ustxtxb_obs_1968_08_23_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

THE TEXAS OBSERVER 504 West 24th Street Austin, Texas 78705 scription for: Name Street City State Zip $6 enclosed. Bill me. 11111111111 -{.0-4,e, ans were split 41 to 15, Nixon over Reagain. There was no small amount of pleasure in his voice at this disclosure. And there was no small amount of displeasure among the Reaganites. Their gloom was more than obvious, and some even had expressions of bewilderment. They need not have waited so long for “the word,” though; it was available to any who bothered to look during the customary spontaneous demonstration after Mrs. Ivy Baker Priest nominated Ronald Reagan; 38 of the 56 Texans stayed in th6ir seats. There had been a chance and a fairry good one, by one estimate that the Texas vote would put Nixon over the top. It would really have been the frosting on the cake for Tower and O’-Donnell, but because of some last-minute vote-switching down the line to Rockefeller, it was the Wisconsin delegation, seated three delegations away from the Texans, which jumped triumphantly to its feet, shouting confirmation of what already was known. The Texans, however, were on their feet just behind the Wisconsinites and a split second before the rest of the convention hall exploded in pandemonium. All the Texans, that is, but the hard core Reaganites, who sat glumly and watched, never smiling. After it was over, one Reagan backer, Don Forse of Harris county, was shaking visibly. 1 Like other delegations, the Texas unit began switching its votes from Reagan to Nixon in an effort to make it a unanimous one. However, despite the pressure from within their own ranks, three Reagan backers refused to change their votes, Forse and Dr. John Watson and Mrs. Dale Hager, both of Beaumont, so the final tally was 53-3. The Beaumont two walked out of the convention hall. Here is how the Texas delegation voted: For ReaganJames Fourmy, Ray Weston and Don Forse, all of Houston; Mrs. Elmer Lindstrom, Channelview; Frank Cahoon, Midland; Jack Cox, Austin; Fred Gray, Pasadena; Mrs. W. A. Smith, Floresville; Dr. Charles Walker, Beaumont; Mrs. Dale Hager, Beaumont; Dr. Clyde Morgan, Abilene; Jim Campbell and Congressman Bob Price, both of Pampa; Mrs. G. D. McDaniel of Borger; and Terry Condrey, Lubbock. For NixonJohn Hurd, Laredo; Mrs. Tobin Armstrong, Armstrong; David Dorn, Houston; Sen. John G. Tower, Wichita Falls; Peter O’Donnell, Dallas; Mrs. Bradley Streeter and Paul Eggers, both of Wichita Falls; Douglas R. DeCluitt, Waco; Congressman George Bush, Houston; Mrs. Malcolm Milburn, Austin; Tony Rodriguez, San Antonio; Albert Bel Fay, Houston; Dudley Sharp, Houston; William Steger, Tyler; John Furr, Elysian Fields; James Timberlake, Texarkana; Gillett Sheppard, Longview; Owen Cox, Corpus Christi; Jay Anderson, East Bernard; Mrs. Richard Sowell, McAllen. Also Joe N. Pratt, Victoria; Dr. George Willeford, Harlingen; Dr. Wally Wilkerson, Conroe; Mrs. Basil Atkinson, Beaumont; Mrs. Gordon King, McGregor; Sproesser Wynn, Fort Worth; Mrs. John Andujar, Jim Garvey and Roger Hunsaker, all of Fort Worth; Fred Agnich, Jim Collins, Mrs. Jo Kanowsky, Mrs. Richard Bass and Sam Wyly, all of Dallas; Dr. William L. Rector, Wichita Falls; Winston Wrinkle, Big Spring; Rudy Judesman, Odessa; M. 0. Turner and John H. Wood Jr., both of San Antonio; and Fred Hervey and ‘Mrs. J. T. Moorhead, both of El Paso. NIXON began deliberating almost immediately on the choice of a running mate. Among those present for the semi-final deliberations were Tower and O’Donnell. Although O’Donnell declined comment about the names of those considered, it later was learned that the three men being given top attention near the end were Texan Bush, Cong. Howard and Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon. O’Donnell said he pushed very hard for both Bush and Tower as Nixon’s running mates, but he declined to comment on what was said of the others. O’Donnell, it should be noted, was one of only two On the Right . Austin Group Research, a liberal research organization based in , Washington, DC, formed to stay abreast of rightwing activity in the nation, declares in a current publication that “the conservative delegates, mostly from the South . . . won more points than any other group” at this year’s national Republican convention. GR says that Texans John Tower and Peter O’Donnell were present during “crucial early-morning meeting s” when Richard Nixon chose his running mate. GR identifies Tower as “a strong supporter of Young Americans for Freedom”; O’Donnell, as “a director of the American Conservative Union as well as a heavy contributor to the American Enterprise Institute.” The latter three groups are among those on the right that GR has researched: Dallas billionaire-conservative H. L. Hunt was in Miami. GR says he was “passing out copies of his books, plugging Cong. Gerald Ford, claiming some credit for [Max] Rafferty’s defeat of [ California Sen. Thomas] Kuchel, and trying to defeat Sen. J. W. Fulbright of Arkansas.” There were 26 black delegates at the convention, GR advises, some of whom publicly support the John Birch Society. state party chairmen invited to the deliberations by Nixon. Nixon then retired to the penthouse of the Hilton Plaza, taking Tower and three others, to come up with a name. He admitted later he personally discounted Bush, Baker and other “new men” because they were in their first terms in office. Agnew, he said, had been down in the “middle” of the list. Twenty-six delegates refused to vote for Agnew, including eight from Texas. Those eight, all of whom had voted for Reagan, voted “present” on the vice-presidential ballot. Party officials began issuing statements in support of the Nixon-Agnew ticket. Tower, who set the tone of the Texas party feeling, said Agnew can support Nixon “with a degree of believability.” The endorsement was short of enthusiastic. John Hurd of Laredo, Nixon’s Texas campaign chairman, said Agnew presents a problem in Texas. In an effort to overcome this, he announced later a Texas campaign budget running into “six figures.” He also announced Ken Towery, administrative assistant to Sen Tower, will direct Nixon’s Texas campaign from Austin. Towery, Pulitzer Prize-winning managing editor of the Cuero Record in 1955, had submitted his resignation to Tower weeks earlier on the condition that Nixon got the nomination. In tapping Agnew for the second spot on the ballot, Richard Nixon has written off the black vote, the black intellectual vote and the white intellectual vote, the last two by his own admission. Agnew won election as governor of Maryland two years ago against a segregationist Democrat, and he did it with about 90% of the black vote from Baltimore county. However, his tough response to disorders in Baltimore earlier this year has cost him black support in his home state. But, if Agnew’s dealing with blacks is a liability in the minds of party liberals and blacks, it is perhaps his one great asset in the minds of conservative Texas Republicans. Nixon, Tower, O’Donnell, Hurd and even unhappy Reagan backers have praised Agnew on this score. It was mentioned frequently as the type of plus factor that could help keep some Texas votes from falling into the hands of George Wallace. The tone of reaction to the 1968 Republican ticket in Texas perhaps is best summed up in the remarks of a proReagan delegate from Harris county who said he might be faced with doing in 1968 what he had to do in 1960: Put only a Nixon sticker on his automobile bumper and work only for him. August 23, 1968 7