ustxtxb_obs_1966_05_27_50_00012-00000_000.pdf

The Story the Numbers Tell This spring, about 2,983,000 Texans held poll tax receipts or voter registration certificates, and of those a few thousand over 1.2 million chose to vote in the Democratic primary May 7, and another 50,000 voted in the Republican primary that day. The Justice Department has estimated 2 million eligible persons in Texas who neither paid their poll tax nor signed up in the free registration period. figures of the Texas Election Bureau, is how it went in the statewide races: Lieutenant governor: Preston Smith, 916U.S. Senator: Waggoner Carr, 894,578 20-Attorney general: Crawford Martin, 542,38Land commissioner: Jerry Sadler, 813,274 Railroad commissioner: Byron Tunnell, Court of Criminal Appeals: John F. Onion Here are the totals from the eight largest counties for Connally and Woods, and for the three men in the attorney general race: Harris: Connally 96,475 and Woods 44,696; Spears 61,382, Martin, 48,893, and Calhoun, 18,846. Dallas: Connally 61,650 and Woods 12,618; Martin 36,623. Spears 18,884, and Calhoun 11,314. Bexar: Connally 61,733 and Woods, 22,211; Spears 48,319, Martin 27,305, and Calhoun 7,335. Tarant: Connally 37,093 and Woods 12,857; Martin 25,352. Spears 16,155, and Calhoun 7,384. Nueces: Connally 20,568 and Woods 6,010; Spears 14,758, Martin 9,690, and Calhoun 2,021. Travis: Connally 23,971 and Woods 7,880; Martin 16,331, Spears 11,712, and Calhoun 3,789. Jefferson: Connally 17,569 and Woods 10,319; Spears 12,087, Martin 11,514, and Calhoun 2,610. El Paso: Connally 15,021 and Woods 6,820; Spears 9,986, Martin 7,549, and Calhoun 4,560. Galveston: Connally 15.284 and Woods 6,589; Spears 9,680, Martin 7,792, and Calhoun 2,208. The Republicans had no opposed statewide races, and their incomplete totals last week showed U.S. Sen. John Tower with 50,855 primary votes. FRANKLIN SPEARS, the INDEPENDENT Democratic candidate for attorney general, needs the help of thoughtful, hard-working people who are willing to invest time in his candidacy between now and the June 4 runoff election. If you are willing to go to work to guarantee Texas at least one independent voice in state government for the next two years, call one of these numbers and find out how you can help: Houston CA 4-8575 Dallas EM 9-2169 Fort Worth WA 4-2891 Corpus Christi TU 3-3641 Waco PL 2-8001 El Paso 533-6622 Austin GR 7-9801 OR San Antonio CA 3-9156 Pd. Pol. Adv. portance of the Tower-Carr election battle. The Observer has been told by sources close to Carr’s campaign leadership that Johnson has, as it were, decreed that Gov. Connally, Sen. Yarborough, and Cong. Henry Gonzalez be present at a statewide kickoff rally for Carr in North Texas next month. The source said they had agreed. Carr’s people are concerned about Sen. John Tower’s standing among farmers and ranchers, the strong-running currents of disaffection from Carr among liberals and labor, and the possibility of a national tax increase this summer, which they figure might sink Carr. Proving the Polls g” Dick West of the Dallas News writes that Carr and Tower each claim winning margins at present on the basis of polls, and that the November election will prove something about polls, if nothing else. . . . Carr looked at the final election figures showing his sound trouncing of his nigh-invisible primary opponent, Jack Willoughby, and concluded that he, Carr, has the backing of both wings of the Democratic party. He said his lead was strong in conservative Dallas and Midland, in unionized Jefferson County, in Latin El Paso and South Texas, and in big-city Harris, Bexar and Tarrant counties. 1,00 The Republicans, for their part, have started saying Carr really wants to run for governor in 1968. Peter O’Donnell Jr., state GOP chairman, said at the Dallas County Republican Convention, “Waggoner Carr . . . doesn’t want to say anything now which can be used against him when he runs for governor in 1968. Carr wanted to be governor long before he wanted to be United States Senator.” The GOP is re ported searching for press clippings to sup 12 The Texas Observer Looking Ahead por Feigning cheer, Yarborough looked for bright spots in the May 7 election, and the New York Times, in an article ‘by David Broder, said it saw in the election, and that in Georgia, a crumbling of the “solid South” bloc. . . . Political columnists filled the post-election news vacuum with 1968 speculation, and those mentioned for governor included Spears, House Speaker Ben Barnes, and Secretary of State John Hill. Sam Kinch of the Fort Worth StarTelegram talked of state Sens. Ralph Hall and Bruce Reagan as lieutenant-governor hopefuls, and Dr. James Turman, former House speaker, is reported talking about that race to asociates in Washington, where he is a federal education planner. go0 As to the next legislature, it’s agreed that the Senate will be the most liberal \(“independent” as some of the dailies put as usual. The labor estimates of Senate strength in the liberal bloc range from 13 to 15 votes, and that’s counting on the #rlitz’ Since 1866 The Place in Austin GOOD FOOD GOOD BEER 1607 San Jacinto OR 7-4171 port this unusual tactic. 1/ Asked how the liberal-conservative split in the Democratic Party would affect him, incumbent Tower said in Dallas, “It won’t hurt me any.” Commenting on the deteriorating situation in South Vietnam, Tower said in Corpus Christi, “I think we should be patient and await developments over there before drawing any conclusions.”