The Texas Observer October 18, 1968

The Texas Observer October 18, 1968 A Journal of Free Voices A Window to The South 25c Had You Forgotten? The Contest for Governor Austin to pull close enough to his opponent for a Last spring twelve men and a woman confrontation. began the biennial race to the governor's Neither candidate has captured the mansion. Voters looked at the motley as- voters' imagination. Smith, at 55 a bald- sortment of runners, (which included a ing, smiling, moon-faced man, is outward- prophetess from Brenham, a former am- ly bland, inwardly tenacious. "There's no bassador, a liberal lawyer, a millionaire one who has gone through much more rancher, the lieutenant governor, a crime hardship that I did," he likes to remem- fighter, three Republican attorneys) and ber. At 15 he .left the Dawson county they narrowed the race to the lieutenant farm his father worked. "I pulled cotton governor and one of the GOP attorneys. bolls, plowed, cut yards, cleaned windows, Then, for the most part, they stopped ran a filling station and fixed a million thinking about the governorship and tires for 15 cents each—anything to get turned to the presidential contest, where an education." While attending Texas the action is faster and the prizes bigger. Tech in Lubbock he started a movie house Although many people seem to have near the campus. Successful in that ven- stopped watching, the gubernatorial race ture, he branched out into real estate and continues. Lt. Gov. Preston Smith, the then into politics. Smith has held state Democrat, is out in front, hardly winded office for 18 years, six as a state repre- after a 55% to 45% primary win over sentative, six as a senator and six as lieu- liberal Don Yarborough. Jogging at the tenant governor. He has described him- steady pace he began more than a year self as an "ultraconservative," and his ago, he has covered more territory than record in the legislature upholds the ac- his opponent and he acts as if he were curacy of that label. the only man running. Republican Paul Eggers characterizes his opponent as an Photo by Russell Lee Eggers is sprinting behind Smith, shout- "obstructionist." "Preston Smith has Preston Smith ing charges of "private club government" 'long experience'," the Republican con- into the wind. So far, he has been unable cedes, "but he has used this mainly to but he does not contradict hopeful lib- block sound progress and needed re- erals who discern left-of-center ideas in forms." Smith, for his part, simply ig- some of his pronouncements. nores his GOP challenger. Eggers, a Wichita Falls tax attorney, IN THEIR choice of a candi- was completely unknown to the voting date, the Republicans have been accused public when the Republican hierarchy of muffing their best chance of putting tapped him to run for governor. His only a governor in the mansion since 1962, political position had been that of GOP when Jack Cox came close to defeating county chairman in Republican Sen. John John Connally. Some wonder why the Tower's home district. A graduate of the GOP did not select a well-known Repub- University of Texas law school, he is lican such as Cox or popular Cong. chairman-elect of the taxing section of George Bush, instead of a complete un- the state bar and past director of the known whose only visible assets were a North Texas Oil & Gas Assn. wavy salt and pepper pOmpadour and In the early weeks of the campaign, craggy facial features that make him at Eggers seemed ill at ease in front of least look the part of a Texas governor. large groups and at press conferences. The state party reportedly promised Now he is more sure of himself, although Eggers a million dollars for his post-pri- sometimes he still comes off as a debate mary campaign, but as the politicking student attempting to deliver an A-plus progressed, the Texas Republican hier- speech. He exudes earnestness. "I really archy began to balk. After the Miami care about the people of Texas. I wouldn't convention, Richard Nixon's candidacy be in the race if I didn't care," he tells began to eclipse Eggers' in terms of the reporters. Texas GOP's priorities. Since Nixon ap- It is interesting that Eggers, the Re- pears to be a winner, conservative Demo- publican, the man with the strong ties cratic money started flowing into Repub- to the oil and gas industry, appears to lican campaign accounts. The money was be the more moderate of the candidates. earmarked for Nixon, because the Demo- Paul Eggers He calls himself an "honest conservative," crats continued to support Preston Smith for governor. Worried that Eggers might and national committeeman Albert Fay films made for the campaign he hoped have a chance, some big Democratic con- already were disturbed at the extent of to run. If Nixon is elected and Eggers tributors threatened to drop Nixon and go Eggers' independence. He has not proved defeated, O'Donnell and Fay will re- to George Wallace if the state Republican to be as conservative as they would like, main the leaders of the state GOP and party did not cool Eggers' campaign. and they could not afford to lose what thus will be in a position to distri- According to the Houston Chronicle, little control they have over him. They bute the spoils. This position would be state Republican leaders, meeting secret- lifted the embargo on money. Eggers and especially attractive to O'Donnell, who ly, decided to cut Eggers' campaign his staff refused to say what their budget is believed by some to aspire to the budget during the September state con- is, but the figure most often heard is chairmanship of the national party. vention in Fort Worth. At this point the $500,000, half of what originally was GOP fund raisers began to stress to planned. "We've had some cash flow prob- Democratic contributors that none of the lems from state headquarters but our PRESTON SMITH, as most funds donated to Nixon would go to finances are going to be adequate. I'm Democratic gubernatorial candidates, has Eggers. very pleased we have our finances solved," had to raise his own funds and run his Eggers' financial crisis reportedly Eggers told the Observer. own campaign. Something of a maverick reached a climax in Houston during the Senator Tower appears to have taken conservative, Smith has always been out- first week in October when Eggers, Sen- Eggers' side in the financial squabble. He side the John Connally-Ben Barnes axis. ator Tower and party officials gathered and the gubernatorial candidate have been He has gone it alone with a tremendous for a fund raising affair featuring Cali- friends for some time. Tower has taken success. For years Smith has said he fornia Gov. Ronald Reagan. Eggers had time out of his campaigriing for Nixon would run for governor as soon • as Con- received about $365,000 in campaign funds to speak for Eggers. He went to bat for nally stepped down, but last September and he had been told he would receive Eggers in Houston, where Eggers got he announced before Connally decided no more The candidate reportedly gave 20% of the take at the $125-a-plate Reagan not to run and before any other candi- the Republichn leaders 24 hours in which dinner. Still, some party workers say, date had started thinking about the cam- to come through with more of the money Tower, for the most part, usually paign. promised him. Eggers is said to have remains "aloof" from state GOP power Smith is an advocate of a traditional threatened that if he did not receive a struggles. "person to person" campaign style. Prob- pledge for additional funds within a day, Some Republicans involved in the Eg- ably realizing that he is a dull performer, he would hold a press conference in gers campaign privately speculate that he shuns television appearances and cam- Dallas the day Nixon was to arrive there O'Donnell and Fay want Eggers to lose. paign debates. Instead, he has combed for a statewide television appearance. They say that the two Republican lead- the West Texas plains and the piney Eggers was to tell the public that he was ers would not be able to control Eggers woods, the megalopolises and the boon- cutting loose from the state party, run- if elected and that their own influence docks, pressing the flesh, meeting the ning his campaign independently, and in the national party would be dimin- people. A state senator tells the story raising campaign funds through his own ished. Fay must still be disappointed that of taking Barnes, the Democratic can- personal connections. he was not the party's candidate for gov- didate for lieutenant governor, to a tiny State party chairman Peter O'Donnell ernor. Early in the year he had some pilot hamlet in North Texas. The young politi- cian was surrounded by admirers in the only cafe in town and he was confident he was the first candidate to campaign THE TEXAS OBSERVER there in decades. Then the waitress walked over to the table and asked © The Texas Observer Publishing Co. A Journal of Free Voices A Window to the South Barnes, "Where's ol' Preston this week? 62nd YEAR—ESTABLISHED 1906 We haven't seen him in some time!" Eggers has invested a healthy sum in Vol. LX, No. 20 October 18, 1968 7a) television advertising in the major urban areas. For the most part, the TV spots Incorporating the State Observer and the East The Observer is published by Texas Observer have been what his press aide calls "im- Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the Publishing Co., Inc., biweekly from Austin, Texas.

Load more