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convention to the liberal forces, saying that they would win if Cty. Cmsr. Albert Pena could carry all the West Side boxes, alone. James McCrory, in the San Antonio Express, delineated a harsh in-fight between partisans of John Daniels and Park Street for county Democratic chairman, but said these divided forces will unite in the conventions for Johnson and his liberal programthe objective Connally forces oppose, favoring instead Johnson but not necessarily his program. UPI quoted Democratic Coalition leaders claiming 1337 of 1412 votes needed for a cinch on the state convention. East Texas Race vir Benton Musslewhite, who came within 41 votes of beating incumbent Cong. John Dowdy in the 7th district \(East according to our reports, by accusations that he benefited from and defended the casting of 151 Negro votes from the same residence in 1962; that he addressed a meeting in Washington, D.C., attended by well known liberals who helped him financially for his campaign ; that labor gave him $55,000 for the 1964 campaign ; that he is 100% for the civil rights bill. Dowdy has been told by the post office department he must pay the government for postage on a newsletter attacking Musslewhite that he “franked” free, but an aide of Dowdy’s says only $2.50 is involved. Musslewhite is running a campaign strongly identified with President Johnson and is attacking Dowdy as a team-player with “radical Republicans like Bruce Alger.” Musslewhite is stressing economic welfare for the district and U.S. programs to boost the economy. He has been quoted saying he is not 100% for the civil rights bill, and his defense of the 151 voters is that they simply used a general store as their address, but the racial issue may be hurting him. Favored a few weeks ago, Musslewhite is now thought to be slipping, with the outcome turning on events this week. Election Situations V In the Valley congressional race, Rep. Kika de la Garza has received most of the Shivers and other such conservative support. Rep. Lindsey Rodriguez is running as a liberal Democrat, Graham McCullough as a moderate Democrat. McCullough is saying he has been for Sen. Yarborough but also for Connally. The Latin-Anglo division might be important if McCullough is in the run-off. V Cong.-at-large Joe Pool welcomed President Johnson’s low foreign aid budget and said it will be cut some more, but this contest has seemed to be mainly between two challengers. Dan Sullivan hit Robert Baker for voting for doubling college tuition and the general sales tax and said Baker pulled a crude stunt trying to take away credit for establishing Padre Island national park from Sen. Yarborough. Baker said he led the first for legislative approval of the park. Baker said Pool has a Republican voting record and Sullivan is Hoffa’s candidate. V Rep. Malcolm McGregor, by reports received in Austin, is leading his threecandidate race for the Democratic congressional nomination against Cong. Ed Foreman, Odessa Republican. Cong. Omar Burleson, Anson, was reported ahead of Rep. Max Carriker, Roby, his nationalDemocrat challenger. Liberals continue to predict Baxton Bryant will win the Democratic nomination in Dallas over ex-Mayor Earl Cabell. Otherwise, none of the other congressional contests have been construed as really serious this spring in Texas. V Jake Jacobsen, former aide to Gov. Price Daniel, is now handling Jim Langdon’s moneyed campaign for the railroad commission. Langdon is advertising heavily in newspapers, on radio and TV, and with billboards. Daily newspapers have been endorsing Langdon over his liberal challenger, Jesse Owens of Wichita Falls. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, the New Waverley veteran of the liberals’ wars, says that Owens is the first liberal Democrat to run for the railroad commission in the history of Texas, as far back as she can remember. V The Observer hears reports that Lt. Gov. Preston Smith is doing mass-mailing this last week for the campaigna million pieces of mail, by one report. Earlier he mailed out reprints from various Texas papers, including the Observer, he regarded as damaging to his liberal opponent, Albert Fuentes, Jr. In retort, Fuentes’ Harris County manager, Imogene Williams, mailed out a later Observer story interviewing Fuentes, along with Fuentes’ statement of his general program. V Gov. Connally did not endorse a $45 a month pay raise for teachers in his answer to the teachers’ questionnaire asking politicians if they would. . . . In April the Conservationist, monthly newsletter of the Bayshore Rod, Reel and Gun Club, was in effect a pamphlet for Don Yarborough . . . . Lawrence B. ,Jones, chairman of the board of Mosher Steel Co., Dallas, wrote “Dear TMA Members” endorsing Connally and Smith. . . The Texas Manufacturers’ Assn. mailed out a voting record showing how Texas senators and congressmen voted as per the Americans for Constitutional Action, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers’ Union, Americans for Democratic Action, and the Committee on Political Education, in that order. . . . “The Conservative Government Organization” in Houston, made up entirely of 50 employees of the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., endorsed Goldwater and McLendon, the Houston Post reported. V The Harris County Young Democratic Club endorsed Yarborough for gover nor. At the state convention of the YD’s, the Houston club was denied its votes on grounds that the group’s constitution pro hibits “the Texas Young Democratic Clubs” from endorsing candidates. Andrew Shuval of Abilene was re-elected president. Hous ton YD’s were hopping mad ; Bob Slagle, speaking for Shuval’s forces, said the con stitution applied to individual clubs, even though it didn’t read just that way, and that the YD’s couldn’t risk not getting their national accreditation. V Sen. Yarborough has Gus Gonzales of Wharton, a Latin-American, and Mrs. Lenora Rolla of Fort Worth, a Negro, on his state campaign staff. . . . The Houston Post, noticing that a release from Don Yarborough’s hq. was typed on the same typewriter used by B. T. Bonner, integration figure in Austin, in a release of his own, ascertained that Bonner had done volunteer work in the campaign. . . . Sen. Babe Schwartz, Galveston, unopposed for re-election, said at a dinner in his honor he voted for Sen. Yarborough and will again. . . . Sen. Yarborough’s designation of D. W. Suttle of Uvalde a federal judge has caused some El Paso people to complain. . . . Laredo’s Old Party endorsed Connally, Yarborough, and de la Garza for Congress. Webb Cty. Roberto Benavides endorsed Rodriguez for Congress. The Papers V And what are the papers doing? Generally, they are endorsing the conservative Democratic candidates. The Dallas News slate was noted in the previous issue. The Houston Chronicle endorsed Connally, but an endorsement of Sen. Yarborough was rumored. The -Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsed McLendon. Both Dallas papers endorsed Cabell over Bryant. The El Paso Herald-Post broke the pattern by endorsing Sen. Yarborough. The Jacksonville Daily News, a Democratic paper, backed Sen. Yarborough and Connally, indicated it might go for Owens over Langdon. Robert Baker seemed to be getting most of the dailies’ endorsements for congressman-at-large. The Kountze News, the Tulia Herald, the Midlothian Mirror, endorsed Don Yarborough. In an interesting endorsement in a Senate race, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sided with Sen. Don Kennard for re-election over the more militantly liberal Rep. Don Gladden and the conservative, Don Woodard. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times endorsements generally went to the moderate Democrats. V Ads against medicare and the civil rights bill are appearing in Texas papers, paid for by doctors and interested citizens, respectively. V The Robstown Record editorialized for state-paid adult education in response to. Jacques Wilson’s article on low educational achievement in the Observer March 20. “Epigrams and platitudes too often blind us to the cause of a problem,” the Record said. “To say that the poor we have with us always, or that people would not be poor if they had any initiative, contributes nothing toward a solution. “What does contribute toward a solution are such studies as Jacques Wilson’s. His belief in adult education schools as a panacea might be a bit rosy, but it is constructive, workable, and hopeful. . . . We believe the plan will work, and to have such a school located here could well be the best thing ever to happen to Robstown.” May 1, 1964 9