ustxtxb_obs_1992_07_04_50_00031-00000_000.pdf

Winning Democrat Grover Cleveland carried 57.7 percent of the state vote. The most recent major attempts at independent or third-party races were made by George Wallace, whose 18.9 percent showing in 1968 helped Democrat Hubert Humphrey’s 41.14 percent carry the state, although it was not enough to stop Richard Nixon. John Anderson’s 2.47 percent of the Texas vote was a mere speed bump for Ronald Reagan in 1980. PLAY IT AGAIN, LUBBOCK. George Bush may be looking for another city to use as an indicator of how he is doing after a recent poll showed Ross Perot in a virtual tie with Bush in the Hub City of the Plains. The Pulse of America poll, funded by Bush supporters, surveyed 400 Lubbock residents June 8-9 and found the Dallas billionaire with 35 percent, the incumbent President with 34 percent, Democrat Bill Clinton with 16 percent and 15 percent undecided. The margin of error was 5 points. COURT PRESS. Who would Ross Perot name to the Supreme Court? The next president whoever may get a few chances to correct the hard-right tack of the court. Tony Mauro notes in his column in Texas Lawyer that Harry Blackmun is 83 and Byron White is 75 and both are likely candidates to leave the court in the next four years. Also, John Paul Stevens is undergoing prostate cancer treatment, Sandra Day O’Connor has had breast cancer and William Rehnquist has expressed the wish to do other things in his life. As Mauro noted, “The addition of one or two justices appointed by Bill Clinton or Ross Perot could turn the court back toward the middle on major issues including abortion …” Mauro supposed that Perot might ask the American Bar Association to send him a list of names. STICKS AND STONES. Jim Hightower calls Perot “a car bomb to the political establishment.” Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal calls him “the squirrel in the attic of American politics.” Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Republic believes. Perot has a fixation with rabbits. Molly Ivins says Perot “sounds like a chihuahua” and tackles tasks with the energy of “Jerry Lewis on speed.” Time calls him “the plutocrat populist” and Ronnie Dugger believes he could become “America’s first Caesar.” We call him the best thing to happen to midsummer political journalism since the Watergate hearings. PEROT QUICKIES. Three new books on Perot were scheduled to be released by July 1. Already on the shelves is Ross Perot: In His Own Words, by Tony Chiu, a People magazine staffer whose Warner paperback debuted at llth place on the June 15 Publishers Weekly bestseller list. A Random House paperback, Ross Perot: The Man Behind the Myth, by Ken Gross, another People magazine writer, was due out June 30. Texas Monthly contributing editor Lawrence Wright originally had agreed to write the Random House book, the Dallas Observer reported, until Perot reportedly told Random House executives he didn’t want a Texas writer to do the biography. Gross, from New York, was signed and had the manuscript, compete with interviews of Perot, his family and close associates, finished within a month. Another volume, Perot: The Candidate, by Cecil Johnson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is due out July 1, apparently without Perot’s cooperation. The “quickies” will join previously published books: Perot: An Unauthorized Biography, by Todd Mason, a Dallas-based reporter for the Wall Street Journal; On Wings of Eagles, a Perotapproved glorification of the Perot-engineered Iran prison break, by Ken Follett; and Irreconcilable Differences: Ross Perot versus General Motors, by Doron Levin, a Detroitbased reporter for the New York Times. MONEY TROUBLE. Perot’s candidacy may knock one or the other “major” political party out of an automatic share of the federal matching funds for presidential candidates in 1996. The statute defines a major party, which is eligible for $55 million this year, as one that gets 25 percent of the popular vote in the previous presidential election, while a “minor” party, which gets more than 5 percent and less than 25 percent, is eligible for a pro-rated share. In 1980, John Anderson’s National Unity Party got 7 percent of the vote and qualified for $4.2 million in federal money. If the party had fielded a candidate in 1984 it would have been eligible for matching funds. Perot’s potential impact as an independent candidate may require new interpretation of the act, Federal Elections Commission spokesman Fred Eiland said. “The statute talks about parties. It doesn’t talk about independents,” he said, adding that the six-member commission split between Democrats and Republicans would decide if the issue is brought up. 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