ustxtxb_obs_1964_11_13_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

voted 5-1 for Johnson and 13-4 for Yarborough. South Texas boss counties went Democratic strongly. Webb was 10-1 for Johnson, 7-2 for Yarborough. Duval was 21-1 for Johnson, 19-1 for Yarborough. Do these results mean the Republican Party is a lost cause_ for some years in Texas? Not necessarily, although the Democratic power structure that now dominates national politics will be able to take its tolls with especially telling effect in Texas because the President is Texan. The silver lining for the Texas GOP is a statement that can just barely be made, but is nevertheless significant, that George Bush, while ‘losing with a thump, got more votes than any Republican ever received in Texasmore than Eisenhower in 1952 or 1956 and more by a whisker than Nixon in 1960. \(Nixon got 1,325 fewer Texas votes torate has been expanding, of course, but Texas Republicans can hope for better times on the basis of Bush having received 1.2 million votes and Goldwater’s getting 85% of the Nixon total in the midst of their national pratfall. It is still true, as Jon Ford sagaciously pointed out in the San Antonio Express, that the hard-core Texas Republican vote, gauged by the votes cast for state candidates who were not the lead horses, has increased a mere 100,000 over that in 1960. This is a pop fly to right field compared to the 600,000 new Republicans the state party was trying to locate and sign up this year. Gov. Connally’s Chosen Non-Role Gov. John Connally’s chosen role in the Yarborough-Bush contest was a non-role. Connally explicitly advocated a straightticket vote, but he never specified that this included Yarborough. Although logically, of course, it did, liberal Democrats could not fail to perceive that Connally was holding aloof from Yarborough and keeping the state party campaign effort as far away from the senator as he could. Connally’s silence about Yarborough was the more conspicuous in light of the governor’s several journeys to Dallas to support Earle Cabell for Congress. The Dallas Democratic candidates for the legislature came down to Austin, had a meal at the Mansion, and basked in the governor’s protracted public encomiums. \(Of conservative Ben Atwell, one of the Dallas candidates for the House, the governor was quoted this fall, “As governor I cannot accomplish the duties expected of me without men like him.” Texas AFL-CIO, in its evaluations of legislators’ votes on key issues, gave Atwell a three-session total, 1957 through 1961, of 66 “bad votes” and open a building in Dallas, made campaign speeches for Johnson in other states, and helped the Johnson campaign from the White House, but when askedin Washington and during the governor’s conference in San Antonioabout Yarborough’s candidacy, he observed that Yarborough would probably run behind Johnson and him because some conservatives were not going to vote for the senator. It was in this context that Charles Moss, Llano Democratic chairman, wired Connally Oct. 24, in advance of a seven-county Democratic rally in Llano, “We, the leaders of the Democratic Party of Llano County, are calling on our fellow Democrats everywhere to support the straight Democratic ticket from the White House to the courthouse, and we are sincerely trustful that some outward and immediate declaration -from you as head of the state organization will make it crystal clear that this includes our senior senator, Ralph W. Yarborough, and that you are supporting him also.” Connally never answered this wire. In private, Connally’s early position was that he was for Yarborough and that the senator’s people had better not depend on optimistic polls, because it would be a difficult race. The governor had Marvin Watson of Daingerfield made the state Democratic chairman in September, despite the fact that Watson is closely associated in business with E. B. Germany, the Lone Star Steel magnate who was conspicuous in the “Democrats for Bush” movement. When steelworkers pressed Connally about this, he said Watson was for Yarborough; Watson never said so publicly. \(Watson spent most of the campaign in Washington, working with Johnson forces in the Democratic National Committee and, in the late A group of labor people, coordinated by Mrs. Latane Lambert, worked out of the Johnson-Humphrey state campaign headquarters in Austin. The only pictures of Yarborough in the state headquarters were displayed in Mrs. Lambert’s work area, and the only Yarborough literature available Connally’s Plans Austin What is Gov. John Connally’s platform for state government the next two years? The Texas League of Women Voters asked him, in a candidate questionaire, “What are the major goals you would like to accomplish in. the next two years?” and he replied in advance of the election: “Greater fulfillment of state and local responsibilities in improving education at all levels, including steps to broaden vocational education, reduce school drop-outs and combat illiteracy; continued progress in mental health, including more research and local contract care for the mentally ill; greater responsibility in water development, state parks improvement, industrial and tourist development.” Speaking to the Texas Research League last week, Connally added to these programs establishing “a strong board” for Texas higher education, abolishing the state property tax, and providing more facilities for the mentally retarded. in the headquarters had to be obtained from this same area. Blake Gillen, the director of organization for the national campaign in Texas, sought to relate almost entirely with Connally people around the state ; his attitude toward the pro-Yarborough activity in the area supervised by Mrs. Lambert was frosty, and the Yarborough people in the headquarters felt like outsiders. When a birthday party was given for state campaign manager Hunter McLean, Mrs. Lambert and Mrs. Lenora Rolla of the Democratic Coalition staff were not Anderson of Austin, a Negro leader of the was an official in the state campaign, no Latin-American was designated to a corresponding role, because each time a person was proposed the labor-Democratic Coalition people objected to him. Nevertheless, McLean vigorously investigated reports of anti-Yarborough activity in association with the Johnson-Humphrey campaign in Texas and satisfied Yarborough workers in the state headquarters that he was not tolerating such activity. Sen. Yarborough maintained campaign headquarters separate from the JohnsonHumphrey offices in most Texas cities. None of the state party’s money, such as the funds collected for the Nov. 22, 1963, banquet in Austin that John Kennedy never reached, was turned over to any of these Yarborough offices. Although some local party drives, such as in San Antonio, stressed the “Pull One Lever” campaign, the state Democratic campaign did not really sell this program, settling in its TV commercials on a pitch for Johnson, with “Vote Democratic” thrown in. Connally’s people were anxious that Yarborough’s people believe that Connally had not done anything to hurt Yarborough. It was even explained to Yarborough people in the Kennedy-Johnson state headquarters that of course Connally was not for Bush because Bush was a real threat to the Connally group in 1966. The more votes Bush received, this line of reasoning .went, the better Bush would be able to challenge Connally in 1966. When, late in the campaign, Yarborough supporters, including labor people in Wash November 13, 1964 5