ustxtxb_obs_1970_10_30_50_00008-00000_000.pdf

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION \(Act of October 23, 1962; Section 4369. Publisher: File two copies of this form with your postmaster. I. Date of Filing: September 30, 1970 2.Title of Publication: The Teals Observer 3.Frequency of Issue: Fortnightly 4.Location of known office of publication \(Street, city, county. Slate, Zip 504 West 24th St., Austin, Travis County, Texas 78705 5.504 West 24th St., Austin, Travis County, Texas 7870$. 6.Names and Addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: Publisher \(Name and Kaye Northcott, 504 West 24th St., Austin, Texas 78705; Managing Editor \(Name and 7.Owner \(if owned by a corporation, its name and address must be stated and also immediately thereunder the names and addresses of stockholders owning or holding I percent or more of total amount of stock. -If not owned-by a corporation, the names and addresses of the individual owners must be given. If owned by a partnership or other unincorporated firm, West 31st St., Austin, Texas 78705 8.Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding I percent none. 9.For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at special rates \(Section 10.Extent and Nature of Circulation: Average Number Actual Number of Copies Each Copies of Single [SAW During !snit Nearest Preceding 12 Months Edina Date A. 10,877 13,000 B.Paid Circulation I. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales I 134 2. Mail subscriptions 8,981 C.Total paid circulation 10 115 D.mail, carrier or other means 241 239 E. 10.356 10,709 F.Office use, left-over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing 521 G.Total \(Sum of E & Fshotdd equal net press run shown in A 10 877 I certify that the statements made by me shove are correct and complete. 1,504 8,966 10,470 2,291 f 3,000 Signed: C. R. Olofsrin days in Houston and part of one day in Dallas. Smith, with his monotonous West Texas drawl and his innocuous grandfatherly features, has wisely avoided television campaigning. His few television spots this year will emphasize the fact that he is the governor, a Democrat, and that he is “Working for Texas.” The advertisements will use a professional announcer rather than Smith’s own voice. CAMPAIGNS BEING what they are, the public probably will not learn specifically how Preston Smith has been Working for Texas, but his press packet includes a dossier on what he considers his “major accomplishments.” A persual of the list of accomplishments reveals that most of them accomplished with federal initiative and federal funds. Included in the list of things Texans can credit to Preston Smith are: Texas’ Office of Economic Opportunity, which has spent almost $21 million federal money in the last five and a half years as compared to $318,000 in state funds; The Governor’s Highway Safety Program, which, the press packet says, has avoided the loss to the state of as much as S35 million in federal highway construction and safety funds by participating in the national safety program; The Model Cities Program, a federally-funded program; Operation Breakthrough, a Housing and Urban Development program in which the state has participated. And the Governor’s Committee on 8 The Texas Observer Human Relations, a 50-member committee which holds hearings. The Texas Senate established the committee through a measure sponsored by Sen. Chet Brooks of Houston. Smith had nothing to do with the creation of the committee. Smith and his staff seem particularly proud of the unprecedented number of study committees he has set up. Committees and studies are the major thrust of his governorship. The governor’s most ambitious study has been “Goals for Texas,” a many-phased project which divides the state into 21 planning regions in which each area sets priorities for solving problems and using resources. Smith hopes to be able to use the comprehensive study to avoid duplication of efforts and to budget according to projects rather than agencies. The governor is probably waging a modest campaign because no grander efforts on his part appears to be necessary. Convention political wisdom has it that the only way Eggers could possibly win is if there is a very low turnout. THE GUBERNATORIAL contest has made few compelling headlines in the state’s dailies. Egger’s one-man press staff, Buddy Ives, has been churning out volumes of press releases since March, but reporters usually have cut them down to a paragraph or two and floated them in campaign roundups. Eggers’ best chance of winning the governorship would seem to have been in waging a gutsy, aggressive campaign. The Republican candidate told the Observer he thinks he has run an aggressive campaign. He pointed out that he emphasizes what he sees as Smith’s shortcomings in almost every speech he makes. But some of his aides will admit that Eggers’ attacks on Smith have been mild. SLIT members describe their boss as a “gentleman ” leaving the implication that this trait proscribes an effective campaign based on Smith’s lack of leadership. Eggers says he has received some complaints that lie is running too negative a campaign and he is reluctant to make his attacks on Smith any stronger. Eggers most often criticizes the governor on pocketbook issues. He points out that Smith once opposed the creation of an economy commission for state government and that he has opposed placing restrictions on free spending appropriations conference committees. The Republican often reminds voters that it was Smith, who by vetoing a one-year appropriations bill \(the State Constitution calls budgeting on a two-year session that cost taxpayers S15,000 a day for 44 days “plus more than S 100 million in taxes.” These charges are somewhat misleading. The Legislature was attempting to postpone a big tax increase by adopting a one-year budget. Even if Smith had signed the bill, it still would have been necessary for him to call the Legislature back for a special session to make appropriations for the second half of the biennium, and about the same amount of taxes would have been needed. Economy commissions and budgets, however, are not the issues on which to win a precarious campaign. Eggers has yet to come up with any really compelling issues. Eggers’ staff says with pride that the candidate has put serious thought and serious work into the positions he takes. As in his first campaign, Eggers has released a series of lengthy position papers, this time on drug abuse, pollution, state finance, and minorities. N A RECENT flight from Amarillo to Dallas, a few members of the Eggers staff and some reporters were discussing the campaign. An Eggers man said he was “disappointed” in the state press for ignoring the position papers. The reporters on the plane were unanimous in telling him that he was being unrealistic to expect comprehensive reportage of or public interest in academic papers. The reporters agreed among themselves that the . Republicans would have gotten better use out of their small staff by using their time to develop clear-cut, easily understood issues like Smith’s lack of leadership. To date, Eggers has received his biggest headlines during Vice-President Spiro Agnew’s visit to Texas. Agnew plugged both Eggers and Bush in West Texas and then spent most of a day in Dallas campaigning for Eggers. The vice-president attended a fund-raising luncheon for the candidate. The session was closed to the press and reporters were not told who was in attendance, but it is generally believed that Agnew was successful in getting additional funds for Eggers’ campaign. In comparison to G.O.P. senatorial candidate George Bush, Eggers has modest funds and a small staff. But the candidate, who last time around came close to abandoning his campaign because the state party was being miserly with funds, is not complaining about the amount of money he is receiving this year. The total is estimated at somewhere between $600,000 and $900,000. At least, his aides say, the campaign has sufficient funds this year to reserve television time and pay its bills. An Eggers win definitely would be an upset. As a writer in the October Ripon Forum, the magazine of the progressive branch of the party, wrote: “It is conceivable that backlash voters, Agnew devotees, and hawks, voting with determined moderates who are disgusted with one-party rule, will secure a narrow victory for either Bush or Eggers, or both. It is also possible that one day the Mexicans will take the Alamo again. It simply isn’t likely.” K.N.