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compromise candidate. He may also be downplaying the lobby’s potency because one theory is that, with Clayton folding, the lobby is going to collapse around Dave Finney’s neck. Finney of Fort Worth, a sometime, sort of moderate-independent, would then become the stop-Fred-Head man. An alternative scenario has it that Parker will lateral to Neil Caldwell, i.e., drop out when it becomes clear he can’t win and throw his support to Caldwell, a popular liberal who is a close friend of Parker’s. Parker’s response to this theory cannot be printed because it makes his mother unhappy when she sees him saying things like that in print. When this theory is brought up to Head’s supporters, they rather nervously insist that Caldwell has said he won’t get in the race for too long and it will make even his friends mad if he gets into it so late. THE INIMITABLE Fred Head of Troup is, at this point, the front runner. “It’s pretty close to in the sack,” said Dave Allred of Wi^tiita Falls, a Head lieutenant. It should bF kept in mind that all lieutenants of all speaker candidates exaggerate shamelessly. Allred thinks Head has taken two giant steps forward recently. The first was the happy news that most of the retiring representatives are Clayton’s people and the second was in not drawing an opponent in his home district. “There were two guys talking about running against him,” said Allred. “But the day after filing deadline they announced that they’d reconsidered. They weren’t willing to take Fred on. That puts him in the driver’s seat.” What it does is free him up to move around a lot and work on both his colleagues and the candidates who are attempting to unseat them. “Fred did this the same way he beat Rayford [former speaker Rayford Price] ,” said Allred. “By working, hustling. All the snickerers went around laughing at him Compromise Candidate Parker behind their hands and he just smiled and went on working.” And work he does. He shows up at every penny ante political gathering, every two-bit rally and every doodlebug dinner. He doesn’t just shake hands and chat he is helpful, helpful, helpful. When the Observer asked him about his personal finances, he meticulously detailed the extent of his law condition of his three rental properties kind of fish he catches that his wife puts in the deep freeze, which really helps out a lot. Marcia is very thrifty and he’s very lucky in that respect. Also venison. Head hunts. On any little research problem a legislator might have, any little problem that takes a few phone calls, there’s Fred Head, being helpful. It is sometimes difficult to suppress just a small chuckle when regarding Head. He is so very .. . earnest. One suspects that he was not born as are other men, but that he is actually the result of a collaboration between Horatio Alger, the saccharine side of Charles Dickens and Sammy Glick. He wears vests and parts his hair in the middle. He had a difficult session last year Price Daniel, Jr., gave him a committee chairmanship as a reward for knocking off Rayford Price, but then stacked the committee against him. Head did not handle the situation well and once blew his cool entirely and wound up apologizing to the whole House. Head kept his candidacy out of sight so as not to disrupt the session and is doing the same during the convention. “It’s tempting, it’s very tempting,” said Head. “When I see Clayton and Parker having press conferences and all. But I’m not going to make any waves during the convention. After it’s over, then I’ll have my big press conference and talk about finances and programs and everything. Then we’ll be turning the corner and going down the home stretch.” Editorial and Business Offices: The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone 477-0746. Contributing Editors: Bill Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Joe Frantz, Larry Goodwyn, Bill Hamilton, Bill Helmer, Dave Hickey, Franklin Jones, Lyman Jones, Larry L. King, Georgia Earnest Klipple, Larry Lee, Al Melinger, Robert L. Montgomery, Willie Morris, Bill Porterfield, James Presley, Buck Ramsey, John Rogers, Mary Beth Rogers, Roger Shattuck, Edwin Shrake, Dan Strawn, John P. Sullivan, Tom Sutherland. We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of man as the foundation of democracy; we will take orders from none but our own conscience, and never will we overlook or misrepresent the truth to serve the interests of the powerful or cater to the ignoble in the human spirit. The editor has exclusive control over the editorial policies and contents of the Observer. None of the other people who are associated with the enterprise shares this responsibility with her. Writers are responsible for their own work, but not for anything they have not themselves written, and in publishing them the editor does not necessarily imply that she agrees with them, because this is a journal of free voices. BUSINESS STAFF Joe Espinosa Jr. C. R. Olofson The Observer is published by Texas Observer Publishing Co., biweekly from Austin, Texas. Entered as second-class matter April 26, 1937, at the Post Office at Austin, Texas, under the Ait of March 3, 1879. Second class postage paid at Austin, Texas. Single copy, 50c. One year, $8.00; two years, $14.00; three years, $19.00; plus, for Texas addresses, 5% sales tax. Foreign, except APO/FPO, 50c addition’al per year. Airmail, bulk orders, and group rates on request. Microfilmed by Microfilming Corporation of America, 21 Harristown Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. Change of Address: Please give old and new address, including zip codes, and allow two weeks. Postmaster: Send form 3579 to Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. THE TEXAS OBSERVER OThe Texas Observer Publishing Co. 1974 Ronnie Dugger, Publisher A window to the South A journal of free voices EDITOR Kaye Northcott CO-EDITOR Molly Ivins ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Ferguson EDITOR AT LARGE Ronnie Dugger Vol. LXVI, No. 4 March 1, 1974 locorporating the State Observer and the East Texas Democrat, which in turn incorporated the Austin ForumAdvocate.