ustxtxb_obs_1965_06_11_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

urged by the governor not to oppose the final bill any more than they had to. Connally insisted the bill be passed out that night. On Sunday, after it had been passed, Sen. Hall apparently got Connally’s assent to a revision of the bill to avoid creating the Brooks-Thompson district. Hall would have given the eastern side of Dowdy’s district to Brooks and the western side to Thompson, with Dowdy having to oppose Thompson \(the districts simply parting around However, Speaker Barnes refused to let the bill be recalled. To avoid what they feared would be a direct violation of court language requiring that districts be contiguous and to help Cong. John Young, Corpus Christi, the leaders agreed to a “corrective resolution” that was adopted the last day. One effect was to cure the 14th district of having Nueces and Aransas counties separated by ten miles of open water, Corpus Christi Bay, and not connected together by land. Critics of the bill were quick to assert that changing it by resolution in this way was much more than correcting it and violated the Texas Constitution that says legislation can be passed only by bills. “Juggling nine counties in four proposed districts cannot be termed a ‘clerical’ change,” said Rep. Cahoon. Eight counties were actually switched from one district to another; the four affected districts had a population of 1,822,998 in 1960. SENATOR WILSON!” a representative called out to Rep. Charles Wilson, Trinity. “That’s the way it looks,” Wilson replied. Thus did the legislators see redistricting in terms of their own futures. trict, Wilson’s colleague correctly assumed Wilson was ready for a promotion. Gleefully drawing lines on a map, Wilson exclaimed, as to Dowdy being so disadvantaged, “This is the greatest everit’s impossible to understand how they figured it out. All Dowdy will be able to says is, ‘I didn’t realize the queers and communists had taken over the Texas legislature.’ ” “It’s a dirty, shabby deal, nothing but a rape of two good Democrats, and no friend of the President’s would do it,” Harris said angrily. Eckhardt complained that with Patman and Albert Thomas of San Antonio, Brooks and Thompson are the staunchest national Democrats in the Texas delegation, but Eckhardt thought as many as ten liberals or moderates could be elected under the bill. Sen. Schwartz, Galveston, was quite furious and tried to work out last-minute adjustments to no avail. There were some who suspected the Thompson-Brooks district was in part meant to cut off the liberal Schwartz from promotion to Congress. Schwartz pointed out that the bill, bisecting Brazoria, put that county’s Dow Chemical plant in with Corpus Christi far downcoast. It was rumored that Sen. Spear’s of San Antonio would be recognized by Lt. Gov. 14 The Texas Observer District 23, ‘Rhino with Child.’ Smith, would speak a while, and then would be put under the previous question, cutting off debate as soon as he sat down, which he would. That is, Spears was represented to be party to an agreement to shut off a filibuster against the bill. Whether this was true or not, Spears did get the floor, he was cut off by previous question, and he did sit down in a relatively short time. Parkhouse angrily accused Smith of crossing him up and said he’d never vote for Smith for anything againbut later took it back. Spears had cartoons made of some of the grotesquely-shaped new districts, and he had names for them: Patman’s Dist. 1, .”a camel in repose”; Pickle’s 10, “like porky pig with a Boy Scout hat on”; Teague’s 6, “an enlarged seahorse”; the new South Texas district, “a rhino with child”; Young’s 14, a witch; Dowdy’s 2, “a legless East Texas stool”; and Poage’s 11, “That’s what the people of Texas are gettin’.” But Spears said the bill was better for San Antonio than earlier ones because it left Gonzalez’ district with four of the county’s five military installations. He said the bill was certain to be contested in the courts and that it would not stand up. At that point there was a 20% variation in the districts’ populations, he said, compared to the 2% of his plan’s, rejected by the Senate. “How are you going to explain that to the court?” he asked. House-side simultaneously, representatives were entering their foredoomed protests. Rep. Field, Dallas, said Dallas was drawn to keep Patman from having an opponent. Rep. Lewis, Dallas, complained that Dallas was strung from the Caprock to Texas Instruments and from the State Fair to the Astrodome in Houston. Sen. Roy Harrington, Port Arthur, said quietly to the Observer, “We’re the ones that got it worst. What it is, there’s two liberal areas and they put them together.” Spears told the Senate that as soon as everyone had had a chance to question him,’ he would yield the floor. “If I had the floor,” Schwartz said, “I’d stay here until they carried me out.” “I could stand here till tomorrow night,” Spears said. “Let’s try it,” Schwartz said. “The court will reject it,” Spears said. The House votedBarnes saying as the vote began, “The chair votes aye”-85-55 for the bill. “Said Rep. Carl Parker, Port Arthur, bitterly, “85 members of the House of Representatives approve of rape.” Less than two hours after he had risen, Spears yielded the floor. Parkhouse tried to cow Sen. Patman out of voting, saying he had a conflict of interest because his father was affected, but Patman voted “aye” loudly as the bill was accepted by the Senate, 18-12. The governor signed it. SEN. YARBOROUGH, in Washington, used the bill as an occasion to revise his own position on redistricting. “I am reluctant to admit it, but today myself and a great many other Texans are thinking more and more highly of judicial review of congressional and legislative redistricting,” he said. He called the legislature’s law ” ‘salami’ tactics . . slicing a metropolitan area into as many pieces as possible, combined with a taffy pull, stretching a district with city suburbs at one end as far as possible . . .” Alluding to the Dallas, San Antonio, and Galveston-Beaumont districts, he said “nothing but the word ‘Texaster”‘ could describe what had happened. Sen. Tower, in Washington, said the legislators had ignored the community of interest principle. Barnes, in Austin, said the two senators hadn’t made any suggestions before them. Yarborough was motivated by interest in “personalities,” Barnes said; the Supreme Court had said nothing about community of interest. Peter O’Donnell, the state Republican chairman, said Dallas had been subjected to “a vicious gerrymander,” and other Dallas GOP spokesmen indicated the motive in Dallas districting had been to bury Republican and liberal Democratic pockets of strength. Cong. Gonzalez, who had grounds to be content with Republican voters in the north part of Bexar going to Fisher and his own sources of strength secure in his new district, said the plan was not gerrymandering. The law was protested \\by 26 House members, almost all of them liberals, who contended the four largest counties were short-changed one congressman, which rural areas got, and that there was excessive variation of population. Roberts has announced for re-election; Beckworth has not said.’ Teague is saying of his new Fort Worth constituency, “I married a Fort Worth girl, did my courting up there. My oldest boy was born there.” 2 Merrill and Wayne Connally of Floresville, brothers of the governor; Sen. Kazen; and Rep. Glenn Kothmann, San Antonio, are possible candidates for the South Texas district, with Kothmann a likely candidate for labor support. Purcell of Wichita Falls says of the new situation, “What is important for Dallas is important for Texas and what is important for the area around Dallas is important to Dallas.” 3 Republicans are hopeful that, with the Republicans in North Bexar County added to the Republicans in Odessa and the conservatism of the intervening country, they can upset Fisher, perhaps with exCong. Ed Foreman. Cong.-at-large Joe Pool, Dallas, says he will probably run from the western Dallas district; Cabell has not made up his mind. Pool says “a lot of people” want him to run for the U.S. Senate but he doesn’t have enough money. 4 R.D. Worth Star-Telegram, June 3. 3Dallas TimesHerald, June 1. 4Dallas News, June 2.