ustxtxb_obs_1968_11_15_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

Minorities Come Through for HHH Political analysts will be pawing over the Nov. 5 election results for months to come. The state’s returns brought many surprises. Few had anticipated that Texas alone of the Southern states would give its electoral votes to Hubert Humphrey. Up until the last few days of the campaign, most pollsters insisted that Nixon was the one. Republicans had hitched their hopes for more state office holders to Richard Nixon’s coattails, but Nixon was unable to carry Texas for himself, let alone for others. The state’s legislative and congressional delegations were not increased by a single additional GOP member. Everyone agreed that Hubert Humphrey’s fate was in the hands of Texas’ minority groups. Many Democrats feared disaster because the state campaign had neither the funds, the time nor the people to conduct a well-organized campaign in the Mexican-American and Negro communities. Apparently, the minorities, like everyone else, had been saturated by political information through the mass media. Either because of fear of Wallace and Nixon or admiration for Humphrey, the Mexican-Americans and Negroes turned out overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee. And conservative Democrats and independents whom the Humphrey forces had written off decided to vote for Humphrey after all. V Many Republican strategists attribut ed Nixon’s defeat to the strong Democratic turnout in South Texas which gave Humphrey a 58,000 lead. In San Antonio, the latino vote was far better than it had been for John Kennedy in 1960, when Democrats had combed the MexicanAmerican areas in search of support. Nixon received only 6% of the MexicanAmerican vote in San Antonio, compared to 17% in 1960 when he was running against Kennedy. His total in the Mexican-Ameican districts was only 1% better than Barry Goldwater’s in 1964. V In Houston, Humphrey drew 97% of the black vote; Nixon, 1.6%. But the Negro turnout was only 63.6% while 74.4% of Harris county’s voters went to the polls. V In addition to winning South and Central Texas, Humphrey also took East Texas, most of North Texas and the same 14 urban areas out of the top 25 that the Kennedy-Johnson ticket won in 1960. He had a total of 1,267,317 votes in Texas. v Nixon won the plains and the same 11 of the top 25 urban areas he won in 1960. He had a total of 1,227,199 votes. V Wallace won 19 counties in. all. He had 581,717 votes for 18.9% of the total. 10 The Texas Observer V The state had a record turnout of 3,070,000 votes 400,000 more than ever before. V Sen. Ralph Yarborough, who headed the Citizens for Humphrey-Muskie, commented, “We ran this campaign on a shoestring budget, with less money than I’ve ever seen in a presidential campaign in Texas.” V Nixon’s expensive party machinery kept right on chugging through election day. According to a San Antonio newspaper, Republican workers who met Nixon at the San Antonio airport Nov. 1 received thank you notes from the president-elect on Nov. 5. V “Vice-President Hubert Humphrey overcame an old Texas bugaboo in carrying Texas and Bexar county,” according to the “Potpourri” column in the San Antonio Express/News. “That, of course, is the consistent votes in the past against him because of his votes against returning the tidelands to Texas and the oil depletion allowance . . . could it be the average Texas voter suddenly realized he does not own an oil well?” The Wallace Votes V Before the election, Democrats warned that a vote for Wallace was a vote for Nixon, and Republicans argued that a vote for Wallace was really a vote for Humphrey. Now, the Republicans insist that it was the Wallace vote that denied Nixon Texas’ 25 electoral votes. Many Democrats claim, however, that if Wallace had not been running, Humphrey would have increased his state lead over Nixon. Bill Hamilton, Yarborough’s press aide, points out that there is little correspondence between the 19 counties Wallace carried this year and the 14 Goldwater carried in 1964. Wallace’s largest county was Orange, a traditionally Democratic county; Goldwater’s were Smith and Gregg, which Nixon won this year. Yarborough said, “I believe the Wallace vote in populous Democratic areas such as Jefferson, Orange, Brazoria, Hardin and several other counties can be counted on to return to the Democratic party.” V Certainly, many of the laboring class votes that went to Wallace usually are Democratic. But, Republicans lost a surprising number of votes to Wallace in white-collar upper and upper middle class precincts. V A Dallas Times Herald revelation that Gov. John Connally privately dis cussed the Nixon campaign with Republi can leaders created waves just a few days before the election. Connally admitted that he had met with Nixon leaders in Dallas, but he insisted that he did not give the Republicans a formal list of his long-time contributors. He was asked to bolt the Democratic party and endorse Nixon. All but two Democratic congressmen from Texas endorsed Humphrey, and most of the congressmen campaigned for the vice-president. The two who abstained were 0. C. Fisher and John Dowdy. Smith and Eggers Paul Eggers did surprisingly well in his race for governor. His 1,252,952 votes make the biggest total ever for a Republican running in Texas. \( Eggers’ 42.8% of the vote was less than George Bush’s total of 44% when he ran for the vote was almost 26,000 less than Eggers’. College students and middle class liberals probably. gave Eggers his margin. V He apparently did not receive many minority votes. John Knaggs, one of Eggers’ chief campaign aides, credited the Democratic party, particularly in South and South Central Texas, with holding Democrats in line and keeping ticket splitting to a minimum. He pointed out that in Corpus Christi there was not 1,000 votes difference ‘in the total votes received by party candidates at the top of the ballot and at the bottom. V Most Humphrey campaigners in minority areas were urging straight party votes, simply because it is difficult to explain to the uneducated how to split a ticket. goor According to Long News Service, Preston Smith had a 2-1 lead in AFLCIO, Negro and Mexican-American areas because of straight-ticket voting. Smith received 1,659,487 or 58%, a good showing, but not as good as the 60 to 70% win the lieutenant governor predicted. gor Texas Republicans were discouraged because they did not increase their representation in either the congress or the legislature. GOP Congressmen Jim Collins, Bob Price and George Bush were returned to Washington as were all the Democratic incumbents, keeping the state’s delegation with a lopsided Democratic majority of 20 to 3. V The Republicans challenged 69 Demo cratic seats in the legislature, ;but they gained nary an additional seat. There were some switches, however. Dallas’ incumbent Republican, Rep. John Lowrance’ lost to Democrat Dick Read while two GOP challengers in Houston, Will Lee and Jim Earthman beat Willis Whatley and George Polk, respectively. V There are 31 new house members in all, including Republicans Tom Crad dick of Midland \(Rep. Frank Cahoon