ustxtxb_obs_1964_05_29_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

large contributions. R. Cullen, $2,500, R. Smith, $1,000, J. Josey, $2,000, and M. Halbouty, $1,000, are examples. J. Mecom, presumably the Houston oil multimillionaire, Jahn Mecom, gave Connally $5,000. McLendon, however, drew a blank with Houston’s big rich except for his solitary $1,000 contribution from Elkins. McLendon’s large contributors included a number of out-of-staters: four $1,000 contributors from sources in Los Angeles, one from Washington, D.C., and $500 contributions from Virginia and Nebraska. McLendon also reported $2,587.50 from “John Wayne Buffet, Dallas”that is, as proceeds from a buffet at which the actor appeared for McLendonand another $3,510 as “Big D Rally.” SEN. YARBOROUGH’S contributors included the names of wellknown national Democrats of means: banker Walter Hall of League City $2,500 and his wife, Mrs. Helen Hall, $2,500, oilman Roger Deny of Houston $2,500, oilman J. R. Parten of Houston $2,000, oilman Marlin Sandlin of Houston $1,000, attorney Fagan Dickson of Austin $1,500, attorney Reagan Legg of Midland $1,000, attorney Percy Selden of Houston $1,000. Louis Romano of Houston gave Sen. Yarborough $5,000. Edward Clark, the senior member of the Austin law firm that handles many big conservative clients and is regularly associated with conservative causes in the legislature, crossed over this year and made three separate $1,000 contributions to Sen. Yarborough. Clark is a close and continuing friend of President Johnson, having visited with him, in Austin and the White House, several times since Johnson became President. Sen. Yarborough’s contributions included $5,000 ‘from “Texas COPE,” that is, the Committee on Political Education of the Texas AFL-CIO, and $2,000 from “Railway Labor’s Political League, Washington, D.C.” He was the only statewide candidate reporting major contributions from labor’s political funds. As McLendon pointed out in his closing broadcasts, Sen. Yarborough’s contributions also included a total of $25,000 from “Friends of Ralph Yarborough,,” one-fifth of this on Feb. 3 and four separate $5,000 contributions on April 9. In the senator’s final report, a footnote was added about this committeethat Walter G. Hall, Yarborough’s finance manager, was chairman of it. W. J. Worsham of Pecos, one of the two witnesses in t h e senator’s broadcast answering McLendon’s charge about Estes and $50,000, gave $500 to Sen. Yarborough’s cause on April 29. Dist. Attorney Henry Wade of Dallas is listed as a $50 contributor, and Mrs. Barefoot Sanders of Dallas, $100. Don YarborOugh’s report is notable for its evidence that the evangelical young challenger made effective use of moneyraising on a drum-head at meetings and rallies. He reported raising sums varying from $13.20 to $1,500 at 47 meetings and rallies all over the state. Totted up, these 47 sums come to $12,892.16. Examples: “Sherman meeting, $216.55,” “Trinity University Rally, $35.00,” and “Oil workers’ district meeting, Houston, $1,062.” In addition, Don Yarborough reported contributions of $4,500 and $7,600 from two Harris County dinners, but these fall in a different category from the 47 lump sum totals, most of which were probably raised in part by direct appeals from the candidate. In two sums, J. R. Parten, the Houston oilman, gave Don Yarborough $5,000. C. W. Mossler of Houston contributed $3,000; Jim Phelps of Houston, $1,850. At the other end of the scale of contributions, H. E. Perry of Honey grove gave 30 cents March 5 and another 20 cents March 17. Bush’s report certainly seems to be the most gilt-edged of the major candidates’, even more so than Connally’s. The first 31 contributors Bush named gave $100 or more; the 32nd gave $50. “R. H. Cullen,” Houston, gave Bush $1,000, and “Roy Cullen,” Houston, another $1,000 \(an interesting circumstance in light of the fact that in 1951, the year before the Liberty Broadcasting System of which McLendon was president went into bankruptcy, the Cullen interests loaned the system $600,000 and Ever Bush’s minor contributors have a blue ribbon around their names: Hines H. Baker, Sr., Houston, the Humble Oil magnate in retirement, gave $200; W. J. Goldston, Houston, $200; Alvin M. Owsley, Jr., Houston, $100. The GOP heirarchy in Texas, known to favor Bush, nevertheless did not make open appearance in Bush’s campaign reports, although Thad HutchesOn, Houston, former state GOP chairman, is listed for $25. Bush made liberal use of the “committee” device. Committees variously identified as “Bush for Senator Committee, Tyler,” and “Texans for George Bush” in Austin, Dallas, and Amarillo contributed a total of $15,500. Of passing interest in Bush’s report is a $500 contribution from “P. R. Bass, Fort Worth.” Perry R. Bass of Fort Worth is one of the three independent executors of the Sid Richardson estate. Gov . Connally was designated another of the three executors, and papers of report in Fort Worth, when examined by the Observer recently, did not include any documents that Connally had withdrawn from that capacity. Cox’s heaviest contributions came mostly from West Texas oil country. His best-known supporter with a large contribution was Roy Whittenburg, the Amarillo newspaper publisher, who gave $500. Jack Cox committees in Ector, McLennan, Taylor, Harris, Bexar, and Lubbock counties are listed as contributors of a total of $7,000. The GOP Senate candidate Robert Morris of Dallas had only three contributors of $500 or more, except for a fourth one, “Robert Morris, Dallas, $1,150.” Most candidates figure they will have to contribute whatever expenditures their contributions don’t cover, but Morris listed himself as a contributor in advance. He also reported a total of $5,098 from corn mittees for him in “West Texas,” Houston, and Dallas. Milton Davis’ report was most unusual in one respect. While Cox is running presently as the poor man’s Republican, in fact Davis listed only one $500 contribution, and none larger; he reported a comparatively huge number of contributors, only one other of whom gave more than $100. Many of Davis’ contributions ran in the $15-$50 range and may have come from people in medicine. He reported paying $105.96 to the Texas Medical Assn. for “addresses.” \(McLendon reported an even more interesting item along this line: $100 paid to the Texas Medical Assn. for “ad, James Langdon’s reports were glaringly odd in one particular: the victorious candidate for railroad commissioner reported one-third of his total contributions in the name of committees. This included $12,000 attributed to “Harris County Committee for Langdon,” another $22,000 to “Dallas County Committee,” $5,450 to a Fort Worth Committee, and $630 to one in Austin. Even so, individual contributions to Langdon of more than $500 totaled $42,000, 34% of his gifts reported, $124,151. Langdon said he paid out $142,672. This compared to his onnonent. Jesse Owens, reporting gifts of $23,431, loans of $10,000 each from J. A. Hyland and S. C. Woods of Houston, and payments of $26,i Woods contributed $8,500 to Owens, Muriel Woods of Houston $5,000, and Hyland $5,000. The somewhat bizarre aspects of these two candidates’ returns may be attributable to the oil industry’s acute practical interest in the contest between them. HOW WAS ALL THIS MONEY spent? One can’t quite tell, exactly ; and then there are variations, one to the next, too. Gov. Connally’s is the clearest report, because he breaks his spending down into categories. He spent $165,000 for “newspaper and other advertising and publicity,” but this is not broken down into any specifics. How much for newspapers, for TV, for signboardsone can only guess. Don Yarborough simply reported specific payments made, one after another, so the casual reader ‘is at sea trying to come up with some solid conclusions. The average total cost for a statewide half-hour -evening TV hookup in Texas is $10,000, give or take a thousand, so one can estimate that Don Yarborough’s seven such hook-ups the closing days cost $70,000. The TV time itself would cost substantially less than this; other costs would include production and associated newspaper advertising. In the U.S. Senate race, one can put together the sums reported paid or payable to certain parties and conjecture this includes media costs, although not all of them, and nat exclusively, either. In McLendon’s reports, one finds that Wyatt, Allen, & Ryan, Inc., Dallas, was paid or payable $200,000 for “advertising.” May 29, 1964 5