ustxtxb_obs_1967_12_22_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

Johnson is running, writes Pearson. V Vicente T. Ximenes, chairman of the Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican American Affairs, was honored last weekend at a banquet in his hometown of Floresville, which is =Aso Governor Connally’s home. Among dignitaries invited was Senator Yarborough. Connally was not invited. Sponsors of the event were the GI Forum of Floresville, in cooperation with other Mexican-American groups. V Connally was roundly criticized in a full page editorial in the usually mildmannered Forward Times -of Houston, a tabloid weekly with a Negro readership. The paper was worried that Connally would be named secretary of defense. The Forward Times said that Connally has a “brash nature,” practices and preaches a “superior white man role,” and likened him to a “plantation boss.” “Frankly,” the editorial went on, “we could sum the whole concern about Connally up into the easily recognized fact that the whole world has drastically changed and John Connally is still living in the old school of thinkers who try to keep darker-skinned peoples of the nation and of the world in their “place” . . . . As we daily fight the battle of trying to overcome conditions that are imposed upon us by men like John Connally, we find ourselves constantly running into the conflict of general interest and general good.” LBJ-TV 10. The Johnson family’s television mon opoly in Austin appears to be on the way toward being a thing of the past, just in time to pull the fangs of this issue for the 1968 election. In the first place, KHFI, the UHF channel that is backed by prominent Austin Republicans, has won a two-year network connection with NBC. This is the first breaking into the theretofore tight threenetwork hook-up the Johnsons’ KTBC has had. Other Austin outlets have been able to get only second-choice programs under this hook-up, but now KHFI will show NBC’s whole range of programming on an affiliated basis, Secondly, the President’s friend, car dealer Roy Butler, is reported, by Wray Weddell in the Austin daily, definitely planning to put in the city’s third TV station. Butler has held the right to put in channel 24 but his plans were not known. According to the report, he will have channel 24 in business between April and June. The Johnson interests’ 50% ownership of the cable TV company in Austin is of course less important as these other developments mature. Channel 9, the educational channel, is improving its offerings also because of the improvement in the educational programs being produced on the national level. vir Butler, the car dealer and friend of the President’s who is going into the TV business, is also a member of the Aus tin school board. Recently Jack Klit gaard, city tax assessor-collector, said But ler thinks “we’re picking on him.” Butler told the board that the city tax office leaves much tangible property off the rolls although it has been brought to Klitgaard’s attention. Klitgaard retorted in the Austin American: 41 . .. Mr. Butler has been here in my office often … we have had our disagreements. He thinks we’re making an example of him … picking on him. We treat him just like anyone else. I’d point out that Mr. Butler doesn’t render his property like the law says he should . . . no one else does, either. We have to go out and find it. I think he’s upset because we didn’t find everybody’s . . . We find all we can.” Klitgaard said Butler “told us about a couple of other agencies leasing cars,” and the tax-assessor said about that, “I don’t think it’s fair for any taxpayer to come in and say ‘so-and-so’s not paying all the taxes he should.’ If anyone wants to come in and point out actual property, I appreciate it.” The Two Dons fr . Don Yarborough, waiting out Sen ator Yarborough’s decision, is travelling the state trying to round up money for the liberals’ voter registration drive headquarters in Austin and, at the same time, conferring with backers in preparation for a gubernatorial race, should the senator decide not to run. Don is being accompanied by the liberals’ lieutenant governor entry, State Rep. Don Gladden, Fort Worth. Jim Phelps, the Houston associate of Don Yarborough, has provided the travelling Dons with a house trailer for their overnight stops. The fund raising began in East Texas and shifted last week to West Texas, Bryan, Denton, and Eagle Pass. Ron Platt, the chairman of Texas Liberal Democrats, went along for part of the East Texas swing and reports enthusiastic response to Don Yarborough’s appearances. Platt says most of the people he talked with believe the senator should not make the race but would support him if he does. Most persons Platt spoke to, he says, want Don to make the race. Don Yarborough put in a good word for Gladden at each stop. The tour to raise money for voter registration could be a preview of the liberals’ 1968 statewide ticket. V For all the reports of enthusiastic response on the tour, the liberals’ state voter registration headquarters people note that they haven’t been getting much, if any, money as a result. About $15,000 is needed to run the office through January. A second WATS telephone is to be installed next month. The Texas AFLCIO is matching money the registration people raise otherwise. V The attorney general’s ruling earlier this fall prohibiting bulk delivery of voter registration forms to the tax as sessor-collector’s office is being inter preted variously in the counties. In many counties the ruling means that a stamped, addressed envelope must be prepared for each family’s registrants, greatly increas ing the expense and bother of registration drives. V That ruling is being tested in a suit filed at Corpus Christi by Paul Montemayor of the steelworkers’ union. Republican Gains Democrats captured the final two special legislative elections, to replace Jesse George of Levelland and Otha Birkner of Bay City. Republicans won three of the six House races and the one Senate election. The legislature in the special session will have two Republicans among the 31 senators and seven Republicans among the 150 House members. Republicans have taken heart from the four recent victories. They note that the two Houston House members won elections in Congressional district-wide races to become the first GOP members ever elected to the House from Harris county. The Austin Republican elected was the first of his party since Reconstruction in Travis county and, coming as it does in part of LBJ’s old district, that victory is being plugged as a sign that the president is losing his grip even in Texas. Each of the three Republican losers got better than 40% of the vote in his race, so even in defeat the GOP can point to progress towards a two-party state. V In addition to the election gains made by the Republicans a Houston House member, Bill Archer, has switched to the GOP. Archer’s district is the same as Republican Cong. George Bush. Another conservative Democrat of Bush’s district, State Rep. Willis Whatley, says he’s considering switching to the Republicans, too, and believes that several other Democrats may follow Archer’s example. Rep. Russell Cummings of that district has said he’ll not switch, regardless of the prospects of Republicans carrying the elections there in 1968. V There is some talk that some Dallas House members may switch, in the wake of Republican Ike Harris’ smashing win in the special senatorial election. V Gov. Connally says he’s heard rumors that other legislators will turn Republican. Kennard Reception State Sen. Don Kennard, Fort Worth, who says he’s about $7,000 in debt from past political campaigns, hosted a $25-a-person reception. House Speaker Ben Barnes and Secy. of State John Hill were in the receiving line. Governor Connally had been expected but did not show, even though he was in town that day, speaking at the new Tarrant county junior college. Among guests were regulatory loan commissioner Frank Miskell and Industrial Accident Board member Tony Korioth \( who used to work in Miskell’s sumer credit bill through the senate. Dec. 22, 1967 5