ustxtxb_obs_1964_03_20_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

take that if you were me? Was it a threat? But he did tell me to keep on running the ad. I will admit that I am always drumming up ads and that word to keep on running the ad certainly put me in the mood for an endorsement, but old Ira may not like it. But I do get the sneaking idea that he thinks he can be elected if he’s not endorsed by anybody. One thing about old Ira that you have to admire is the way he took over all of Whit’s placards after Whit got out of the race. Ira just pasted his name over Whit’s. Since those placards cost about 25c each, I don’t blame old Ira. It sort of reminds one of Lyndon Johnson turning off lights in the White House to save light bills. It was nice of Whit to give Ira those placards, but I am not going to endorse Ira, so Stone Hill, you can’t say you are going to vote against Ira Moore just because I’m for him. SO STONE, you see this matter of endorsing candidates in the paper is a risky business. It is liable to boomerang on you. But Stone, who have you endorsed? You didn’t say the other day, but if you should publicly endorse someone, would I vote against them just because you endorsed them? Now, I know I’d vote against anybody that old John Blair endorsed. If somebody endorses this or that candidate, is he admitting that he expects to profit thereby? That’s the way it is generally looked on in Hardin County. So I am not going to endorse anybody unless I can get a promise, make a deal, or get something out of it, and thus far I haven’t been able to make any deals, though I have done my best. Some people have all the luck. But if any candidate wants to make a deal with me in return for an endorsement, let him speak up, but they had better come loaded, for as I understand these here endorsements you have to go on the theory that to the victor belongs the spoils. You get your man elected and you are in on the gravy. When he gets in, you’re in too. Right now I have a relative in jail who’s always getting thrown in jail for getting drunk; in fact he’s in jail right now, laying out a fine. I take it that if I endorsed anybody for sheriff, this relative of mine \(he’s not really a relative, but kin to a relative house blues so often. Maybe I would have a little pull. I take it that that’s the way it is supposed to work when you up and endorse somebody and go to all kinds of trouble to elect him. I took it for granted that if I endorsed R. S. Coe for district attorney, I could wield a little power if he got elected and angle for a dismissal of charges or an indictment or a no-bill or two, but when I put that up to Mr. Coe, he said he would sue the hell out of me if I endorsed him, and he looked ‘so much like his father when he said that I said quickly, “Stanley, I need a dip of snuff real bad; you have not got one handy have you?” B The Texas Observer If there is one thing hungry for it’s land, little pieces here and there you can pick up without anybody knowing it before it’s done, and I have figured that I’d like to be on good enough terms with Willie Bean to say jocularly, “Hi Willie, old buddy, old buddy, if you ever run across a piece of land in the tax office a fellow can pick up dirt cheap, how’s about giving me a buzz?” But alas, I am not on that good a terms with Willie. However, I have a good Austin Democrat and Republican state executive committees huddled within binocular range of each other in Austin last week amid rumors that the GOP would have a mixed-drink referendum; that George Bush Republicans would try to quash the presidential strow vote; that Gene Locke would resign as SDEC chairman, and that tory Democrats would push through a civil rights bill straw vote to keep their kind from straying out of the party. Only Locke’s resignation materialized. IT BEGAN in an electric atmosphere, corridors of the Driskill and Commbdore Perry hotels humming with talk of Barry and the Senate race in one block, Connally and “those Yarboroughs” in the other. At the Driskill, gubernatorial candidate Jack Crichton, a Dallas oilman, ridiculed the “Washington-controlled” state Demo&rats and said the Democratic Senate primary was a spectacle “in which candidates appeared and disappeared as puppets on the end of a stringproof positive that the real control was in Washington.” He criticized President Johnson for “manipulating” U.S. Rep. Joe Kilgore of McAllen and Houston insuranceman Lloyd Bentsen out of the Senate race. GOP national chairman William E. Miller spoofed “skinflint reports” of administration economy and said President Johnson is committing his Administration to increased federal spending while pretending to be “going over the budget with a fine-tooth comb.” Jack Cox, recovered from a kidney ailment and elated over a -Belden poll which showed him far ahead of opponents Bush, Robert Morris, and Milton Davis, called himself the only Republican with a chance of beating Sen. Yarborough. He taunted conservative Democrats who, he said, must vote Republican or liberal this year, since “Republicans are the sole custodians of conservative government in Texas.” The GOP put on a showing of unity and light, agreeing unanimously on a presidential referendum to include four candidates, winking at conservative Democrats idea that Willie, like the others, wants no part of an endorsement from me. So you see Stone Hill, I’m not going to be a bit of help to you in picking the candidates you want to vote for. There just is not any heart in me to endorse anyone at this stage. Why don’t you find out how Frank Eason, the poor man’s psychiatrist, is going to vote? Or John Blair, or Johnny Jo? If I can be of any more help to you, Stone, let me know. and inviting them in, lashing Gov. Connally for delaying redistricting, and calling on President Johnson to use his “influence” get a special reapportionment session of the legislature. The presidential poll, to be held with .the May 2 GOP primary, will include the names of announced candidates Goldwater, Smith, Rockefeller, and Stassen. Four “potential candidates”Lodge, Nixon, Scranton and Romneywere invited to take part, but sniffing the wind, they all declined. Rockefeller did, too, but the Texas GOP would not let him. Bush supporters, who probably would stand to benefit from the GOP primary turnout being small, nevertheless gave full support to the presidential poll, which is calculated to lure up to 300,000 voters into the GOP booths. I T WAS “John Connally Day,” unofficially, at the State Democratic Executive Committee, with the governor pulling the strings, although his right arm was still in a cast. Connally backers moved the day-and-night meeting along at a steady, uncontested pace, slowed only by a flap over the site of the September state conThe Locke resignation, rumored but unconfirmed until mid-day, was well-planned and smoothly executed. Austin attorney Frank C. Erwin, Jr., a close friend of the President, Connally, and former Gov. Allan Shivers, glided into the chairmanship without opposition, though some of the dozenor-so liberal delegates were silent during the voice vote. Locke resigned to take care of “personal business,” including his pari in Connally’s re-election campaign. The governor was interrupted by applause nine times as he proposed an entrenched, middle-of-the-road position for Texas Democrats and condemned “the shrill voice of the dissenters.” He criticized both “the breast-beating super-patriots” and liberals “who distrust the free enterprise system.” He praised his Administration for having “written a record worth fighting for,” Political Reports The GOP’s Straw Vote; Connally’s Platform