Greenberg, Maxey, and Hirschi when it enacted. But his record suggests that rules race was over, questions from reporters quickly became apparent that Laney had the votes. But reform, most of which is designed to open up turned to House rules reform. Not since the Naishtat also opposes the pledge card system the legislative process, diffuse power, and late Jr. was elected speaker in and said: "In principle, I am reluctant to sup- thereby weaken the business lobby, has never 1973, after the Sharpstown scandal, has the port any candidate for speaker before January been on his agenda. House attempted any major reform which would [when the new Legislature convenes]." In January of 1991 Laney voted against motions provide a fairer and more open process and Naishtat was an almost solitary holdout. Even to elect the speaker by secret ballot and to limit limit the influence of the big business lobby. David Cain, D-Dallas, recognized as the most the speaker's tenure to two consecutive terms. Current House rules provide a clear advantage progressive candidate in the race, allowed Laney Although the provisions were offered by Al Price, to the lobby and of Fort Worth, the to release his name as a "pledged" supporter, D-Beaumont, and Paul Moreno, D-El Paso Speaker who in January leaves the House after although Cain didn't show up among the 22 (respectively), two House members who are a full-blown ethics scandal and a no-contest plea House members who provided a backdrop for almost always right and almost never effective, to two ethics-related charges, is recognized as Laney's victory press conference. And although they were valid reform measures, supported by an in-House ancillary of the business lobby. To they didn't hand over pledge cards, before the organizations like Common Cause and the AFL- good-government types, like members of the first week of the special session was over the CIO. Both measures lost by wide margins. citizen's lobby Common Cause, and the labor only remaining candidates in the speaker's race, When in May of 1991 Maxey offered a reform federation AFL-CIO, which had seen in Lewis' Jim Rudd, D-Browfield, and Talmadge Heflin, measure that would have allowed lobbyists to departure an opportunity to enact rules reform- R-Houston, both had conceded that Pete Laney spend no more than $250 on any one legisla- measures, Laney's early victory in the speaker's will be the next Speaker of the House. Of the tor during a calendar year, and no more than $25 race cannot portend much good. candidates remaining in the race when Laney on any one legislator in a single day, the House Despite speaker-elect Pete Laney's support announced his victory, Rudd had issued the most voted to table the measure and thus killed it. from several members of an informal House comprehensive reform package. And Heflin is Laney voted with the majority. reform caucus — legislators like Sherri a director of the Conservative Caucus, which Another reform measure, which came closer Greenberg, D-Austin, , D-Austin, includes 49 House members and is promoting to passing, was offered by Troy Fraser, R-Big and . John Hirschi, D-Wichita Falls — Laney a rules reform program. Spring, on the same day Maxey's reform pro- is an unlikely reformer. His lack of a compre- Laney responded to reporters' questions in posal was defeated. Fraser attempted to close hensive rules-reform platform was one issue a general way, saying that he is open to rules an ethics bill loophole bill that allowed legis-

4 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992

lators to represent clients before the Workers' ers of a candidate in the speaker's race. of 86 names. "I feel like we need a comprehen- Compensation Commission, Department of Between the Sharpstown and Lewis eras sive rules-reform platform," Naishtat said. Criminal Justice and the Board of Pardons and Laney has also voted consistently against rules John Hirschi, the Wichita Falls Democrat con- Paroles. It was tabled by a 75-62 margin, with and ethics reform in the House, including a sidered by many to be the force behind the Laney voting with the majority. 1975 vote against an Elections Commission that reform caucus, said he faced a difficult decision Nor is Laney's opposition to open govern- would have monitored campaign finance, a but decided to sign a Laney pledge card because, ment and ethics reform a recent development. 1979 measure that would have required strict among other reasons, it offered him an oppor- In the book on the Sharpstown Scandal, The financial disclosure by public officials, a 1979 tunity to talk straightforwardly to Laney about Year they Threw the Rascals Out, Charles provision that would have limited, the gover- rules reform. Hirschi said his signing on with Deaton considered the most important reform nor's ability to offer political appointments to Laney was not a quid pro quo and that once votes offered up in response to the banking large campaign contributors, a 1981 require- Laney had the votes the issue of a secret ballot and insider-trading scandal that ended the pub- ment that would have provided greater public — a reform provision that would make it more lic careers of then-Lt. Gov . and then- access to taped recordings of House committee difficult for a. speaker to reward his supporters House Speaker Gus Mutscher Jr. (Actually, hearings and a 1989 proposed constitutional and punish his opponents after taking office Mutscher's career as a public servant did not amendment that would have increased legisla, — became moot. end then. After his conviction on conspiracy tors' salaries from $7,200 to $23,000 a year. Maxey, also a member of the reform cau- to accept a bribe, he was elected county judge (It has often been argued that the low salaries cus, an informal group of approximately 25, said in Washington County. Perhaps his indictment in the Legislature discourage working people he spoke with. Laney about reform and was on mail fraud charges — separate from the from running for office and make legislators comfortable with the Speaker-elect's commit- Sharpstown scandal — last week will end his more dependent on the largesse of the lobby.) ment to the issue. "I didn't sit down with Pete political career.) Laney and demand the support of X Y or Z," Laney voted against every One of the eight O IT SHOULD NOT be surprising that Maxey said. "But I am confident he will sup- measures that Deaton described as the most Sadvocates of rules reform and a stronger port the reform that we can get 76 members to important reform votes of the 1973 season. ethics code in the House are discouraged with vote for." Maxey said the reform caucus will Financial disclosure, for example, was an impor- the selection of Pete Laney to serve as Speaker continue to meet. tant component of the post-Sharpstown ethics after Gib Lewis Departs in January. According to Hirschi, the election of Laney as bill. When reformers attempted to overturn an Naishtat, an Austin progressive who faced no speaker does not close the door on rules reform amendment that would have sealed, in the opponent in the last election, said he would like this session. The first order of business on the first absence of probable cause, the financial state- to hear more from Laney on rules reform. "One day of the session will be the election of the ments of legislators. Laney voted with the major- paragraph isn't enough," said Naishtat, who speaker, as Secretary of State John Hannah pre- ity- in a 71-70 vote to keep legislators'. finan- added that he was offered the opportunity to sign sides over the House. The second order of busi- cial records sealed. When, a week later, reformers on with Laney "a number of times" during the ness will begin when a rules-reform report .pre- attempted to undo the damage done to the bill 24 hours before the speaker-elect released his list and require the financial holdings of legisla- Continued on page 19 tors to be available for public examination, Laney again voted with the majority to keep records sealed. When on March 8, 1973, a final version of Laney's Supporters the ethics bill was brought to the floor, reform- ers described the bill, gutted by amendments, as a "mockery and a fraud." Laney voted with OUSE MEMBERS and House members- Wichita Falls; Scott Hochberg, D-Houston; the majority to enact the bill. H elect whose names were released by Pete Steve Holzheauser, R-Victoria; Sam Hudson, Laney also opposed a 1973 reform measure Laney as "pledged"supporters. Italicized type- D-Dallas; Bob Hunter, R-Abilene; Todd, proposed by then-Rep. Wayne Peveto, which face denotes representatives-elect. Hunter, D-Corpus Christi; , would have killed the Ethics Commission and Clyde Alexander, D-Athens; Ray Allen, RLubbock; Jesse Jones, D-Dallas; Robert moved its function and authority to the Secretary R-Grand Prairie; Robert Alonzo, D-Dallas; Junell, D-San Angelo; , D- of State's office. The measure was defeated 96- Leo Alvarado , D-San Antonio; Kip Averitt, R- Rockdale; Pete Laney, D-Hale Center; Libby . 47. Waco; Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, Hugo Linebarger, D-Manchaca; Ken Marchant, R- Another measure would have allowed any Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi; Layton Black, D- Coppell; Mike Martin, D-Galveston; Glen citizen to spend 'any amount of money lobby- Goldthwaite; Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth; Maxey, D-Austin; Huey McCoulskey, D- ing his own representative or senator, or the gov- David Cain, D-Dallas; Ben Campbell, R-. Richmond; Nancy McDonald, D-El Paso; ernor or lieutenant governor, without being Lewisville; John Carona, R-Dallas; Warren Nancy Moffat, R-Fort Worth; Anna Mowery, required to register as a lobbyist. It was rejected Chisum, D-Pampa; Garnet Coleman, D- R-Fort Worth; Keith Oakley, D-Terrell; Steve by a 72-72 tie, with the Speaker voting to break Houston; Karyne Conley, D-San Antonio; Ogden, R-Bryan; Rene Oliveira, D-Browns- the tie. Laney was among the 72 voting in favor John Cook, D-Breckenridge; David Counts, ville; Pete Patterson, D-Brookston; Allen Place, of the measure, designed to make high-dollar D-Knox City; , R-Midland; D- Gatesville; Tom Ramsay, D-Mount Vernon; lobbying easier. Debra Danburg, D-Houston; Yvonne Davis, Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville; Richard Raymond, When Tom Uher, D-Bay City, offered up D-Dallas; Wilhelmina Delco, D-Austin; D-Benavides; Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio; an amendment weakening the. Open Meetings Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple; Betty Denton, Sylvia Romo, D-San Antonio; Sue Schecter, Bill, Laney voted for it. What Uher proposed D-Waco; Joe Driver, R-Garland; Robert D-Houston; Curtis Seidlits, D-Sherman; John was exempting from open meetings require- Earley, D-Portland; Al Edwards, D-Houston; Shields, R-San Antonio; Bill Siebert, R-San ments all meetings of government bodies where Bernard Erickson, R-Burleson; Charles Finnell, Antonio; Ashley Smith, R-Houston; Dalton personnel matters would be discussed. The Uher . D-Holliday; Yolanda Navarro Flores, D- Smith, RHouston; John Smithee, R-Amarillo; amendment, considered on Jan. 29, 1973, even Houston; Pete Gallego, D-Alpine; Helen Mark Stiles, D-Beaumont; David Swinford,' exempted personnel meetings from public post- Giddings, D-Dallas; Bob Glaze, D-Gilmer; R-Dumas; Robert Talton, D-Pasadena; Barry ing, thus assuring almost complete secrecy in Patti Gray, D-Galveston; Sherri Greenberg, Telford, D-Dekalb; Senfronia Thompson, D- part of the deliberative process. D-Austin; Will Harnett, R-Dallas; Christine Houston; Bob Turner, D-Voss; Sylvester On another reform measure, pertaining to the Hernandez, D-San Antonio; Allen Hightower, Turner, D-Houston; Tom Uher, D-Bay City; office to which he will formally be elected in D-Huntsville; Harvey Hilderbran, R-Uvalde; Buddy West, R-Odessa; Ron Wilson,. D- January, Laney voted to allow unlimited and Fred Hill, R-Richardson; John Hirschi, D- Houston; Ken Yarbrough, D-Houston. unreported spending by friends and support- THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 5

nowortipmwole.ownvwfopIP1,4000.....wwo~-....or. Uneasy Incumbents, Waffling Arkansans and Pete Laney

BY MOLLY IVINS

Little Rock to Yale Law School, was by making top grades Lewis into the historical shade. And as is true OLY COW, it's a blowout! And a blow- at Hot Springs High School. And the people of both Clayton and Lewis, Laney is just a hard out with legs, also known as coattails, he knows, the people he comes from and the guy to dislike. if you can handle that many metaphors. people with whom he has spent most of his He's shrewd, that canny, coun- What it means is that everything that was life have Southern accents, bad grammar and try, "Hell, I'm just a hick from Hale Center" below the radar this year, everything the polls callused hands. kind of smart that fools no one in Texas poli- missed by miscalculating "likely voters," was A bunch of them have been having breakfast tics. There's not an ounce of pretension to him anti-Bush. That's where the rest of the famous at the Waffle House in Jacksonville for the and he has that limy, West Texas honest streak 76 percent which thinks the country is on the past couple of days, not as a political state- — a couple of years ago, someone asked Laney wrong track has been lurking. ment, but because they always have breakfast where he stood on one of those titanic special- Although Clinton was the big winner, I think at the Waffle House. (Had George Bush ever interest fights where one set of big-rich rotters the clearest message of the year is the shot — had breakfast at a Waffle House before this goes after another set of big-rich rotters and the shot, hell, the cannon fire — across the bow campaign?) They're split on Clinton, and a lot people have nothing to lose. "Whorin' as fast of the entire political establishment. A lot of of them didn't vote. The guy with the plumb- as I can," said Laney, "I'm just whorin' as fast incumbents may be coming back, but they just ing supply company would have, but he thought as I can." You can't help but love it. squeaked back in. They're on probation, and there was a law that they had to give you time I suppose we could take a fit over the fact that they know it.... off from work to vote, and it turns out there's at this late date we're getting yet another lobby As would say (Perot's greatest not. By the time the waitress finished her shift, favorite, West Texas conservative in as speaker, legacy may be the number of instant political it was too late. Bud from Little Rock had to wait when everyone knows we're an urban, multi- cliches he has contributed), Step One is elec- two hours to vote. ethnic state. But the fact is, if we have to have toral reform and specifically campaign finance And none of that should have happened. a West Texas conservative, Laney would be my reform. Texas has pioneered early voting, and I think pick. I've known him quietly to help pass some The version both houses have already paskd the results are good enough that we should not pretty good legislation, and legislation that would (and which was vetoed by Bush) is pretty tooth- only keep it and extend it, we should recom- help urban areas at that, which no one has ever less and wimpy. If Clinton can get real cam- mend it to the rest of the country. About a third accused Hale Center of being. paign finance reform through Congress, then of Texans voted early this year, in lines that The downside of the deal is that it's an awful the entire political world will change, because moved right along and took maybe 10 minutes. brake on the progress this state so desperately it means the special interests will no longer It's so much easier and more convenient, I fig- needs to make. In Texas, we're coming up fast have a lock on Congress. Without that, almost ure we can get it down to where the only peo- on that point at which the irresistible force meets anything is possible.... ple who need to vote on Election Day are the the immovable object: The force is the state's • • • procrastinators and the chronically undecided. needs and the object is the state's tax struc- Of all the jiggering we need to do with the sys- ture. With Laney in as speaker, the lobby will Jacksonville, Ark. tem — getting polls in all states to close at the continue to have a veto on taxes. And for those OU CAN ALREADY tell that the media same time or the networks to hold off on pre- poor innocents out there who still think the — those villains, those arch-fiends, those dictions, motor-voter registration, same-day answer to everything is No New Taxes, let me ceaseless perverters of truth — have registration and so on — I believe Texas has point out that you ain't in the lobby. You piti- got it wrong. They're calling the yet-to-be- come up with the best and most important inno- ful suckers who still think"conservative" means born Clinton administration "Camelot with a vation in years. low taxes are going to figure out someday that Southern accent." If I hadn't sworn I'd never • • • in this state "conservative" means regressive use that hackneyed, tired cliche-of-the-year taxes. The people pay, bidness doesn't. 'Cause

"Not!" that's what I'd stick in here. (Have I been Austin bidness is the lobby. ❑ covering politics long enough to have it both ND THE NEXT SPEAKER IS: Pete ways, or what?) Laney of Hale Center, for pity's sake. Anyway, John Kennedy may have been young Aso here we are in the New Texas with Bill Clinton's first political hero, but Bill Clinton yet another lobby-controlled speaker. This has ANDERSON & COMPANY is no John Kennedy. Kennedy was part of the been a great week for Old Texas speakers: Gus COFFEE American aristocracy — wealthy family, pri- Mutscher Jr., speaker from 1969 to his indict- TEA SPICES ment on a bribery charge in 1971, pleaded guilty TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE vate schools, formal dances with white tie and AUSTIN, TEXAS 78731 tails. Bill Clinton is as common as either mud to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. or Abe Lincoln, depending on how you want to Before you get all depressed about Pete 512 453-1533 look at it. The way he got to Georgetown Laney, consider the other responsibility of Texas Send me your list. University, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford and House speakers, and that is public entertain- Name ment. Now in this area, Laney many well turn Street out to be one of the All-Time Greats. He has a Molly Ivins, a former Observer editor, is a West Texas accent you can't beat with a stick City Zip columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. and a creative way of expressing himself that ©1992 Creators Syndicate Inc. may yet cast both Billy Wayne Clayton and Gib

6 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 Taking Stock of the Vote

BY JAMES CULLEN

Austin (See "One Vote, One Judge," page 17.) who had ordered anti-abortion protesters to stay EORGE BUSH WON Texas and its 32 Benavides, a former judge on the 13th Court away from abortion clinics during the votes in the general election. Yes, and of Appeals in Corpus Christi, was appointed Republican National Convention, but other Santa Anna won the battle of the to the court by Richards in 1991 and had the Republican candidates got as many as 33,000 G votes from Devine's fundamentalist Christian Alamo. But while Bush was fighting to secure endorsement of every major newspaper in his home base in Texas, Bill Clinton was fight- Texas except the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, supporters. One of the three district judges ing in states such as Michigan, Ohio, the hometown paper of Meyers, a judge on the who saw their victories turn to defeats was Pennsylvania and Kentucky to solidify an 2nd Court of Appeals who did little cam- interim Judge John H. Kyles, the only 'black Electoral College victory. paigning and who all but conceded the race judicial candidate on the ballot, raising more At the state level, the Republican "victory" to Benavides on election eve. questions about the ability of minority candi- was mixed. A net gain of four seats in the Texas In Dallas-area court races, Richards dates to win at-large elections in Harris County. Senate will give Republicans more leverage in appointees won two of four contested seats In Fort Worth, 2nd Court of Appeals Chief that chamber, which for the past decade has on the 5th Court of Appeals. Ron Chapman Justice Tod Weaver, a Republican who has two been something of a progressive bastion, but won with 52 percent and Barbara Rosenburg years left on his term as chief justice, got 53 Democrats noted that the .GOP gains, helped with 51 percent defeated former District Judge percent of the vote to defeat Democrat Doyle by a redistricting plan drawn and ordered by Jack Hampton, a Republican who was censured Willis Jr., a workers compensation adminis- Republican federal judges, still left it short of by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct trative judge, for a six-year term as an associ- the long-sought GOP dominance. in 1988 after he said he gave a murderer a ate justice. Republicans swept all nine con- When the Dallas Morning News polled 1,027 light sentence partly because his victims were tested district court seats in Tarrant County. registered Texas voters in September, the news- "queers." Interim Judge Kevin Wiggins, the In San Antonio, Republican state District paper found a practically even race for President first African American to serve on the Dallas Judge Torn Rickhoff got 51 percent of the vote between incumbent Republican Bush and appeals court, lost to Republican state District to unseat Democratic incumbent Ron Carr from Democrat Clinton, while Democrat Lena Judge Joseph B. Morris, who got 54.5 per- the 4th Court of Appeals while the Democrats Guerrero held a 5-percentage-point lead over cent, and interim Judge Jeff Kaplan lost to won three of four contested district court races. Republican in the race for Will Barber, a lawyer who got 52.1 percent. In other appeals court races, Democratic the Texas Railroad Commission. . Democrats won one of three contested dis- incumbent Justice Susan Larsen won a term on But after the embarrassing disclosure that trict court races, as John Creuzot, who is black, the 8th Court of Appeals with 57 percent of the Guerrero had not received her bachelor's degree narrowly won with 50.03 percent of the vote, vote and Carlton Dodson apparently won from the University of Texas as she had a victory 'margin of 333 out of 575,515 cast, another term ori'the 7th Court of Appeals in claimed, Williamson, a Dallas lawyer and for- while interim Judge Jerry Birdwell, who is Amarillo by 245 votes over Republican lawyer mer minerals manager for the U.S. Department openly gay, narrowly lost to Republican John Jairl Dowell of Amarillo. of the Interior in the Reagan and Bush admin- Nelms, a former assistant district attorney who istrations, swept all eight regions of the state. got 52.2 percent of the vote and benefitted • EXAS RECEIVED three new Congres- Business interests also maintained control of from an anti-gay campaign. But Birdwell sional districts in the reapportionment the Texas Supreme Court, as they poured money attributed the loss to the strong Republican vote following the 1990 census, and the state's into the campaign of Craig Enoch, a Republican in Dallas County. Democratic interim Judge delegation grew to 30 members. Democrats' 19- judge on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Jan Hemphill also lost to Republican Janice 8 advantage will increase to 21-9 in the new Dallas who toppled Justice Oscar Mauzy, one Warder, who got 53.2 percent. Congress as they picked up three new minority- of the court's most liberal members, but hopes In Houston-area court races, Republican dominated districts in Dallas, San Antonio and for a Republican majority on the high court were Adele Hedges capitalized on controversy over Houston but lost one incumbent out of a half- dashed by Rose Spector's upset victory over the appointment of a judge on the 1st Court dozen Democratic seats targeted by the GOP. GOP incumbent Justice Eugene Cook. Spector, of Appeals to defeat Gaynelle Jones, a for- Hot checks, a new house in an exclusive a 58-year-old Democrat who served 17 years mer federal prosecutor who was appointed by neighborhood and a federal investigation of as a county and state district judge in San Gov. Ann Richards as the first African- influence-peddling allegations were too much Antonio, appealed to the need to put a woman American woman on either of the two Houston for Rep. Albert G. Bustamente, D-San Antonio, on the high court while Cook tried to depict her appeals courts after Democratic state sena- who lost to Republican Henry Bonilla of San as a tool of the plaintiffs' lawyers, as Enoch tors blocked two earlier nominees. In TV ads, Antonio in District 23, which stretches from tied Mauzy to the plaintiff's lawyers. In the Hedges noted the miscues over filling the San Antonio to Laredo and north to El Paso other Supreme Court race, Justice Jack vacancy and she won with 51.6 percent of the along the Rio Grande. Bonilla, a TV producer, Hightower, a conservative Democrat, beat vote. In races for the 14th Court of Appeals, got 59 percent of the vote, including 81 per- Republican John D. Montgomery, a state dis- Democratic state District Judge Norman Lee cent in Bexar County, as he tapped voter anger trict judge from Houston. with 51.8 percent beat Republican Harvey with questions about how Bustamante, who Hudson and Henry Burkholder with 50.7 per- played up his humble origins in his 1984 elec- EMOCRATS WON two of three races cent of the votes appeared to squeeze by tion, had acquired wealth in the past eight years for the Court of Criminal Appeals, but Republican Gary Bowers until a tally of 42,170 in Congress. Bustamante did not rule out a D the upset of interim Judge Fortunato write-in votes two days after the election led comeback try, but four-term state Rep. Henry "Pete" Benavides by 32,000 votes made to the reversal of outcomes in four judicial Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, already has Lawrence Meyers the first Republican elected races, including the appeals court race, as well announced he will run for the seat in 1994. to the court in an outcome that Benavides and as a legislative race. Bowers was among the In other hot races, colorful incumbent Rep. minority groups offered as proof that Latinos new winners. John Devine's 39,183 write-in Charles Wilson, D-Lukfin, got 56.3 percent face discrimination in at-large court races. votes did not threaten Judge Eileen O'Neill, of the vote to beat conservative Republican THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 7 Election Notebook

Mixed Victory in Texas Dark Media Clouds A record turnout of 72 percent of the 8.4 million registered voters in Lynn Ashby of the Houston Post, which shilled for "hometown" incum- Texas made it to the polls — nearly 49 percent of the 12.5 million bent George Bush throughout the campaign, won the Robert McCormick voting-age Texans — and Bush, with 40.5 percent of the total, carried Ribbon for Editorial Hysteria (named for the legendary Republican off the state's 32 electoral votes. Approximately one-third of Texas vot- Chicago Tribune publisher of "Dewey Defeats Truman" fame). Ashby ers cast their ballots during the early voting period from Oct. 14-30, and wrote in a post-election column that Texas was in for dark days with Bush got 43 percent of those early votes while Clinton got 39.9 per- the victory of Bill Clinton. "No one needs us," Ashby whined. "A cent and Perot got 16.7 percent. Democrat can run for president, and win, without getting one vote from Republicans noted that Clinton, with 2,267,966 votes, did not get the Lone Star State, and without spending a dime here." Say what? as many as Michael Dukakis' 2,352,748 in 1988, but Democrats replied "... For our part, this is the end of an era, the finish to a long period that Bush's 2,481,279 compared with his 3 million votes in 1988. of Texas the kingmaker, Texas the powerbroker," Ashby continued. With Perot's 1,350,201 votes and Libertarian Andre Marrou's 19,666, "Today the most powerful Texan in Washington is . The the Democrats figure 59.5 percent of Texans voted to fire Bush. second most powerful is Mrs. Lloyd Bentsen ... We are no longer in Bush, who finished with 40.5 percent statewide, won a majority in high places." Mr. Ashby, meet San Antonio Congressman Henry B. the Panhandle (56.3 percent) and pluralities in North Central Texas Gonzalez, chairman of the House Banking Committee. And Beaumont (38.7 percent), Upper Gulf (43.3 percent), West Central Texas (43.9 Congressman Jack Brooks, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. percent) and West Texas (42.1 percent). Clinton, with 37.1 percent of And Kika de la Garza, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee the statewide vote, got pluralities in East Texas (41.1 percent), South and the 18 other Texas Democratic members of Congress. Texas (45.4 percent) and Central Texas (40.4 percent). Perot, with 22.1 "We don't even have friends in high places, because Bill Clinton percent statewide, did best in North Central Texas, where he got 28.3 doesn't owe us a thing and clearly doesn't need us," Ashby wrote. "Our percent of the vote. barrel will no longer be filled with pork, so the super conducting Bush won the three counties with the most voters: Harris, Dallas supercollider will be scraped (sic) and Space Station Freedom will never and Tarrant, while Clinton carried the next three: Bexar, Travis and get off the ground. ... El Paso. Bush carried 142 of the state's 254 counties, while Clinton car- "No wonder the clouds rolled in and the heavens opened up, for there ried 108 and Perot carried four: Loving, Grayson, Irion and Somervell. are dark days ahead," Ashby frowned. "Texas is in for four years of Clinton got 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas, the Southwest being ignored. Then again, benign neglect from Washington holds Voter Research Institute reported froin its exit polls. numerous opportunities." The top regional turnouts were in North Central Texas, where 76.6 Leaving us to wonder: Has Ashby been inhaling? percent of the 2.46 million registered voters turned out, and Central Texas, with 76.2 percent of the 847,196 registered voters. Poorest turnout was in , with 63.9 percent of 1.39 million registered vot- Minding Manners ers, and West Texas, with ,67.9 percent of 384,000 registered voters. Roddy Stinson of the San Antonio Express-News took to task both Gov. Exit polls of voters by the Dallas Morning News indicated that Ann Richards and Texas Republican Chairman Fred Meyer for kick- Perot's independent candidacy hurt Bush more than Clinton, particu- ing contrapartisans while they were down. Richards offended San larly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. If the Dallas businessman had not Antonio's Mr. Manners when, after Clinton clinched the election, been in the race, 48 percent of the voters said they would have voted she told a ballroom full of plastic-fork-waving Democrats in Austin, for Bush, while 33 percent said they would have voted for Clinton. "All right, I think we can turn off the oven and stick a fork in him [Bush].

Donna Peterson of Orange- as well as the rap on chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee. district, while Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, his hot checks at the House Bank in a tough Other congressmen re-elected included John and Henry B. Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, were race in East Texas District 2 that featured ques- Bryant, D-Dallas; Martin Frost, D-Dallas; Pete re-elected. Other congressmen re-elected tions about party vans, sports cars, military Geren, D-Fort Worth; Ralph Hall, a conser- include Jack Brooks, D-Beaumont, dean of the records and intercepted telephone conversa- vative Democrat from Rockwall; Joe Barton, Texas congressional delegation; Jake Pickle, tions. In District 16 (El Paso), Rep. Ronald R-Ennis; and Dick Armey, R-Lewisville. D-Austin; Chet Edwards, D-Waco; Greg Coleman, D-El Paso, with 51.9 percent of the In Harris County, , a Democratic Laughlin, D-Victoria; Kika de la Garza, D- vote, narrowly beat gaffe-prone Republican TV state senator from Houston, beat Republican McAllen; Charles Stenholm, a conservative sportscaster Chip Taberski,. despite Coleman's Clark Kent Ervin of Houston in East Harris Democrat from Stamford; Rep. Larry Combest, prominent placement among the House Bank County District 29, despite the endorsement of R-Lubbock; Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Corpus check bouncers with 673 overdrafts. Taberski, Ervin by Ben Reyes, who lost to Green in the Christi; and Jim Chapman, D-Sulphur Springs. an English-language advocate, claimed polls 10 Democratic runoff in the East Harris County days before the election showed him with a 12- district that was drawn to help elect a Mexican- point lead, but his job interview with an El Paso American congressperson. Other congressmen TV station midway through the campaign made re-elected include Mike Andrews, D-Houston, In the Texas Senate, which the Democrats con- voters question his commitment. In District 13 who beat Republican Dolly Madison McKenna trolled before the election with a 22-9 major- (North and West Texas), Rep. Bill Sarpalius, D- in District 25 (Harris County South); Jack ity, the GOP picked up four seats with a redis- Amarillo, with 60 percent of the vote had a sur- Fields, R-Humble; , D- tricting plan ordered by a three-judge federal prisingly easy time defeating former Republican Houston, despite daily newspaper endorse- court dominated by Republicans. Democratic Congressman Beau Boulter of Amarillo. ments of his Republican challenger in the pre- senators who were toppled included Ted Lyons In North Texas, state Sen. Eddie Bernice dominantly-black district; Tom DeLay, of Rockwall, Chet Brooks of Pasadena and Bob Johnson had an easy victory in District 30 R-Sugar Land; and Bill Archer, R-Houston. Glasgow of Stephenville. Republican Dan (Southeast Dallas County) to become the first In the San Antonio area, Frank Tejeda, a Shelley, a Crosby state representative, won the black congressperson from Dallas County in Democratic state senator, easily beat a seat vacated by Democratic Congressman- a district Johnson drew for herself last year as Libertarian for election to a new congressional elect Gene Green in Houston and three San

8 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 He's done." Stinson also was displeased that Meyer tossed a final Committee, despite the GOP's failure to gain seats in Senate elec- shiv Lena Guerrero's way when the GOP chairman gloated in a next- tions. Gramm raised $32 million but Republicans lost nine of 11 tar- day press conference, "Candidates need to have high ethical stan- geted races and finished with an apparent net loss of one seat in the dards and Lena did not." Senate, leaving them with 42 to the Democrats' 58, although Democratic "Miss Ann only gut-punched an old man," the columnist observed. Sen. Wyche Fowler faces a Nov. 24 runoff in Georgia. "Am I happy "Meyer sucker-punched a woman." with the outcome of the Senate races? No," Gramm was quoted in the On the other end of the manners spectrum, there was much published Dallas Morning News. "But could it have been a lot worse? Yes." admiration of the "class" Bush showed in bowing out. But the Rev. Republican senators voted 20-19 to keep Gramm in charge of the com- William F. Buckley, in his syndicated column, wondered how George mittee, despite complaints that he used the position to further his own Bush could have so effusively congratulated Clinton on his victory after presidential ambitions (See "Fund-Raising Phil Gramm," TO 11/13/92). "he had spent the better part of three months denouncing Bill Clinton as a draft-dodger, as a liar, as an inexperienced yuppie and an ideo- Patronage Potential logical menace." After his typical traipse through the lexicon Buckley concluded, "Bush was engaging in a formality. The whole thing was In addition to former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, who is on sad — grotesque, even." Clinton's transition team and is a potential Cabinet member, and U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, who probably could get into the Cabinet if he wanted Chits for Ann to give up what might be a more powerful post as Senate Finance Chair, Texans in line for posts in the Clinton Administration include: Paul Gov. Ann Richards gained friends coast to coast during the campaign, Begala of Houston, one of Clinton's senior campaign consultanti; Ray as she travelled to at least a dozen states on behalf of congressional Marshall, Labor Secretary under President , now a teacher and gubernatorial candidates as well as the Clinton-Gore ticket. She at the University of Texas; Bill White, a Houston lawyer and longtime stumped for female U.S. Senate candidates, including Dianne Feinstein friend of Clinton; Betsey Wright, an Alpine native who was chief of staff and Barbara Boxer in California, Lynn Yeakel in Pennsylvania, Carol in the Arkansas Governor's office; Mike Beatty, a Houston lawyer, head Mosely Braun in Illinois and Patty Murray in Washington. She also of government affairs for the Coastal States Production Co., who was campaigned for incumbents such as U.S. Senators Robert Byrd of West active in Clinton's campaign and may be in line as a legal or energy Virginia, John Glenn of Ohio, Ernest Hollings of South Carolina and adviser; Paul Coggins and his wife, Regina Montoya, Dallas lawyers Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. All except Yeakel won. "I campaigned and former classmates of the Clintons: Coggins met Clinton at Yale while in those states where I thought we had a chance of electing a new sen- Montoya attended college with ; , who led ator, and a senator that perhaps did not have preconceptions about the Texas campaign but whose financial troubles may cause problems; projects that were important to Texas," Richards said the day after. "I former Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong and his wife, Linda Aaker, won every one of the races where I went to campaign, with the excep- who have known Clinton since 1972; and former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, tion of one, so we've got seven or eight new best friends in the Senate who raised money for Clinton and reportedly has discussed the possi- and we have a number of new best friends in the Congress bility of serving as ambassador to Ireland. in very influential positions," she said. Bob Bruce of the Abilene Reporter-News reported that U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm of Stamford is under consideration as Agriculture Gramm Keeps Post Secretary under Bill Clinton. "I am on the short list, they tell me," Good news for Democrats is that Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas will serve said the conservative Democrat. Of course, anyone who knows any- another term as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial thing about short lists is holed up in Little Rock and not talking.

Antonio state representatives won promotions ceeding Johnson in the predominantly black Tyler contractor. to the Senate as Democrat Greg Luna won the district, is expected to become a 17th pro- In District 6 (Houston) state Rep. Dan seat Congressman-elect Frank Tejeda gave up gressive senator. The Senate will have 16 mem- Shelley, a Republican, took 55.7 percent to beat in San Antonio, Democrat Frank Madla was bers endorsed by organized labor and at least Democrat Don Coffey. unopposed for District 24, which Temple 10 that support abortion rights. In District 9 (Central Texas), incumbent Dickson held before it was redistricted into In District 1 (Northeast Texas), Sen. Bill Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, took 60.6 percent Bexar County, and Republican Jeff Wentworth Ratliff, a Republican from Mount Pleasant with of the vote to beat Dr. Charles Osborn, a succeeded Bexar County Judge-elect Cyndi support from Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock Waxahachie Democrat. Krier. Democrat Royce West succeeds Eddie and his predecessor, Bill Hobby, got 52.1 per- In District 11 (East Harris County), Jerry Bernice Johnson in Dallas District 23. With 13 cent of the vote to narrowly defeat Bob Aikin, Patterson, whose eligibility was uncertain seats, the Republicans hold two more than the a former state representative and member of the because he was a member of a Harris County 11 needed to block bills under Senate rules, State Board of Education from Commerce. municipal utility. district until after the pri- although those rules could be changed in In District 2 (Northeast Texas), Florence mary, got 48.4 percent in a three-way race January. They also could bust gubernatorial Shapiro, a moderate Republican advertising to beat moderate Sen. Chet Brooks, D- appointments under the state Constitution, executive and Mayor of Plano, took 53.5 per- Pasadena, the Dean of the Senate, who got 47 which requires two-thirds confirmation. cent of the vote in a marginally Republican dis- percent. Libertarian Marshall N. Anderson The Senate will be a more conservative body, trict to unseat Sen. Ted Lyon, D-Rockwall, who got 4.6 percent. but it will have at least 16 moderate-to-pro- had the support of organized labor and trial In Harris County District 17, where redis- gressive senators — those who voted the pro- lawyers and was known for tough law-and- tricting brought this the west Harris County gressive position on 50 percent or more of the order and anti-abortion stances. Shapiro has district into Houston's Montrose area, Sen. 1991 record votes on consumer, environmen- stated opposition to public funding of abortions Buster Brown, R-Lake Jackson got 59 percent tal, ethics and health and human services issues and supports parental consent requirements. of the vote to beat Democrat Ronnie Harrison. examined by Texas Voters Watch, a coalition In District 3 (East Texas), Sen. Bill Haley, In District 19 (San Antonio) Democratic of Texas progressive groups (see "Legislators a progressive Democrat from Center took 53.6 Rep. Greg Luna got 51 percent to beat Rated on the Issues," TO 2/28/92). West, suc- percent of the vote to defeat Gene Shull, a Republican car dealer Ernest Ancira, who got THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 9 45.2 percent in a three-man race. eran lawmakers. If, as expected, the 20 new In Harlingen District 38, Democrat Jim In North Texas District 22, Jane Nelson, House Democrats stake out moderate-to-pro- Solis, a lawyer, beat Republican freshman Rep. a Republican member of the State Board of gressive positions, the House will have a Ken Fleuriet by 34 votes in complete but unof- Education from Lewisville, helped by Repub- bare majority of 77 moderate-to-progres- ficial returns. lican suburban voters in Tarrant and Denton sive members. In the new Travis County District 47, counties, got 60.3 percent of the vote to roll While the business community is expected Susan Combs, a Republican rancher, got 65:4 over incumbent Sen. Bob Glasgow, a moder- to promote tort and product liability reform, percent to rout Democrat Jimmy Davis, an ate Stephenville Democrat. Willie Chapman of the Texas Trial Lawyers Austin businessman. In District 25 (West Texas), Sen. Bill Sims, Association, which is fighting proposed In Williamson County District 52, a conservative Democratic rancher from San changes in the rights of plaintiffs in lawsuits, Republican Mike Krusee got 51.9 percent to Angelo got 51.7 percent to beat conservative said he expects the Legislature to be preoc- unseat moderate Rep. Parker McCollough; D- Republican state Rep. Troy Fraser of Big Spring. cupied with the state budget and school finance, Round Rock. In District 26 (Hill Country), Jeff not looking for other divisive issues. In open District 56, Republican Kip Averitt Wentworth, a pro-choice Republican state rep- of Waco got 59.9 percent to defeat Democrat resentative from San Antonio got 66.6 percent Jay Belew of McGregor. of the vote to rout Carlos Higgins, a conser- In District 58, Republican Bernard Erickson vative Democratic Austin lawyer. of Burleson, who won Bruce Gibson's former In District 30, which stretches from Wichita seat in a special election, kept it with 58 percent Falls to the Panhandle, Republican Tom against Geneva Finstad of Cranfills Gap. Haywood pushed progressive Democratic Sen. In open District 63, Mary Denny James of Steve Carricker but the incumbent survived Aubrey, Denton County Republican Chair, got with 50.8 percent of the vote. 56.4 percent to beat Democrat William (Tip) Returning senators and their progressive rat- Hall of Ponder with 38.1 percent in the three- ings included Rodney Ellis, D-Houston (95); way race. Libertarian Robert S. Atkins of Anna Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, Carlos Truan, got 5.6 percent. D-Corpus Christi, and Peggy Rosson, D-El In District 65, Rep. Ben Campell, R- Paso (85); Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo; Mike Carrollton, got 63.1 percent to beat Democrat Moncrief, D-Fort Worth (75); John Whitmire, Chris Michalek of Frisco. D-Houston (70); Bill Haley, D-Center, and In District 81 in Odessa, George (Buddy) Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur (65); Steve West, a Republican safety engineer and mem- Carricker, D-Roby (60); Jim Turner, D- ber of the Ector County school board, got 54.3 Crockett, Chris Harris, R-Arlington, and Ken percent to beat Democrat Betsey Ann Triplett Armbrister, D-Victoria (55); Eddie Lucio, Hurt, a ranch wife, community volunteer and D-Brownsville (50); Bill Sims, R-San Angelo, former TV anchorwoman. and John Montford, D-Lubbock (40); Don In District 84 in Lubbock Robert L. Duncan, Henderson, R-Houston, and Buster Brown, R- a Republican lawyer and former general coun- Lake Jackson (30); Bill Ratliff, R-Mount sel to the Senate State Affairs Committee, got Pleasant; John Leedom, R-Dallas, and Teel 66.4 percent to beat Democrat H.L. O'Neal, Bivins, R-Amarillo (20); David Sibley, R- a lawyer. Waco (12); and Ike Harris, R-Dallas (10). Exit Chet Brooks In District 87 in Amarillo, Rep. David Emmett Sheppard, legislative director of the Swinford, R-Dumas, got 54.9 percent to beat Texas AFL-CIO said he expects the Senate Democrat Bonnie J. Schomp, a lawyer and to be more conservative, "but that wasn't unex- Key House races part-time instructor at West Texas State pected considering the way the judges drew In Northeast Texas District 4, where two University. the lines." He hopes the Senate passes another incumbents were paired by redistricting, mod- In District 89, the Fort Worth seat Gib Lewis redistricting bill to overcome objections brought erate Democrat Keith Oakley of Terrell won is giving up, Democrat Homer Dear, a school under the federal Voting Rights Act. with 55.3 percent of the vote over Republican principal, got 51.1 percent to beat Republican Bill Thomas of Greenville. Tom Davis, an architect with 42.3 percent In open District 10, Republican Jim Pitts, while Libertarian Patrick J. Barnett got Texas House a Waxahachie lawyer, owner of an abstract and 6.7 percent. The 150-member House of Representatives title company, farmer-rancher and president of Democrats lost in District 106 as Re- will have 36 new members, including 20 the Waxahachie school board, got 54.8 percent publican Ray Allen, a Grand Prairie writer Democrats and 16 Republicans in the fresh- to beat Larry W. Wright, former Hill County and president of American Cultural Tradition, • man class, but the Democrats will hold on to Judge from Malone. got 54.9 percent to beat Democrat John Danish their 92-58 majority in the chamber. In District 13, moderate Democratic incum in the seat formerly held by Democrat Bill Progressive lobbyists were hopeful, that Pete bent Rep. Dan Kubiak of Rockdale was pressed Arnold. Laney, a conservative Democrat from Hale but got 51.6 percent to beat Republican Roberta In District 107 progressive Rep. David Cain, Center in the Panhandle who claims pledges Mikeska. D-Dallas, who also was seeking to become of support for his election as House Speaker In Jefferson County District 21, Re- House Speaker, got 53.4 percent to beat from 86 House members, would be more open publicans' long shot finished out of the money Republican Joe L. Granado of Dallas with 37.2 than current Speaker Gib Lewis, who is quit- as moderate Democratic incumbent Mark Stiles percent and Libertarian Karen Tegtmeyer of ting the House. The process at least is open of Beaumont got 60.2 percent to beat Kent Dallas with 9.4 percent. Cain later endorsed to progressives, said labor lobbyist Dee- Adams. Pete Laney for Speaker. Simpson, but "progressives still have to be mas- In open District 27 Huey McCoulskey, a In open Houston District 132, Democrat ters of the process." Richmond retired teacher and administrator, Scott Hochberg, former aide to moderate The new House will have 38 progressives, got 66.9 percent to beat Republican Mary Ward Democratic Rep. Paul Colbert, got 56.6 per- or those who voted the progressive position of Rosenberg. cent to beat Republican Orlando Sanchez for in at least 50 percent of the key votes exam- In District 30, where two incumbents were Colbert's old seat. ined by the Texas Voters Watch for the 1991 paired, Republican Steve Holzheauser of In Houston District 134, progressive session. Voting progressive on 30 to 49 per- Victoria got 55.2 percent of the vote to beat con- Rep. Sue Schechter, D-Houston, got 51.2 per- cent of the record votes were another 19 vet- servative Democrat Tim Von Dohlen of Goliad. cent to beat Republican Kyle Janek with 10 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 46.6 percent and Libertarian Clint A. Ponton R-Plano, 14; Layton Black, D-Lampasas, 10; with 2.3 percent. Elton Bomer, D-Montalba, 10; Kim Brimer, Wake up your friends with a In open District 144, a late count of write- R-Kennedale, 10; John Culberson, R-Houston, in ballots reversed the outcome and provided 10; Charles Finnell, D-Holliday, 10; Fred gift subscription to the Republican Robert E. Talton of Deer Park with Hill, R-Richardson, 10; Steve Holzheauser, Texas Observer. a final 72-vote margin of victory over Democrat R-Victoria, 10; Bob Hunter, R-Abilene, 10; Donald Peter Fogo, a Pasadena lawyer. Anna Mowery, R-Fort Worth, 10; Steve Special Holiday Savings! Ogden, R-College Station, 10; Robert

ETURNING HOUSE MEMBERS who Saunders, D-LaGrange, 10; First , gift or your renewal: $32 voted 100 percent progressive in 1991 89) Bill Blackwood, R-Mesquite, 5; Ben Each additional gift: $16 R were Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin and Campbell, R-Carrollton, 5; Warren Chisum, Glenn Maxey, D-Austin. Others among the D-Pampa, 5; Tom Craddick, R-Midland, 5; top 10 progressives returning are Sherri Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, 5; Kent Grusendorf, Send gift subscriptions to:

Greenberg, D-Austin, . and Paul Sadler, D- R-Arlington, 5; Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, 5; Henderson, both 95; Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, 5; Jim Horn, Betty Denton, D-Waco, Mike Martin, D-Texas R-Lewisville, 5; Mike Jackson, R-LaPorte, 5; Name City, Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, and Ken Carolyn Park, R-Bedford, 5; Bob Rabuck, R- Yarbrough, D-Houston, all 85; and Fred M. Conroe, 5; Ashley Smith, R-Houston, 5; John Address Bosse, D-Houston, 84. Smithee, R-Amarillo, 5; David Swinford, R- • City State Zip Others ranked in the top 25 are Pete Gallego, Dumas, 5; Jim Tallas, R-Sugar Land, 5; Jerry D-Alpine, 80; Christine Hernandez, D-San Yost, R-Longview, 5; Ric Williamson, D- Sign gift announcement Antonio, 80; John Hirschi, D-Wichita Falls, Weatherford, 5; 80; Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville, 80; Mario Those who scored zero were 107) Bill Carter, Gallegos Jr., D-Galena Park, 75; Libby R-Fort Worth; John Carona, R-Dallas; Delwin Name Linebarger, D-Austin, 75; Sue Schechter, D- Jones, R-Lubbock; Edmund Kuempel, R- Bellaire, 75; Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Seguin; Kenny Marchant, R-Carrollton and Address

Antonio, 75; Karyne Jones Conley, D-San Dalton Smith, R-Houston. Antonio, 70; Harold Dutton, D-Houston, 70; City State Zip Bob Glaze, D-Gilmer, 70; Al Granoff, D-Dallas, A HONG THE FRESHMEN Democrats 70; Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, 70; Robert to watch as potential progressives are Sign gift announcement Puente, D-San Antonio, 70; Sylvester Turner, Tom Ramsay of Mount Vernon, who D-Houston, 70; succeeded Sam Russell in Northeast Texas 26) David Cain, D-Dallas, 65; Al Price, D- District 2; Zeb Zbranek of Winnie, who suc- Name Beaumont, 65; Debra Danburg, D-Houston, ceeded Curtis Soileau in Southeast Texas District 65; Samuel Hudson, D-Dallas, 65; Wilhelmina 20; Patricia Gray of Galveston, who won a spe- Address Delco, D-Austin, 60; Nancy McDonald, D-El cial election for the unexpired term of the late Paso, 60; Allen Place, D-Gatesville, 60; Ciro James Hury's seat but must go through another City State Zip Rodriguez, D-S an Antonio, 60; Senfronia special election for the full term; Huey Thompson, D-Houston, 60; Eddie Cavazos, D- McCoulskey of Richmond in an open District Sign gift announcement Corpus Christi, 55; Hugo Berlanga, D-Corpus 27 seat. In South Texas, follow Sergio Munoz Christi, 50; Eddie De La Garza, D-Edinburg, of Mission in an open District 36 seat; Jim Solis Name 50; Dan Kubiak, D-Rockdale, 50; of Harlingen, who unseated Ron Fleuriet in 39) Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, 45; District 38; Pedro Nieto, a Uvalde lawyer with Address Renato Cuellar, D-Weslaco, 45; Al Edwards, ties to MALDEF in an open District 43 seat; D-Houston, 45; Roberto Gutierrez, D-Mission, Richard Raymond of Benavides, a former aide City State Zip 45; Keith Oakley, D-Terrell, 45; Doyle Willis, to several elected Democratic state officials, who D-Fort Worth, 45; Jerry Johnson, D- beat Tom Cate in the District 44 Democratic pri- Sign gift announcement Nacogdoches, 40; Mark Stiles, D-Beaumont, mary. In El Paso, Tony Parra of San Elizario, 40; Garfield Thompson, D-Fort Worth, 40; Ron a public relations and educational consultant • • • • • Wilson, D-Houston, 40; defeated Nick Perez in the District 75 Democratic 49) Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, 35; primary. In North Texas, Homer Dear, a school Allen Hightower, D-Huntsville, 35; Curtis principal, succeeds Gib Lewis in.Fort Worth Your Name Seidlits, D-Sherman, 35; Steve Wolens, D- District 89; Roberto Alonzo became the first Dallas, 35; Clyde Alexander, D-Athens, 30; Hispanic House member from Dallas in District Address Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, 30; Toby Goodman, 104; Helen Giddings, a small business owner, R-Arlington, 30; Tom Uher, D-Bay City, 30; won District 109; Jesse W. Jones, a chemist, suc- City State Zip Jack Vowell, R-El Paso, 30; ceeds Fred Blair in District 110; Yvonne Davis 58) Billy Clemons, D-Lufkin, 25; John Cook, replaces Glenn Repp in District 111. In San Shall we enter or extend your own suk4cription? D-Breckenridge, 25; Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, Antonio, Leo Alvarado Jr. succeeds Senator- ❑ Yes ❑ No 25; Todd Hunter, D-Corpus Christi, 25; Robert elect Greg Luna in District 116; John Amos Junell, D-S an Angelo, 25; Ron Lewis, D- Longoria succeeds Senator-elect Frank Madla ❑ Payment enclosed. Mauriceville, 25; David Counts, D-Knox City, in District 117 and Sylvia Romo, Bexar County Bill me on (date) . 20; Jack Harris, R-Pearland, 20; Harvey Democratic chair, won the open District 125 ❑ Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, 20; Jim Rudd, D- seat. In Harris County, Scott Hochberg, for- Brownfield, 20; Barry Telford, D-DeKalb, 20; mer aide to Paul Colbert, won Colbert's District 69) Peggy Hamric, R-Houston, 16; Bob 132 seat; Diana Davila, former administrative Turner, D-Voss, 16; Robert Earley, D-Sinton, assistant to Roman Martinez, succeeds Ralph 15; Robert Eckels, R-Houston, 15; Paul Wallace in District 145; Garnet Coleman kept Hilbert, R-Houston, 15; Ted Kamel, R-Tyler, the District 147 seat he won in a special elec- 15; Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, 15; Pete tion last year; Yolanda Navarro Flores suc- 307 West 7th, Austin, TX 78701 Patterson, D-Brookstone, 15; Brian McCall, ceeds Roman Martinez in District 148.. ❑ THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 11 The Election Year that Was HE ELECTION YEAR IN TEXAS started with a legal wrangle heading his campaign. Gov. Richards and Sen. Lloyd Bentsen stayed T over legislative redistricting. After the Legislature produced plans out of the race, while Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, continuing the curse that for the House and the Senate in May 1991, during the regular session, haunted candidates endorsed by previous Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, embraced Gov. Ann Richards let the plans take effect in mid-June without her sig- Bob Kerrey. nature. A veto would have shifted the redistricting duties to the Democrat- Ross Perot sparked the independent campaign for President when he controlled Legislative Redistricting Board. But the Senate plan was not expressed his willingness to run during a Feb. 20 interview on CNN's submitted to the U.S. Justice Department until Aug. 8 and the House "Larry King Live." plan was not submitted until Sept. 9; by the time the Justice Department Attention given his strong showing in New Hampshire catapulted issued its ruling, the redistricting board's authority had expired. Minorities Tsongas from virtual unknown status a month before that primary in sued in state district court in Edinburg, claiming the plan did not pro- his neighboring state to a strong second-place showing in polls on the duce enough minority districts. A new plan was proposed by 19 of the eve of the Texas primary election while the other candidates lagged 22 Democratic senators but the settlement with the minority plaintiffs behind. Clinton. got 66 percent of the Texas popular vote in the March was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court. It was branded a "back-room 10 primary. He won 94 delegates from that vote, while Tsongas won deal" by Justice Raul Gonzalez, a Democrat who frequently sides 31 and Brown got two. with Republicans on the court. That helped set the stage for the fed- One week after the primary, U.S. Rep. Ron Coleman of El Paso eral reordering of the Texas Senate. and U.S. Rep. Charles Wilson of Lufkin were disclosed among the 24 On Christmas Eve, 'a panel of three Republican-appointed federal worst "abusers" of the House bank. Coleman, who had beaten three judges ordered interim redistricting plans for the Texas House and Senate challengers in the Democratic primary, wrote 673 bad checks while for the March 10 primaries. The Senate plan was believed to have given Wilson had 81 during a 39-month period investigated by the House Republicans shots at winning as many as 16 of the 31 seats. Relatively Ethics Committee. minor changes were ordered in the House plan but, much to the chagrin After the primary election, Land Commissioner Garry Mauro was of Republican leaders, the court panel accepted the congressional embarrassed by reports that he ran Clinton's primary campaign from redistricting plan that effectively added three new minority-domi- the General Land Office. The in April found that nated and presumably Democratic districts to the state delegation, where Mauro and several of his aides made more than 24 hours of calls from the Democrats already had a 19-8 dominance. state telephones on behalf of the Clinton campaign. State Treasurer Kay The 's office chased state Rep. George Bailey Hutchison was among the Republicans who criticized Mauro Pierce, R-San Antonio, for a week in January, attempting to.serve before the Houston Post reported that state computers in the State him with a subpoena ordering him to answer questions about his involve- Treasury were used to keep fund-raising records and thank-you let- ment in adjusting some of the Senate district lines at the request of U.S. ters to Hutchison's campaign contributors and it was disclosed that District Judge James Nowlin, chairman of the federal court panel. she accepted $3,500 from interests with links to the state lottery, in pos- Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, who had supported a personal income tax in sible violation of the lottery act. 1991 and had pushed for the revision of the business franchise tax A Texas Poll in April found Perot had support of 35 percent of into something like a corporate income tax, said he would resist new Texans, followed by Bush at 30 percent and Clinton with 20 percent. taxes unless the courts ordered additional spending on education. He In a two-way race, Bush was leading Clinton 48 to 32. also told the Texas Chamber of Commerce he wanted to settle the long- That Texas Poll also found Richards received a favorable rating from running war between the business community and personal-injury 55 percent of the respondents, up from 49 percent in the fall of 1991, lawyers over products liability laws. He also embraced trucking dereg- but less than the 61 percent approval rating when she took office in ulation, an issue of interest to business. January 1991. In contrast, the Legislature had a 69 percent negative rat- In the HouSe, the departure of Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, ing, while Congress was 82 percent negative. under fire for alleged ethics improprieties left an opening for ambitious Richards finally endorsed Clinton on May 1. House members. On May 15, the Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of On Jan. 31, Gov. Richards said she would urge Sen. Lloyd Bentsen Appeals reprimanded U.S. District Judge James Nowlin for making to reconsider his decision not to enter the Presidential race. Speculation "a serious mistake in judgment" in the process of drafting new Senate was ripe that Bentsen and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo would recon- district boundaries. The panel found that when the judge asked a San sider their decisions in light of a controversy over Arkansas Gov. Bill Antonio representative to help draw part of the Senate boundaries, the Clinton's marital difficulties, fueled by a supermarket tabloid's alle- judge's conduct was "inconsistent" with the judicial code of conduct gations that he had been unfaithful. that bars "ex parte communication." The court found there was no One month before the March 10 "Super Tuesday" primary election, evidence of a "corrupt or evil motive," but it added that Nowlin "should Bush appeared to have a lock on the renomination on a ballot that included have realized that allowing Rep. Pierce to participate in drawing dis- right-wing TV commentator Patrick Buchanan and former Ku Klux trict lines would give a serious perception of impropriety." Klan leader David Duke, while Clinton was dominating the Democratic With the remaining 69 delegates chosen at the state convention in field that also included Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, Iowa Sen. Tom Houston in June, Clinton ended up with 157, Tsongas with 35 and Brown Harkin; former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas and former California with four. Sen. Bentsen also endorsed Clinton and the labor caucus Gov. Jerry Brown. Clinton entered the New Hampshire primary fight- joined Common Cause in calling for major reforms for the Texas ing controversies, as Gennifer Flowers claimed a 12-year love affair House, including term limits for speakers and election of committee with the Arkansas Governor and he also was denying reports that he chairs by the committee members. had dodged the draft, but press coverage of those controversies also When the state's Republicans convened in Dallas, many moderates made it harder for his rivals to focus on their issues. and women were put off by the strident tone of the platform, with a strict In Texas, where Clinton had political ties dating back to the 1972 anti-abortion position and support for the state's anti-sodomy law that campaign for George McGovern, he had collected the endorsements prohibits homosexual acts. It also promoted the teaching of creation of 40 state representatives, nine state senators, five congressmen and science in public schools as well as the singing of patriotic songs on majorities of the State Democratic Executive Committee and the a daily basis. Kathi Mosbacher of Houston, daughter of Bush campaign Democratic National Committee members from Texas as well as 50 of Chairman Bob Mosbacher, warned that the hard-right language, par- the county party chairs. He also had Land Commissioner Garry Mauro ticularly on abortion, would lead some Republicans to vote for Clinton

12 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 or Perot and said it was a mistake to exclude anyone from the GOP. But Democrats counted it a victory that Bush was still pouring his Going into the Democratic National Convention in New York City time and money into his "home" state in the last weeks before the cam- July 13, a Rice Poll commissioned by the Houston Post and KHOU-TV paign, when Clinton was locking up his lead in the Electoral College. showed Ross Perot held a sizeable lead among Texas voters. The sur- During the last two weeks of the campaign, the Bush campaign con- vey of 683 registered voters showed 34 percent favored Perot, 27 per- ducted what one newspaper called a "saturation bombing" of Texas cent supported Clinton and 22 percent backed Bush. National polls gen- airwaves with commercials designed to raise doubts about Clinton. erally showed the three candidates in a virtual dead heat. More than 650,000 pieces of direct mail were sent to households of After Perot abruptly dropped out of the race during the Democratic "swing voters" to persuade them that a Clinton presidency would mean National Convention, both parties retooled their campaigns in efforts higher taxes. to attract Perot supporters. Clinton stressed his calls for change while As the election played out, Texas was more critical to Bush's re- Bush focused on character and the need to change Congress. election hopes than it was to Clinton. Coming out of the debates, A Texas Poll in early August showed Clinton had bolted to the lead, two weeks before the election, Clinton led in polls in 37 states, with support from 49 percent of the likely Texas voters, while 35 per- worth 400 electoral votes, with 270 needed for election, and Democrats cent supported Bush. In a three-way race, Clinton led with 38 percent could sense the victory was at hand. The Arkansas Governor led by to 26 percent for Bush and 25 percent for Perot, who had halted his inde- more than 10 points in 19 states worth 273 votes. While the pendent campaign. A Houston Chronicle poll found Clinton was sup- Clinton/Gore campaign was able to keep the race close largely with ported by 43 percent, compared with Bush's 29 percent, 24 percent free exposure bought by his bus tour with his wife and his running undecided and 4 percent for other candidates. Clinton was leading in mate, the incumbent Bush stumped the state seven times after the national polls by as-much as 22 percent. Republican National Convention in Houston and was forced to fun- Secretary of State John Hannah in early August attempted to replace nel money into the state for TV ads. The week before the election, the Senate redistricting plan ordered by the federal court in Austin with the Bush campaign had spent $3 million in Texas, while Clinton the redistricting plan approved by the Legislature after a three-judge had spent less than $500,000. When Democratic National Chairman federal panel in Washington, D.C., approved its use under the Voting Ron Brown appeared at a rally in Austin, the crowd was chanting, Rights Act, but the federal court in Austin ordered the Republican- "Four More Days." favored plan to remain in effect for the general election. The Democrats Watching returns at the Texas AFL-CIO on election night, the ten- said they would still seek to implement the legislative redistricting plan sion was released as the returns broadcast over the TV networks showed for the 1994 election. the first few states dropping into Clinton's column. Across town, a ball- Clinton and Gore brought their bus tour through South, Central and room at the Hyatt Regency hotel was crowded with Democrats, many East Texas in late August. of whom were waving plastic forks when Gov. Ann Richards pro- During a press conference on the need for tort reform, Texas Ag nounced Bush defeated. "Stick a fork in him, he's done," she said. Commissioner Rick Perry on Aug. 27 sought to illustrate the problem "After 12 long years the people of America are going to take back the with the court system: "Every Jose in town wants to come along and White House."? She predicted that Clinton would carry Texas, and won- sue you for something." Perry denied the comment was racist, but he dered, "How in the world is Phil Gramm going to take credit for apologized. Clinton's win?" A pre-Labor Day poll conducted for the Dallas Morning News from In the end, a record turnout of 72 percent of the 8.4 million registered Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 found Clinton backed by 42 percent and Bush by voters had given Bush a consolation victory in Texas. He had 40 per- 40 percent. The same poll found Lena Guerrero led Barry Williamson cent of the vote, while Clinton got 37 percent and. Perot finished with by 35 to 29 percent, before false claims in her résumé were disclosed. 22 percent. The Republicans gained four seats in the Texas Senate, nar- Gov. Richards had a 73 percent approval rating. rowing the Democratic majority there to 18-13, and kept 58 seats in the A Texas Poll conducted from Oct. 1-9 showed a dead heat between 150-member Texas House. They also defeated incumbent Democratic Clinton and Bush, each with 35 percent support, while Perot had 17 per- Congressman Albert Bustamante of San Antonio, although Democrats cent support and 13 percent were undecided. A New York Times/CBS won a half-dozen other targeted races. poll in early October showed Bush leading Clinton by 41 percent to Texas Republican Chairman Fred Meyer called Gov. Richards "the 37 percent and Perot a distant third with 11 percent. big loser in this election," because her protege and first major appointee, Polls conducted after the presidential debates showed a virtual Lena Guerrero, lost the Railroad Commission race, Oscar. Mauzy was dead heat in Texas. A Houston Chronicle Poll conducted by Richard replaced on the Supreme Court and she lost some legislative races, "and Murray of the Oct. 20-22 showed Clinton I think the fact that Bill Clinton didn't carry Texas also says some- leading Bush 39 percent to 31 percent, with Perot holding 15 per- thing about the governor and her clout and her credibility." cent and 15 percent undecided. Guerrero trailed Williamson by 34 Craig Sutherland, spokesman for the Clinton/Gore campaign, said percent to 30 percent, with 31 percent undecided and Libertarian the campaign spent $500,000 in Texas, while Bush spent more than Richard Draheim with 4 percent. The poll had a 4 percent margin $3 million. "I was a little bit down that we didn't pull it off," Sutherland of error. said, but when he reported to Little Rock the day after the election, A poll conducted by Rice University pollster Bob Stein for the Houston "They were certainly pleased with us being able to tie Bush down Post and KHOU from Oct. 18 to 22 showed Clinton leading Bush by here ... There's no way they could have done what they did in Ohio 39.5 percent to 34.2 percent, within the 4.5 percent margin of error, with and other states if they had spent the money in Texas." Perot chosen by 17.8 percent and 8 percent undecided or supporting other Richards also noted that of 29 district judges she appointed during candidates. Williamson led Guerrero by 41.8 percent to 31.2 percent and the past two years, 21 won elections, along with all four district attor- Richards had a 60-percent positive rating in the Rice Poll. neys and a sheriff's race. in San Antonio, where she had a grudge A Dallas Morning News poll conducted Oct. 19-22 found Clinton . against Bexar County Sheriff Harlon Copeland, a Republican who sent and Bush neck and neck with 38 percent for Bush, 36 percent for an investigator to New Mexico during the 1990 gubernatorial campaign Clinton, 20 percent for Perot and 6 percent undecided, with a margin to seek evidence of drug use by Richards. of error of 3.5 percent. Williamson led Guerrero 47 percent to 32 per- Texas Democratic Chairman Bob Slagle said, "Overall we think it cent with 16 percent undecided. Richards maintained 73 percent posi- was a good election for us." He added, "[Republicans] can't afford tive rating in the News poll. too many more 'successes' like this."

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 13 Mourning in Houston

BY JANE GRANDOLFO

Houston HE RENT-A-BARTENDERS couldn't pour the drinks fast enough at the Westin T Galleria Hotel ballroom on election night, where the choice was either to belly up to the bar for $4 scotch-and-water or to gaze dejectedly at the TV monitors where CNN anchors ticked off state after state that was falling with rapid- fire precision to Democrat Bill Clinton. For most, getting wasted was clearly more fun than waving miniature flags when Bush pulled off South Dakota and all three of its electoral votes. "Shit," muttered one Bush supporter half sheepishly after he had let loose with one such cheer. "We gotta clap for something." The well-heeled invitation-only crowd of about 500 — in sharp contrast to the raucous open party for thousands outside the state house in Little Rock — was nothing if not realistic. The GOP's 12-year party was coming to a close and they were in no mood for humor. By 7:30 p.m., just half an hour after the polls had closed, they dispensed with the political tradition of down-to-the-wire optimism and declared their candidate dead. Even Robert Mosbacher Jr., chairman of the Texas Bush-Quayle Victory '92 effort, was caught doing a post mortem before the polls had closed in California. . "It looks real bad," he conceded, as he pro- ceeded to launch into the two top reasons he thought Bush had bit the dust: the economy and the media. "I don't have any doubt that the national media's choice for president was Bill Clinton," he said. "And it's very difficult for a sitting president to overcome the perception that the economy is bad and you can be out of work in a few days." Judging by the effort that went into his elec- tion night homecoming, it was almost as if Bush knew he would be out of work in a few days. Shortly after he voted at St. Mary's Catholic Church the President went to MATT WUERKER Oshman's, a sporting goods store, and renewed the young lookouts. But chintzy spread notwith- anizing, liar. "Bill Clinton didn't earn the name his hunting license. Even the party had defeat standing, the bye-bye Bush bash looked more `slick Willie' for nothing," grumbled Ray written all over it. The Republicans rented a like a tony cocktail party than an election-night Dickens, a 64-year-old Houston lawyer. He medium-sized ballroom to hold just 500 peo- watch, as women in Chanel evening wear floated then motioned to his companion, M.C. Davault, ple compared to four years ago when they about the room and men in gray pin-striped a 40-year-old registered nurse in the cardio- reserved the huge George R. Brown Convention suits searched for new business contacts. vascular unit at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Center for a boisterous bash. There seemed to But as the long night dragged on the crowd and quipped "They're dying to work on Clinton be little doubt that this year they were trying grew surly. Waiting impatiently for their main but they don't think he has a heart." to hold down expenses. Three solemn-looking, man to make a showing, the double-fisted Still, this was a family-values crowd and suit-and-tied young Republicans were posted drinkers turned to Clinton bashing and media George and Barbara Bush had obviously inspired to keep reporters and photographers away from trashing to kill time. Their discontent reached an almost religious devotion among many of the popcorn, cheese and grapes splayed across a fevered pitch when traveling reporters filed these longtime political friends from Houston a linen tablecloth. into the room shortly before President Bush took who say they cared more for the man and his "It's going to be hard to keep them away, but the podium at 10:10 p.m. "Press go home, Press family than anything else he did during his you've got to try," an organizer whispered to go home!" the group boomed as photographers decades of public service. The consensus among lined up below the stage. these devotees seemed to be that long after the And without prompting they offered their band had stopped playing and the flattened pop- Jane Grandolfo is a freelance writer living in opinions to any reporter who'd listen that Bill corn had been vacuumed from the carpet, George Houston. Clinton was a no-good dope-smoking, wom- Bush would still be their man.

14 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 Rocking in Little Rock

BY STEPHEN BUEL

Little Rock eral days of heavy campaigning, Clinton hands and exchanging high fives with members HE OFFICIAL SONG may have been responded not to Gore but his young son, Albert of the audience. A Secret Service agent behind Fleetwood Mac, but they were play- III. Looking down at the 10-year-old, who was Gore repeatedly grabbed the hem of his jacket T ing John Lennon's "Power To The standing alongside his father, Clinton asked if and pulled him back on stage. People" as Bill and Al danced on stage with he was proud of his father. The young boy's Following his acceptance speech, Clinton and Hillary and Tipper at a wildly enthusiastic eyes said that he was. Gore traveled two blocks to a nearby hotel, election-watch party. As Clinton then filed into the back of the where they met in private with a group of sup- People numbering an estimated 40,000 former Arkansas capitol with his family, wife porters and then proceeded to the election watch thronged to the streets on election night, eager Hillary looked momentarily panicked and party and a still separate assembly of Arkansas to share the moment of a lifetime with the man asked an aide to search her limousine for two Democrats. The fierce regional pride and long- who'd governed them for more than a decade. pieces of paper. "It had Bill's speech on it," standing inferiority complex of Arkansas was From die-hard supporters to mere curiosity seek- she said in horror. After a few minutes the aide a major source of motivation behind the tremen- ers, they flooded the streets in unprecedented returned with the paper, which Hillary Clinton dous turnout for the victory celebration, dubbed numbers, rendering downtown Little Rock handed to the governor prior to his speech. the Americas Watch Party. impassible even to pedestrian traffic, and restor- Clinton left the Governor's Mansion at 10:50 The crowd roared its approval at several ing the pre-election meaning of the word grid- p.m., proceeding by motorcade to the ante- points throughout Clinton's three distinct talks, lock. They milled about with no purpose, drink- bellum Old State House, where he delivered but perhaps never so loud as when he addressed ing beer, screaming war whoops and buying his acceptance speech in the unseasonably them directly in his acceptance speech and T-Shirts such as those that proclaimed "The Fat chilly weather, his voice noticeably strained said: "And I want to thank the people of this Lady Sang." from laryngitis. wonderful, small state." Many Arkansans have On the day after the election, Clinton's cam- Even in victory, Clinton and Gore worked the felt slandered at times throughout the elec- paign strategists described their blueprint for crowd as tirelessly as they had when cam- tion season, such as when President Bush victory, confidently predicting the dawn of "a paigning. They shook hundreds of hands and referred to Clinton as "the failed governor of Clinton era," which will redefine the nation's exchanged hugs and warm greetings with out- a small state," and Arkansas itself as "the low- voting patterns for years to come. "I think a very of-state campaign aides and long-time sup- est of the low." important part of what happened yesterday was porters alike. Tuesday night, the "lowest of the low" were the collapse of the Republican coalition that Nervous Secret Service agents tried to reign bound and determined to show America that it gave us the Reagan era," campaign pollster in the movements of members of the Clinton was not so. And even though most of them had Stan Greenberg said. and Gore families on several occasions, most no idea how to gain admission to one of the But Tuesday night, campaign staffers were notably when Vice President-elect Gore added many official gatherings scheduled for down- too giddy to talk about anything serious. They his twist to the art of stage diving, all but throw- town hotels and restaurants, they knew they'd exchanged hugs and high fives and happily ing himself head-first into the crowd, shaking find a party somewhere. ❑ danced to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" even after it cycled back again and again, ad nauseum, on an ampli- fied tape loop. The weather couldn't have been much more unpleasant for an outdoor celebration, but the Undermining Foundations crowd was undeterred by the early-evening drizzle that accompanied an unseasonably chill- T THE GRACIOUS post-election news national politics since the 1980 election of ing cold front that caused temperatures to plunge A conference held by Clinton's key strate- President . Pollster Stan by more than 20 degrees in a matter of hours. gists Wednesday, campaign aides said their Greenberg said he believes the decisive vic- Nor did the president-elect allow the weather to candidate's insistent focus upon the health tory set the stage for a different kind of pol- dampen his spirits. of the U.S. economy helped put him over the itics in America. "I can't talk much, so I want to say just this," top. "George Bush didn't lose this election, "We know it was a big victory," he said. said a hoarse but exuberant Clinton. "Beginning Bill Clinton won it," strategist Paul Begala "But we believe this election was a major tomorrow, Hillary and I, and Al and Tipper, and said, stressing the extent to which Clinton event which will redefine the politics both all the people who have worked so hard will himself was the architect of his decisive for the Democratic Party and for the Repub- do everything we can to make you always and Electoral College triumph. lican Party. And, as there was a Reagan forever proud of thisnight, as proud tomorrow "Over the long haul, I think Bill Clinton's era at the beginning of 1980, we believe and in the years ahead as you are tonight." the best presidential candidate in my life- there will be a Clinton era in which both In their first face-to-face encounter after win- time," said Begala's colleague and partner parties will be sorting out their identities ning the election, Vice President-elect Albert , wary of taking any credit and where they will find their new bases Gore hugged running mate Clinton long and away from his candidate. of support." hard and said: "Hi, pal. You look good." In a Once that was said, however, Carville and As the talk turned to transition details, touching moment, which marked the first time his colleagues then described their own strat- Campaign Director Bruce Lindsey hinted that the two men had seen one another after sev- egy and assumptions in more detail than ever Little Rock figures prominently in Clinton's before. That strategy was to undermine at near-term plans and asked a producer for every level possible the foundation of the CNN whether they would now be establish- Stephen Buel is a freelance writer based in Republican coalition which had dominated ing a full-fledged bureau in the city. —S.B. Little Rock.

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 15

■■■■ftit , • • - Crazy in Dallas

BY TERRY FITZPATRICK

Dallas "Mr. Clinton has won the White House, Mr. paign compete for attention. The more that S THE CAMPAIGN JOKE goes, Ross Perot has won the nation," said John Battey of Perot stays involved, the more likely it is that Perot won't have to worry about mov- Lewisville who had spent election day moni- United We Stand will be viewed as a front for . ing into a smaller hotise in a minority toring the polls in Denton County, and credits Perot's political aspirations. The less he's neighborhood. His bid for the White House Perot with the high voter turnout in his region. involved, the less likely it is that United We didn't carry a single state. He didn't even carry "I watched a precinct that turned out less than Stand will be seen as a political threat. Perhaps his home precinct in north Dallas. half of its registered voters four years ago turn Perot sensed this when he broadened the scope Of course, people weren't in the mood for out 95 percent of its registered voters in this of his advertising in the final days of the cam- jokes on election night at the Perot rally in election. If we've got that high a percentage paign. His initial 30-minute, low-tech lectures the Dallas suburb of Addison. Most support- of people voting, it doesn't matter who gets inau- introduced the country to Professor Perot who ers ignored the giant television screens that gurated to what office. They know they're going used a brilliant appeal to reason that didn't flashed the bad news. Even before the party to be held responsible or we're gonna be on them insult the voter. began, the guests knew that their man had lost. like bees on a bear." But his final infomercials featured stump The only suspense was what Perot would say The Perot campaign stressed deficit reduc- speeches and soundbites from bright-eyed sup- in defeat. Perot conceded at 9:30 p.m., before tion and political reform, but after the rally his porters. These commercials contained the mes- the television networks had predicted a win- supporters were uncertain how they could influ- sage that consultant Hal Riney recommended ner. "The American people have spoken," Perot ence national policy without an election cam- early in the campaign: Show Perot supporters said. "They have chosen Governor Clinton. paign to focus their efforts. Perot's volunteers and not just Perot, portray the growth of a grass- Congratulations." The crowd booed and hissed. and paid coordinators had promoted a one-man roots movement and not just the ideas of its Perot quickly gave them something to cheer ticket. Vice Presidential candidate James leader. Perot rejected the Riney commercials in about. Stockdale was invisible. The United We Stand July, but seemed to remember his advice. It "Spend about 10 minutes getting over being organization didn't endorse down-ballot can- remains to be seen if Perot's persona will con- frustrated that your candidate didn't win, then didates. Most of the money came from Perot, tinue to overshadow the campaign that he take all of this enormous talent and ability leaving his campaign with little experience in inspired. that you have displayed and let's make our raising money. "A volunteer movement is a If voters perceive United We Stand as a true country work at the national, state, country and wonderful thing but without the emotional appeal independent political party in the making, it city, local and neighborhood level and in every of one individual it sometimes lacks the glue to could deliver on its promise to revolutionize single school across, the country," Perot said. hold it together," said Orson Swindle, execu- the two-party system. And will prompt seri- "And please don't feel, 'gee, I'm powerless tive director of United We Stand. "We've got ous opposition, even as the group tries to again.' As long as we're together, nationwide, a lot of work to do to solidify it." define its post-election mission. At least that's you have enormous voice in this country. So The biggest question now is what Ross Perot what Dallas City Councilmember Jim Buerger we will stay together and you will be an enor- will do to ensure that United We Stand survives. predicts. He spent election day answering mous force for good for our country and our He's been involved in public policy issues in phones at the Perot boiler room, and expects children." Texas for more than a decade, but his pattern is the major political parties will seek to disarm The crowd howled. Perot waltzed across the to disappear long before the problem is solved. Perot by recruiting his organization. "The stage as a Dixieland band played the campaign's Perot didn't stick around to find a place to put Republicans and Democrats will attempt to adopted theme song, "Crazy." The man who has drug dealers who were arrested as a result of absorb these volunteers and will attempt never been a gracious loser in business was in his 1981 package of legislation known as the to modify their positions in an attempt to rare form after losing his bid for President. A War on Drugs. Perot didn't stick around to bring them into their fold," Buerger said. supporter handed him a "Perot in '96" bumper find the money to pay for the state-mandated "These are very motivated and active sticker and Perot held it high with an ear-to- education reforms that he bullied through the American citizens right now, and they won't ear grin. He promised to go "anywhere, any- Legislature in 1984. Perot tried to broker a be left unchecked." place, anytime to help the new administration," compromise between Dallas police and the On election night, one Perot volunteer sug- but he left open the possibility of another pres- city council during the height of racial ten- gested that the 1994 congressional campaigns idential campaign. "We always got the safety sions in 1988, but police/community relations could be the next test for United We Stand. "I valve, right? You can bring that old stray dog are still tense (and are getting worse) and Perot mean if it's business as usual in two years, out from the pound again." is no longer involved. About the only issue we're gonna have to fix it with just the Perot supporters left the ballroom optimistic Perot has stuck with is the search for prison- Congress," said Eric Tangen of Dallas. "And that election night marked a new beginning, and ers of war in Vietnam. I don't think that will be as difficult as getting not the ending, of their effort to transform Will he stick it out in hardball world of a guy into the presidency. We can affect a mid- American politics. "Until I came to the rally and national electoral politics, where he's been term congressional race far better than a pres- heard Perot, I was disgusted and discouraged," labeled a nut case, a quitter, a liar—and now, idential race." said Pat Robinson of Abilene. "But how can you a loser? On election night, Perot told his sup- The Perot phone banks are still ringing and stay that way around Ross Perot? He's so up porter he would. "My role in life is that of a grain Orson Swindle says United We Stand will draft and optimistic, it's hard to stay down. So hope- of sand to the oyster. It irritates the oyster and a charter and begin to raise its own operating fully Clinton will keep his promises and we'll out comes a pearl. It has been an honor to be funds. On election night he thanked the vol- turn this country around." your grain of sand in this process, and we will unteers for sticking with the campaign. "We've continue to work together to make pearls in gotten people involved for the first time in their the future, fair enough?" lives," Swindle said. "We can continue to play Terry FitzPatrick is a documentary producer However, the paradox of the Perot phe- an important role if we will simply stand by our for KERA public television in Dallas. nomenon is that the candidate and the cam- convictions."

16 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992

One Vote, One Judge

BY CARROLL G. ROBINSON

Houston cial districts, District Judge Lucius Bunton of representatives and senators. LTHOUGH THEY RETIRED on elec- Midland ruled that the Voting Rights Act cov- "Minority" members of the House could begin tion night believing they had squeaked ers the election of state court judges and that the with a request that Rep. Pete Laney, who has Aout victories over Republican opponents, Texas system of countywide judicial elections just won the speaker's race, support legisla- five Han-is County Democratic candidates found for district court judges violates the act. The tion to put single member judicial district on out the following Thursday morning that their state appealed Judge Bunton's decision to the ballots in urban areas. On the Senate side, minor- election-night celebrations were all premature. 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New ity senators should ask for a similar public com- The write-in candidacy of anti-abortion-rights Orleans, which reversed it. The case was then mitment from Lt. Governor Bob Bullock — activist John Devine, who challenged District taken on appeal to the United States Supreme even before the Senate considers changes in the Judge Eileen O'Neill in retaliation for restric- Court, which in June of 1991 reversed the 5th two-thirds majority vote rule or any other rule tions she imposed on anti-abortion demonstra- Circuit court's decision, ruling that the Voting changes or legislation. If single-member judi- tions during the week of the Republican National Rights Act applies to the election of judges. The cial districts legislation cannot be moved to Convention, resulted in a record 42,170 write- Supreme Court sent the case back to the 5th the top of the lieutenant governor's legislative in votes in Harris County. The overwhelming Circuit that same year, with instructions for the agenda, minority senators should consider form- majority of these write-in votes went to Devine court to decide if the Texas system violates ing a working coalition in January with the 13 and other Republican candidates, and when the Voting Rights Act. Republican senators, if such action would ensure added to unofficial election-night totals they Almost a year-and-a-half after the case was passage of the legislation. reversed the victories of four Democratic judi- remanded, the 5th Circuit still has not issued a In the African-American community, if we cial candidates and one state representative. And decision. This is an unusually long period for are serious about creating single-member judi- although Devine garnered 39,183 write-in votes, this court to allow a case to remain on its docket cial districts, we are must to make support for he lost to Judge O'Neill, who received 505,970 without issuing a decision. The delay has led to this goal a litmus-test issue on par with the votes. speculation that the 5th Circuit was awaiting the issue of "choice." We must also develop a lon- The defeat of Judge John Kyles and two outcome of this year's judicial elections before gitudinal outlook: 1994 may be more than two African-American women in county-wide judi- issuing its decision. Those who hold this view years away, but on this issue, between now cial races this year again reminds us that it is believe the 5th Circuit was waiting to see if and then, we cannot forget who supported us, almost impossible for African-American judi- Judge John Kyles and the other African- who opposed us and who remained silent and cial candidates to win election to the district American and Mexican-American/Hispanic uninvolved during the regular session of the court bench in Harris County — even when they judicial candidates in the major urban coun- 73rd Legislature. run as appointed incumbents. It should also ties would be elected, an outcomewhich would It was not rhetoric that defeated Judge John remind us that the next important judicial cam- have made it easier for the court to rule that Kyles and the other judicial candidates; it was paign must be a coordinated effort to change the Texas' system does not violate the Voting Rights the action of individuals motivated by a moral way judges are elected in urban areas by replac- Act. The defeat of Judge Kyles and other minor- commitment. Unfortunately, it also appears ing the current system with the a system that ity judicial candidates has focused more atten- that their perspective was colored by race. ❑ provides for the election of district court judges tion on the 5th Circuit's pending decision. from single-member judicial districts. (It should Those of us who would like to see single- 4 .....0.1 11 A e-■ also be noted that the only two African member judicial districts . become a reality in 4. Americans serving as judges on Texas courts -ler %%4 ea Texas before the beginning of the 21st Century .10 • of appeals, and the one Hispanic appointed can either continue to wait for the 5th Circuit to odiv Horse incumbent justice who ran statewide for the "do the right thing" or direct our energies toward • Court of Criminal Appeals, all lost their elec- the Legislature. • Inn tions.) Article 5, Section (i) of the Texas Constitution • Single-member judicial districts would allow states: 0, Kitchenettes-Cable TV • Pool the election of district court judges from districts irl t smaller than an entire county, just as city coun- The legislature ... may not redistrict the judi- 0* beside the Gulf of Mexico 0 ak. cil members, justices of the peace, constables, cial districts to provide for any judicial dis- on .1Iustang Island ‘St• state representatives, state senators and mem- trict smaller in size than an entire county except ,$ ' oar Available for private parties J11° bers of Congress are elected in urban areas. as provided by this section. Judicial districts 0 1114 / There are two paths to single-member judi- smaller in size than the entire county may be al lrnique European Charm 1 cial districts: Federal judicial intervention or created subsequent to a general election where 1 & Atmosphere state legislative action followed by public a majority of the persons voting on the propo- Special Low Spring & Summer Rates $, approval by ballot. sition adopt the proposition "to allow the divi- Pets Welcome a When in 1989 the Houston Lawyers sion of County into judicial dis- Association, League of United Latin American tricts composed of parts of County." 1423 11th Street 410 Citizens (LULAC) and several other organi- No redistricting plan may be proposed or j zations and individuals sued the state in federal adopted by the legislature ... in anticipation IA" Port Aransas, TX 78373 1 court, in an effort to secure single member judi- of a future action by the voters of any county. call (512) 749-5221 The enactment of legislation to create single- MI RCSCI-Val MILS ,of Carroll G. Robinson is an Assistant Professor member judicial districts will require a well- •Frir4" S.4.11 A Olt% ik, , ‘4461‘ of Law Thurgood Marshall School of Law, ,Texas planned, collaborative effort by African- wit lirs ...... a. Southern University. American and Mexican-American/Hispanic state

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 17 A public service message from the American Income Life Insurance Co. — Waco, Texas — Bernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. (Advertisement)

Virtue: When Bonds Break on Semantics By Bernard Rapoport

"Virtue is not in truth, but in meaning," a great philoso- so, I am persuaded more than six decades later that pher once said. If all of us could accept this point of view, this grocer was a good person who did not have an it would change our lives for the better. awareness of how his words could be misinterpreted. If world survival depends on our loving one another, Is the appropriate term today black, Afro-American, this thinking could very well do it. Hispanic, Chicano, Jew, or Jewish? All Americans, blacks, In an attempt to illustrate what I mean, I am going to browns, whites, reds or yellows, should be sensitive to share a very personal experience. Some 68 years ago recognizing the right of a group to designate the appro- when I was seven, I went to the grocery store with my priate word or words as a term of reference to it. mother. She came to this country when she was 19 or Still my plea is that one misspoken word should not 20, and her English wasn't all that good. She wanted to end a relationship if the past record of the individual who buy some vegetables and the owner of the grocery store has misspoken has a record of total commitment to was standing by. civil rights. Let's look for more ways to love than to hate. Mother said, "How much are these tomatoes a pound?" In the feminist movement which I am a more than "Three cents," he said. Mother responded, "Could you just a vocal supporter, there is an appropriate time to use make it a penny cheaper?" He quickly responded, "Mrs. the word "girl," "lady" and "woman." Here is an area where Rapoport, are you trying to jew me down?" Mother walked I plead guilty. Too often, probably because I am in my out of the store in a huff and never went back. 70's, it is awfully hard to change old habits. I thought about that incident a lot of times. Mother had Words like "honey," "sweetheart," and "darling" pop been going to this grocery store for a few years and the out when they shouldn't. owner was, obviously, a nice individual. I am appropriately corrected from time to time and have Today I know here was an individual, not well edu- to be reminded again and again to do better next time. cated, and who was only trying to make a living. He Yet, let's remember the words of Sophocles that "we used an expression that somehow was acceptable in were born not to share in hate, but to share in love." those days. He didn't mean what Mother perceived, What parent or grandparent has not ruefully listened but because she didn't understand, she took umbrage. to these contumelious words "I hate you" when the child This happened to be a nice place to shop. Thereafter, was denied a request. Semantics is important, but mean- she had to walk a few extra blocks to do her grocery pur- ing even more so. chasing. One word and a relationship ended! The meaningful challenge is concentrating on the Now Mother didn't bother to tell this individual why real problem—a commitment to ensuring equality of she was offended. He probably never knew that he used opportunity for all sexes, races, creeds and colors. Any an expression that for him simply meant to end the dis- form of injustice is intolerable. cussion about price. We have reached a stage in our society where wars What if he had said to Mother, "Don't be so Scotch; are started over one or two words. I remember when pay the price that I ask." Would she have been offended? George Romney was running for President and he came I don't think so. back from Vietnam and said "I have been brainwashed." What brought this to mind is my concern that there Instead of being applauded because he recognized the is a certain meanness coming into play in our world. truth, he was ridiculed and run out of the race. Are we leaping in ways to dislike or hate one another? We have seen many examples similar to this in our Is communication, in spite of all the technological society and it indicates to me that we are getting meaner advances, becoming increasingly difficult? and more concerned with style than with substance. I Think for a moment about the incident I've related. It suggest that the rejection of "virtue is in meaning rather happened in the early 1920's when it was almost respect- than in truth" is going to continue to cause a lot of pain ful to read about the exploits of the Klu Klux Klan. Even in the years to come.

18 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 Continued from page 5 so, bringing bills to the floor as they are Other rules-reform proposals include allow- reported out of the standing committees where ing committee members to elect their own chairs pared by the Select Committee on Rules Reform they are heard, or simply opening up the or providing greater independence for committee will be voted on by all members. Few advocates Calendars Committee meetings and denying chairs, who, under current House rules serve of reform and almost no one in the "Good members the right to tag bills for no reason. at the pleasure of the Speaker, and ending the Government Lobby" expect the official com- The latter is most likely and probably the most 30-day period at the beginning of the session mittee, chaired by Ron Wilson, D-Houston, to reasonable; in the fractious 150-member House when no bills are scheduled for floor debate. propose the strong reforms needed in the House. some scheduling mechanism is needed. Also, according to Hirschi, the reform caucus According to Hirschi, if the reform caucus Another provision suggested to open up and is still considering a constitutional amendment is not satisfied with what is provided by the democratize the process is to provide each rep- that would limit the number of terms a Speaker Select Committee, it will present its own rules resentative with two priority bill numbers per is permitted to serve. package and open up the issue for floor debate. session to guarantee that two of each mem- What all of this is about is a diffusion of "We intend to do this in an organized fash- ber's bills will reach the the floor. "It would power, which would allow greater participation ion," Hirschi said, "and to have our votes counted probably mean that some really bad bills that by all House members and make it more diffi- before we bring these issues onto the floor." shouldn't get to the floor will," Hirschi said. cult for the big business lobby — which drives In the past, Hirschi said, the process was much But he added that the wasted time on the floor the Legislature — to dominate the process. more fragmented, typically with representatives might be worthwhile if the process becomes Pete Laney was a player on the Speaker's Price and Moreno individually offering amend- more democratic. team of Gib Lewis, a speaker driven from office ments from the back mike. "We will begin with Another broad consensus issue involves the by prosecution by Travis County District the items where we have the greatest consensus layout process, the rules governing the time rep- Attorney . Laney's own coach and work through our agenda," Hirschi said. resentatives are_provided to read a bill before throughout his speaker's campaign was Billy At the top of the list is reform of the Calendars it is brought to a vote. Often, according to Clayton, a former speaker who left office as a committee, the body that schedules all House Hirschi, 100-page amendments or substitute bills result of an ethics scandal. Clayton learned the legislation. AFL-CIO lobbyist Emmett Sheppard appear during floor debate and legislators know workings of the House while serving on on describes Calendars as "the graveyard for most little about the content of the bills they're required Gus Mutscher's "Speaker's Team," and when good legislation and all of our legislation." to vote on. Layout rules that would guarantee ex-Speaker Clayton officially signed on with The committee has been closed even to House legislators at least 24 hours to read a bill should the business lobby no one even noticed. Nor did members who do not serve on it and has oper- provide more informed voting. They would anyone pay much attention when Clayton moved ated in a secretive and unfair manner for as also limit the power of the lobby, which often from Democratic to Republican Party. long as anyone can remember. Individual mem- works with individual House members to pre- Laney might be a quotable, amiable West bers of Calendars are allowed to anonymously pare substitute bills or amendments at the request Texas helluvafella. But like his mentor Clayton, "tag" legislation, a process that requires no pub- of special interests. The reform caucus might he's a lobby animal, not a party animal. And lic justification for killing a bill. What this often also propose that floor reports, the bill summaries it is the business lobby that most fears House means is that one lobbyist working with one leg- prepared by the House Research Organization, rules reform. islator can kill a bill using the extra-parlia- be published 24 hours before legislation comes Laney's 68-word statement on rules reform mentary tagging process. to the floor. Currently the reports, which also might not be much. But at this point those 68 Possible Calendars reforms include dis- include brief legislative history and pros and words — and the political capital and deter- mantling the committee and bringing bills to cons, are placed on legislator's desks on the mination of the reform caucus — it's about all the floor anytime anyone has 30 votes to do morning of the scheduled vote. we've got. L.D.

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THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 19 Friday Night Revisited

BY ROBERT BRYCE

Temple, Austin videotape the game at the WO YEARS AGO Friday Night Lights behest of the Permian appeared in Odessa bookstores. Two years Booster Club. Kiser calls T have passed since the blue-collar West the game while his mate Texas oil town found itself in a maelstrom over films it. After the game, H.G. Bissinger's book, which portrayed the Kiser edits the tape and beloved Permian Panthers football team in a KOSA sells it to the non-too-flattering light. Two years since the booster club for $700 per pitiful story of Boobie Miles, the talented but game. "People just don't undereducated running back at Permian, was understand how big foot- spread coast to coast. ball is in Odessa," said But on a recent balmy September night in Kiser. "It's a religion." Temple, a few minutes before kickoff, And what of Boobie Bissinger's book might as well have been pub- Miles, the man-child who lished in Tanzania. The book had come and ran like the wind and was gone, but MOJO lives on. a shoo-in to earn a col- Permian fans had endured a 300-mile,drive lege scholarship until he to see their beloved team take on the mighty injured his knee in the Temple Wildcats under threatening skies. 1989 pre-season? Where Distant thunderclouds and bursts of lightning was the Boobie Miles drew gasps from the crowds as the Temple that Bissinger had told band marched around the field. Permian was the world about? "He's rated number one in the state, while Temple disappeared off the face ranked number three. Because it was a non-con- of the earth," said Kiser. ference game, the all-important playoff berth Nate Hearne knows was not at stake. But several hundred fans had where Boobie is. A for- driven the 336 miles from Odessa. All of mer football coach at Permian's tickets had been sold. The game Permian, Hearne now was a sellout. Latecomers were snapping up works as an assistant standing-room-only tickets for $6. principal at the high The Permian team managers were ready to school. A thoughtful, go long before game time. Big industrial fans soft-spoken man, Hearne had been rented and set up near the bench to was introduced early in cool off overheated teenage gladiators. A train- Bissinger's book. Heame ing table was set up. Ice bags, towels, water jugs, was identified as "a black training kit and headsets were all at the ready. junior varsity coach By the time the Panthers. took the field, the whose primary responsi- MOJO fans from Permian were ready. Although bility was to handle the ROBERT BRYCE they were far from the confines of the 20,000 black players on the Faith Restored seat, Astro turf-laden home field in Odessa, the team." He was the coach Permian fans were raucous, boisterous and ready who tried to talk Boobie Miles out of quitting ers semi-unconscious?" According to Hearne, to show these kids from Temple how football the team after his knee was injured. Did the book Miles is back in Odessa. Hearne doesn't know is played in West Texas. Spontaneous cheers of have an effect on Permian football? Hearne if Miles has a job. After his injury, Miles went MO-JO, MO-JO, MO-JO, sprang forth with lit- paused for a long moment. Finally he spoke. to Ranger Junior College and did well. But he tle encouragement. (MOJO, the title of a 1960s- "The book bonded people together," he said. got hurt again. "He was never able to recover," era Wilson Pickett song, is Permian's battle cry. "The outcome from the book was positive." Hearne said. No one knows exactly why). Bill Lockey agrees that Bissinger's book was Was Bissinger fair in his portrayal of Miles? Had Friday Night Lights, the topic of sports positive. Lockey's son, Matt, plays on offense Hearne thinks so. "What the book said about stories across the country, the focus of "60 And defense for Permian. His father follows the Boobie Miles is what happened." As Hearne Minutes", the book that caused Odessans to issue team avidly. "It has made us more careful in spoke, John Williams, this season's star running death threats against the author, been forgotten? how we do things in the booster club," said back at Permian, was racing downfield. Williams It certainly appeared that way. Kurt Kiser, the Lockey, former head of the club. Lockey points offered up comparisons to Boobie. Both are sports anchor for KOSA-TV in Odessa, was on out that the booster club now awards a $1,000 black. Both, while excelling on the field, strug- the sidelines waiting for the game to start. When academic scholarship to the player with the gled in the classroom. Miles wore number 35. asked about Bissinger's book he replied, "It's best grades. "And," he said, "the book made Williams wears number 36. During the Temple been forgotten. The book came out, then the us more aware of academics in general. The game, Williams would gain 176 yards. College team went out and went 16 and 0." coaches really harp on that with the kids." recruiters already are talking to the junior tail- Kiser and a cameraman were in Temple to So what of Boobie Miles? Where is the for- back. On the second play from scrimmage, he mer football star? the kid with the "self confi- raced more than 50 yards for a touchdown. dence that had caused him to gain 1,385 yards Hearne is worried that Williams could end up Robert Bryce is a freelance writer in Austin. the previous season, knocking vaunted lineback- like Miles, who after he was hurt and could no

20 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 longer play football was seen by some people even go back to Odessa." He continued, "There passing and running ability kept the Permian in Odessa as "just another big dumb nigger." are lessons to be drawn [from what happened defense off balance the whole game. The smaller Although he is now 1,800 miles away, H.G. at Permian]. This is just a game, it should not Permian players were simply outmanned by Bissinger still gets Friday night fever. He told teach kids that life ends at the age of 18. I just Temple's larger offensive line. Permian coach the Texas Sports Chronicle that Permian games pray to God that no more kids like Boobie Miles Tam Hollingshead offered no excuses to were "the most exciting sports events I have fall through the cracks." reporters after the game. "We competed hard, ever witnessed." Every week he looks for scores The author has visited Odessa several times but give Temple credit, they played well." of Permian games in the sports section of USA over the past two years. He will return within Unaccustomed to losing, some of the Permian Today. He stays in touch with Ivory Christian, a few months to award a scholarship through players openly wept. The Temple band played Jerrod McDougal and some of the Permian play- the Friday Night Lights Foundation, a non- the school fight song while jubilant students ers that he wrote about in Friday Night Lights. profit foundation Bissinger set up with proceeds swarmed the field. Now back in Philadelphia, working on a from the book to help student-athletes pay for The interview over, Hollingshead called his book about the problems of American cities, their education. On a recent visit, though, players together in the center of the field. He Bissinger says he has fond memories of Bissinger said many of the people in Odessa reminded his players that this was only the sec- Odessa, of the Permian players, coaches and "acted as if the book never happened." ond game of the season. More games remained fans. He hopes his book has not been forgot- Forty years ago, George Bush lived in Odessa. to be played. Then, as a team, they knelt and ten. "If that's the case, I think it's a shame. Bissinger's book includes a few lines that prayed. There, in the middle of a humid Central It means that more kids are going to fall through President Bush wrote about West Texas foot- Texas night with thunderheads looming on the the cracks. More kids are going to wake up ball: "It would take us several seasons, living horizon, Texas football once again held hands and realize that there should have been more in both Odessa and Midland, before we under- with Texas religion. to life than a state championship." stood the game, not as we knew it back east, but Maybe that's why people believe Friday Night When told that many Permian boosters believe West-Texas-style as a quasi-religious experi- Lights had been good for Permian football. A his book has had a positive effect, Bissinger says ence." Four decades ago, Bush observed foot- writer from Philadelphia had come to town that his book was not meant to offend Permian ball as religion. In Friday Night Lights, the and questioned their faith. Today the writer is fans. The purpose of the book says Bissinger, liturgical significance of Permian football is gone and the devout remain. And their faith

was to show that "football is overemphasized. referred to several times. When asked about burns brighter than before. ❑ And it's not just Odessa, this is happening in it, the author responded, "religion outlasts any- many places across the country...The purpose one's attempt to change it, no matter how well of the book was compassionate and it was clear meaning the attempt." Editor's Note: At press time, Odessa Permian where I came down. If I felt I had taken cheap On this particular night Temple prevailed finished the season 9-1 and had won its first shots or didn't believe what I wrote, I wouldn't 20 to 14. Temple quarterback Adrian Woodson's playoff game, as did Temple.

MEDIA OBSERVER The Big "Whoosh!"

BY CHRISTOPHER COOK

NE OF THE more memorable moments questions and blabbering about Bush's lowly defeat of George Bush. All in all, it was a craven of the last televised presidential debate position in the polls. Then, without warning, performance by the advocates of the First 0 came with the mighty sucking whoosh! Bush and his GOP cronies announced that the Amendment — so cowardly, so transparent, so with which soon-not-to-be-President Bush real reason for the president's poor showing was shameful and brazenly irresponsible that many demonstrated the reaction of the stock market the collective anti-Bush bias by the news media. of us chose to avert our eyes, as if we had inad- to a possible Clinton election. And poof! Like a cartoon character that sud- vertently walked into an occupied restroom stall. Despite the president's sibilating eloquence denly disappears, leaving nothing behind but But see it, we did. Practically overnight, just the stock market survived and he didn't. Still, a few brush strokes, mainstream journalists a week before the election, George Bush once Bush, with a sweep of his arm and fricative abandoned their self-assigned. posts as defend- more became the Napoleonic victor of the Gulf articulation, demonstrated a sound many of us ers of democracy. War, the environmental president who rammed heard again during the last week of the presi- They reappeared, having discovered that Gov. a Clean Air Act through a recalcitrant Congress, dential campaign. Clinton was "sitting on his lead," and proceeded the free market genius who cleverly negoti- If the sucking noise that last week wasn'tthat to describe with persistent enthusiasm the shrink- ated a North American Free Trade Agreement of the stock market in free fall, then what was ing lead of the Arkansas governor — whom they guaranteed to stave off the economic defeat of it? It was the sound of the mainstream news portrayed as negligent and anxious — in the the western hemisphere by socialist Europeans media, in one massive and hasty retreat, aban- polls. As if to demonstrate meritorious and bal- and Asian hordes. doning their reportorial stations for fear they anced intent, the news media also beat up on On ABC's "20/20" on Thursday before elec- would be blamed for the inevitable Bush defeat. Ross Perot for being, well, Ross Perot. Some tion day, Sam Donaldson put on a performance Yes, you did see it. We all did. First, there things just can't be helped. that might serve as the paradigm for journal- was the news media, doing its job, asking inane By easing off President Bush — who con- ists who would still seek redemption before it tinued to wail about unfair treatment — and was too late. Donaldson (God's malicious joke thus distracting the electorate from the President's on self-identified liberals) interviewed both Bush Christopher Cook of Austin is a former news- record, the mainstream news media positioned and Clinton, one-to-one. In his inimitable way, paper journalist. itself to avoid becoming the scapegoat for the Donaldson put on a frenzied display of thrust

THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 21

1 k and parry with both men, pretending to draw people who got through to her, the people ger their way. And certainly don't expect them blood when all he really wanted was a few gasps outside the press," were Bush supporters and to recall the vows they all made a year ago, from the front row. But the deference with which the Washington establishment, not the sub- when they promised more than sound bites and he questioned Bush, compared to the disre- stantial majority of Americans who voted the when all the news heavies swore to focus on gard with which he treated Clinton, revealed a president out of office. serious issues. journalist more dazzled by status and power than Now that the election is done, expect some In the end, the folks in the Fourth Estate, dedicated to reporting the news. Indeed, though public and dramatic self-flagellation as the main- who this past campaign season brought us Donaldson quietly suffered the president's ram- stream news media pretend to examine their role Gennifer Flowers, inhalation (or not), the "cru- bling replies, he refused to allow Clinton to com- in the recent campaigns. This period of self- cial" draft-dodger issue, and speculation whether plete an answer. analysis will be brief and superficial, so watch a student trip to Moscow constitutes treason While it is characteristic of Donaldson to closely or you'll miss it. — those are the same folks who time and again behave badly, he outdid himself on this night, Mostly, they'll analyze the "new role" of were forced to return to the real issues by ... us, reflecting the bellyfull of terror that apparently talk shows on radio and TV that put the candi- the citizens of this republic. gripped journalists everywhere after Bush threat- dates "in direct touch with ordinary people." If we could only bring such pressure to ened to hang the blame for his failures on them. But don't expect them to mention their own bear all the time, what a wonderful world it This is the kind of media terror we've seen cowardly response when Bush pointed a fin- would be. before. We first saw it after the Vietnam War, when the reactionary right decided to pin the blame for that humiliating loss on the "liberal Continued from page 24 who had 30 overdrafts; Ron Coleman of El Paso, news media." Just as the country, in response who had 673; and Charles Wilson of Lufkin, who to that ugly war, said, "Never again;" the news and family leave, while four congressmen and had 80. AP found that 17 incumbents seeking re- media decided that it would never again risk a senator managed to score zeros in the record election had yet to be cleared four days before being blamed for national tragedy, such as the compiled by the Association of Community the election; 16 were Democrats. defeat of an incumbent president. So the main- Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Bill stream news media behaved during the week Archer, Jack Fields, Larry Combest and Tom ✓ CLOSED DOORS. The offices of the prior to November 3, after George Bush began Delay scored zeros, as did Republican Sen. state's elected officials are increasingly closed waving the bumper sticker that read, "Annoy Phil Gramm. Other scores included John Bryant, to "drop-ins" from the public. Attorney General the Media, Re-elect Bush." 90 percent; Martin Frost, Ronald Coleman and has declared "off limits" to the For the record, self-respecting journalists deny Kika de la Garza, all 84.6; Albert Bustamante, general public the entire eighth floor of the this phenomenon ever occurred. But off the 83.3; Jack Brooks, 81.8; Jake Pickle, 69.2; Jim Price Daniel Sr. Building where Morales has record, some are willing to confess, if not repent. Chapman, 66.7; Chet Edwards, Mike Andrews his office. A citizen wanting to see Morales has The Washington bureau chief of one major and Solomon Ortiz, 61.5; Charles -Wilson and to show a driver's license before a security offi- newspaper chain admits the news media cut and Tom Laughlin, both 53.8, slightly above the cer will enter a code to get the elevator to the ran like unwilling conscripts in a bad fight. House average of 53 percent; Bill Sarpalitis, eighth floor. Morales spokesman Ron Dusek "We just didn't want to carry the blame," this 46.2; Pete Geren, 38.5; Ralph Hall, 23.1; Sam told the Houston Chronicle the decision to editor concedes. "The public dislikes us enough Johnson and Joe Barton, 8.3; and Charles increase security was made several months ago already." Stenholm, Lamar Smith and Dick Armey, all after a series of courthouse shootings around Another print journalist working in Washing- 7.7. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen scored 58.3, above the nation. He said other state attorneys gen- ton, D.C., says, "I never thought the press the Senate average of 45 percent. eral and U.S. attorneys have high security. was that hard on George Bush. Personally,• I Morales' security is similar to that at the state thought we could've been a lot tougher. But ✓ WHEELS GRIND AT JUSTICE. "Coin- Treasury, where financial instruments are kept people outside the press are convinced we cidentally or not," as the Associated Press put it, on the premises, and the Supreme Court, which were really too tough on him. I don't know." the three Texas congressmen who were among was sealed from the public in the mid-1980s That comment tells us much about the pres- the few incumbents who had not been cleared after allegations that lawyers were improperly sure working journalists feel from above by the Justice Department of criminal wrong- meeting with justices to argue their cases. (within their organizations), from below (read- doing in the House bank scandal the week before Former Attorney General Jim Mattox, now in ers and viewers), and from all around (politi- the election were the three Democrats involved private practice, questioned the need for such cians and media colleagues). It also reveals in the tightest races for re-election. Yet under security measures. "Most of that security will how tenuous is the idea of "objective jour- investigation by Justice Department special coun- keep out honest people," he told the Chronicle. nalism;" not even the reporters know what it sel Malcolm Wilkey on the eve of the election "If somebody is a criminal who really wants to is. But mostly her comment reveals that the were Reps. Albert Bustamante of San Antonio, hurt you, they'll get to you at the Capitol or a political event." Members of the public must show an ID and sign in at a security desk to gain entry to the unfinished underground Capitol Annex, where the offices of the Governor and Secretary of State are located, but the annex is expected to be opened to the public when the project is finished in January.

✓ JUSTICE DENIED. Federal prosecutors PEOPLE of San Antonio businessman M. Douglas Jaffe Make a world of difference ! Jr., who was charged in a campaign-contribu- We're proud of our employees and their contributions to your tion conspiracy case, got a scolding from U.S. success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing District Judge Lucius Bunton, who said the case was "rinky-dinky" and smacked of poli- and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. tics. A San Antonio jury acquitted Jaffe. The Justice Department is expected to drop a three- P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760.7427 and-a-half-year-old probe into alleged influence FUTUM peddling in South Texas that targeted U.S. Rep. COMMUNICATIONS, INC 389-1500 Albert Bustamante, D-San Antonio, who was

defeated in the general election. ❑

22 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992 AFTERWORD Come Home to Lubbock

BY PHILIP PARKER

Lubbock state. has cautiously suggested that the state's tax NE DILEMMA George Bush faces as Yet, somehow, as the better part of the structure should be made more progressive. he packs up at the White House is what Reagan and Bush's "longest period of post- Before the election, Montford even uttered the Ohometown to return to — he seems to war growth" passed the city by, Lubbock's "I" word at a tax-planning seminar hosted by claim so many. loyalty seemed unrequited. Large segments Texas Tech's business school. Mystery oppo- He should consider coming home to Lubbock. of the manufacturing base have disappeared nent or not, mentioning a state income tax to While Bush never established a physical resi- since 1984 and the downward slope of eco- people learning to minimize taxes carries a cer- dence here as he did in Houston or Midland, nomic growth was altered only by a few good tain risk. he enjoys a certain metaphysical kinship with cotton crops in the late 1980s. But favorable One seminar participant suggested that the the Hub of the South Plains. weather falls beyond the control of presidents state needs to raise the "sin tax." Montford I recall on election night how CBS' Dan and chamber of commerce bumper-sticker gently reminded him that "it's hard to find all Rather observed that Bush was losing the pres- campaigns. Bush left little to chance in Lubbock the sin to be able to tax it. When I was [dis- idency even after commanding two "winning County, dropping in to chat with farmers in trict attorney], someone told me to know the wars" — in Panama and the Persian Gulf. Shallowater late this fall. Cynics may asked if difference between sin and crime — and leave Bush's squandering of a 90-plus approval rat- the visit to Lubbock contained an element of sin alone," Montford said. ing just after Desert Storm reminds me of the Gramm-standing — trumpeting to certain con- Traditionally, Lubbock prides itself on know- story of an incumbent Laredo city council mem- stituencies the benefits of programs you oppose, ing what sin is and driving it from the city. ber who lost re-election even though he had two a measure perfected by Sen. Phil Gramm. Consequently, sin clusters just outside the city cemeteries located in his district. Although Bush publicly disparaged the polls limits. The old honky tonks — such as the Cotton Maybe the post-Desert Storm ratings were showing him trailing Clinton, he realized the Club — stand empty now, but the neon-lit an aberration. Flip back to earlier in his admin- need to win big in Lubbock County to carry "Strip" still offers the six-packs of beer and bot- istration, and you see a less-confident Bush Texas. So the President, Barbara and the rest tles of liquor not sold inside the city. And lately shrilly defending his role as Reagan's heir. of the clan attended to the South Plains, while even the concept of keeping sin outside the In March of 1989 Bush even sounded like national columnists wondered why the cam- city is unclear, as three city council members his predecessor; who was always so fond of paign did not give the same attention to — including the two minority members — push reading the public his mail. Bush quoted "a Cleveland or Los Angeles. . for a referendum to allow alcoholic beverage fellow from Lubbock, Texas." Even as Lubbock's voters rang up big mar- sales within, the city. Coming next will be the "All the people in Lubbock think things are gins for Bush, they returned John Montford, a battle for the soul of Lubbock — with a strange going just great," said Bush. So began Lubbock's Democrat, to the state Senate, with 63 percent coalition of Baptists and bootleggers fighting 15 minutes of the spotlight as the new Peoria of of the vote. Montford is one of a vanishing against the owners of the convenience store Bush's heartland. The pulse of the "real breed in this part of Texas — a conservative chains. America" beats on the windswept South Plains. Democrat. Until a dozen years ago, conserva- Some folks — like the planning commis- Then came the bumper stickers and full-page tives in Lubbock County still called themselves sion members who decided two days after,the ads in out-of-state newspapers, by which city Democrats. Republicans — despite a decades- election to prohibit a male revue and lingerie leaders tried to convince folks of the existence long presence in Lubbock County — had to wait show at a club — still recognize and doggedly of some tangible efforts to improve local eco- for the first Reagan landslide to capture their fight against sin. The existing bar featuring nomic conditions. "D.C. phone home," an- first countywide office. The conversion has been topless females for the past two years set up a nounced the new advertising campaign pro- so complete that Montford is one of the few new outpost just outside the city limits — next moting Lubbock. Scrape off the old bumper Democrats who can win a countywide con- to the old Cotton Club — just in case. sticker from the last campaign and attach the tested race. new slogan. The exception for Montford, oddly, was at Molly Ivins once suggested that the reason Calls came in from throughout the country Texas Tech, where the young Republicans have Lubbock produced so many notable country- and "Good Morning America" talked to the not discovered ticket-splitting. One Tech precinct western musicians was because it still under- breakfast crowd at a downtown Lubbock restau- voted 62 percent and another 58 percent for stood sin. The honky tonks provided a contri- rant. A few election year sidebars echoed the Ed Gray, a mystery candidate who had few bution to the region's culture — if only as "Lubbock as pulse of Bush's America" theme. ties to Lubbock. The only attraction appeared training grounds for musicians who end up Most of the attention passed quickly. to be the "R" after his name on the ballot. Maybe migrating to Austin. Unfortunately, topless bars Yet Lubbock displays the virtue Bush reveres the students are too young to appreciate the con- play the same dreadful recorded music heard most — loyalty. In a record turnout, Lubbock cept of "yellow dog" Democrats or too cyni- elsewhere. Maybe a Gresham's law applies to Country voters gave the Bush-Quayle ticket 58 cal from the Reagan-Bush years to grasp that sin, and the new stuff is never as good as the sin percent of their Nov. 3 vote. Given the close- certain commodities — like college educations of the past. ness of the statewide race, Lubbock had some- — include a price tag that someone has to pay. Lubbock continues to make the distinction thing to say about Bush's win in his adopted Since Montford is a conservative Democrat about sin. Bush should welcome coming to a rather than a Republican, he retains an under- place where we still understand sin. However, standing that "no new taxes" is inconsistent with since he's not running for president any more, Philip Parker is a former newspaper reporter the idea of providing basic services for educa- maybe he doesn't want to hang out with such attending graduate school in public adminis- tion, prisons or highways. Recently; Montford folks any longer. tration at . ❑ THE TEXAS OBSERVER • 23

,A • w *g*, ,,,,•••••••,4•••• • ••••• ••■•,P.t. ," • Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701 4

POLITICAL, INTELLIGENCE

✓ CHANGING FACES. Election of Bill lost two statewide races but headed the GOP member of the State Board of Insurance, and Clinton as the new President also gives Victory '92 campaign, Ag Commissioner Rick Amy Johnson, an activist Public Insurance Democrats long-awaited control of the federal Perry, Treasurer Kay Hutchison and virtually Counsel in cases before the board. Both have administration and judicial appointments. Under all other ambitious GOP elected officials. earned the enmity of insurance companies, which Senate tradition, the privilege of nominating reportedly are lobbying heavily for their rejec- federal judges — of which there are now 10 ✓ RELIEF IN STORE. Labor unions have tion. All three members of the Texas Water openings for district judges and at least two high hopes for the Clinton Administration, if Commission stirred hard feelings when they Texas openings on the 5th Circuit U.S. Court for no other reason than the Reagan/Bush years agreed to take control of the Edwards Aquifer, of Appeals — moves from Republican Sen. have been something of a Dark Ages for orga- although a lawsuit in federal court might yet Phil Gramm to Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. nized labor, which lost approximately 40,000 make West Texans appreciate the commission's In addition, Clinton is expected to replace U.S. members in Texas during the 1980s. Unions efforts to avert a federal takeover of the under- marshalls and attorneys for the four judicial dis- hope to see friendly faces for a change not only ground river. Cathy Bonner of the Texas tricts of Texas as well as regional offices for at the Labor Department, but also among key Department of Commerce also can expect some various federal agencies. New Democratic lead- economic advisers to the President as well as at partisan sniping, among others. But even if the ership at the U.S. Justice Department also could regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Republicans wield a partisan bloc, Richards gets make a difference in efforts to reimpose a Safety and Health Administration, which has to name replacements, so look for compromises. Democrat-favored redistricting plan for the languished, to the point where businesses can Texas Senate in 1994. expect an on-site inspection at least once every ✓ NO SPIT. A look at the statistics will pro- 84 years. Clinton is expected to support a com- vide some understanding of Mexican-American ✓ WHAT IF DEPT. What happens if prehensive reform of OSHA, passage of legis- legislators' angry reaction to the proposed con- Clinton asks Sen. Lloyd Bentsen to join his lation to ban permanent replacement of striking situtional amendment by Rep. John Culberson, Cabinet? Bentsen reportedly prizes his inde- employees and provide for unpaid family leave R-Houston, that would remove school finance pendence, and some argue he is in a better and enforcement of prevailing-wage laws and from the oversight of the court s and place it position to help Clinton as chair of the Senate he has promised to sign the repeal of section in the hands of the Legislature. "A racist piece Finance Committee, which is expected to han- 14b of the Taft-Hartley Act, which allows states of shit" is how Rep. Hugo Berlanga, D-Corpus dle taxes, trade and health care issues, than such as Texas to enact "Right to Work" laws, if Christi, described it. "I would not even dignif he would be in the Cabinet. If the senior sen- it gets to his desk. Clinton also has committed y it with a response," said Rep. Greg Luna, D- ator moved, however, it would set up a chain to restore balance at the National Labor Relations San Antonio. Why the anger? The bottom 5 per- reaction of Texans who covet his Senate seat. Board, whose pro-business rulings on com- cent of the school districts in terms of wealth Gov. Ann Richards would name an interim sen- plaints of unfair labor practices have made it a and therefore spending on students are 95 per- ator — perhaps even herself, which would bugbear for unions, but change may come slower cent Mexican-American. And the bottom one- place Bob Bullock in the Governor's Mansion. there. It will take three years before Clinton fourth are 65 percent Mexican-American. "When If Richards were to name someone else, who appointees gain a majority on the five-mem- the Supreme Court decided Brown v. the Bord would it be? Henry Cisneros — a logical choice ber board, whose terms are staggered annually, of Education, did Congress then take the author- — also is a likely choice for the Clinton Cabinet. but the AFL-CIO hopes the board's counsel, ity back from the courts so they could continue Bill Hobby, now teaching at the LBJ School at who comes in with the new President, will mod- segregation?" Luna asked. UT-Austin, fits the patrician Senate mold. Lloyd erate its decisions in the meantime. Doggett, a former state senator who lost a U.S. ✓ ACORN NUGGETS. Two Texas con- Senate race to Phil Gramm in 1984, reportedly ✓ BUTT YOUR BUST. The Texas Senate gressmen, Henry B. Gonzalez of San Antonio is restive on the Supreme Court. Oscar Mauzy, might hold off on reviewing Gov. Ann Richards' and Craig Washington of Houston, voted the another liberal former state senator, is look- 585 appointees to boards and commissions until interest of low- and moderate-income Americans ing for work come January. Lena Guerrero the regular session, which starts in January. 100 percent of the time on issues such as bud- appears to be out of the question, at least until Republicans will have four more senators by get transfers from military to domestic spend- she finishes that degree, and Garry Mauro's then, enough to block confirmation under the ing, civil rights, affordable housing, automatic financial troubles may keep him out of the state Constitution, but they would do so at their voter registration, replacement of striking work- hunt. But there's no free ride: Richards (or peril. Partisan busting of nominees would set ers, low-income weatherization, unemploy- her successor) would have to call a free-for-all a precedent that Democrats, who expect to keep ment benefits, children's programs, fair lend- special election to fill the two years remain- a majority in the Senate for the foreseeable ing, banking fees, school choice and medical ing on Bentsen's term. Potential Republican future, could follow if and when a Republican challengers include U.S. Rep. Jack Fields of governor is elected. At the top of the endangered Humble, Rob Mosbacher Jr., who already has appointees are Allene Evans, a pro-consumer Continued on page 22

24 • NOVEMBER 27, 1992