ustxtxb_obs_1964_03_20_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

the houses might be certified “weeks ago.” “Mr. Hornbeck is the man who testified under oath before the Parks and Wildlife Cmsn. on Sept. 1, 1963,” Mrs. Heite wired the mayor, “that ‘human waste of human beings have [sic] produced a tremendous amount of infectious bacteria which is in the bay’ and ‘a lot of oysters are caught out of that area.’ ” He had said that, Hornbeck agreed, and it is true ; but all the oysters for the Pasadena rally would be checked and all right. Evidently the Monday Ladies Club of South Texas anticipated that there might be vile suspicions that they were politically motivated in this crusade. Mrs. Heite, in a letter to the mayor, had said, “We hope our interest will not be attributed to the fact that candidates will speak at this re~114 ,#########4 Political Intelligence Sen. Ralph Yarborough told the Ob server in Dallas: “I’m not resting on my laurels. We know of two big TV stations in Texas on which my opponent [Gordon McLendon] has reserved $10,000 worth of TV time. There isn’t any doubt this will be the most massive radio and TV attack that’s ever been made on me. Most of my supporters don’t realize that. They say, ‘am, relaxit’s in the bag.’ Most of this time is reserved for after April 20one minute spots, three minutes, five minutes, 15 and 30 minutesthe most massive campaign.” McLendon’s campaign has taken on the appearance of the old Allan Shivers organization. McLendon has designated George Sandlin, Shivers’ right-hand political man when Shivers was governor, as his campaign manager against Shivers’ longtime foe, Sen. Yarborough. In a letter dated “March, 1964,” Sandlin says these things presumably to the old Shivers mailing list: “You will recall that two years ago I wrote to ask for your support in the campaign to nominate John Connally for governor . . . the office which he now fills with outstanding credit to himself and benefit to our state. . . . Now I am again asking for your help in a situation similar to that of 1962 in that it confronts Texas voters with a clearcut choice between .. . divergent concepts of government. Your support is needed to nominate Gordon McLendon. . . . “Texas Democrats,” Sandlin’s letter continues, “must either deal with this situation in their own party or abandon it to the domination of the extreme left. . . . offers Texas Democrats no escape from this great political challenge. . . . I am proud 10 The Texas Observer oyster fry ; public health knows no politics. Our aim is to prevent sickness, regardless of party. We are non-political; only against insanitary [sic, sic] oysters.” Tucker Southerland is editor of the Pasadena News-Citizen, which played the story heavily, and which reported before the oyster fry: “There were many strong beliefs that Houston supporters of Gov. John Connally . . . were behind the letters and telegram from the Monday Ladies Club . . . it was developing that the Yarborough rally was being helped more by the publicity than hurt.” A mass oyster-fry rally for Don Yarborough will also be held shortly in Dallas, according to Dallas supporters of the candidate. E.] of the successful record of the candidates I have asked you to support in the past. . . . And now we can do it again!” McLendon is proceeding on the theo’ry that it can only help him, he’s so far behind now, to be associated with Gov. Connally. At an Austin news conference, McLendon aligned himself on what he called “a constructive ticket” of conservative Democrats, including Connally, Lt. Gov. Preston Smith, and Atty. Gen. Waggoner Carr. Connally has nothing to gain, something to lose from this, and he told the UPI: “I’m not running on a ticket with anyone or against anyone. I am active in only one race, and that’s my own.” McLendon, attacking “Smilin’ Ralph” at every opportunity, dropped Connally’s name nine times in the news conference, held at the opening of his state headquarters in Sandlin’s office building in Austin. “The last week in March,” he said, “I will launch the most inventive and colorful political campaign you have ever seen in your life.” In Dallas McLendon told reporters, and asked it be off the record, that “it’s no secret that Gov. Connally and Allan Shivers are close friends of mine and will give me their support.” UPI reporter Bill Hamilton asked McLendon about this in Austin, and he snapped, “I said that off the record and I don’t want to be quoted on it.” Austin American writer Sam Wood reported the statement in full, however. Belden’s Texas poll last week showed crucially that among those planning to vote in the Democratic primary, 62% favor Sen. Yarborough, 22% McLendon. Belden put in tabular form, however, not this, but Sen. Yarborough’s lesser 56-25% advantage over McLendon among all voters. He also put into tabular form McLendon’s reported 42-35% advantage among inde pendents only: in Texas, voters who so categorize themselves regularly vote preponderantly Republican, and Belden covered this circumstance by saying, “Ignoring in this tabulation whether the voter today is thinking about voting in the Democratic or the Republican primary . . .” McLendon, in his speeches, said the poll showed him ahead among independents. McLendon has a gift for contentious similes \(“colorful name-calling,” Austin the San Angelo paper that Yarborough’s ideas are “as dangerous as a shark in a bathtub” and “His principles of Fabian socialism fit me like socks on a rooster.” Bud Shrake, novelist and Dallas News sports columnist, wrote a column recalling McLendon’s faked big league baseball broadcasts \(also the subject of a funny New Yorker piece a few months back by two \(McLendon’s campaign money_ and his is concluding that McLendon will close fast. However, McLendon appears to be having difficulty defining his relationship to the Johnson Administration. Compare: McLendon said he could have run just as easily as a Republican but “wasn’t able to go along with recent wild statements by Barry said, “I’ve been Lyndon Johnson’s friend since 1948 and I still am. I’m going to vote for him, support him, work for him. . . . While I’ll be generally in favor of his program, I’m no rubber stamp like smilin’ Lendon said he “unequivocally will not” support the Johnson Administration; he would fight deficit spending, the civil rights bill, regulations of the FCC concerning radio and TV programming; he would vote to abolish present foreign aid programs, including the Alliance for Progress; but he would have voted for the tax froo The Democratic National Committee circulated, for release March 19, an article by Sen. Yarborough on education bills passed by the Congress. The timing had obvious import. The Four Horsemen I/ Belden showed Jack Cox ahead among the four GOP candidates with 60% among Republican voters, but he did not give figures for the other three. Among all voters, Cox had 43, Morris 5, Bush 4, and Davis 3. The three GOP men who were thus bushwhacked \(especially Bush, the GOP power structure’s choice for the nomi Bush released a poll taken by his workers in one neighborhood that showed him ahead. Morris said both polls were unfair campaigning and he could have one taken at his expense that would show him ahead. Davis concentrated on the issues: “Rocke feller’s goose is cooked,” and “We should give no aid or trade with the communists. These people are at war with us; we do not seem to be at war with them.” Cox. vowing he would fight every word of the civil McLendon’s Campaign Could Close Strongly