ustxtxb_obs_1976_08_20_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

Gus Mutscher J. Neil Daniel of Abilene found Mutscher, who never served a day of his sentence, such an exemplary probationer that he dismissed the charges against him. Then the Washington County commissioners, who had petitioned thejudge on Mutscher’s behalf, hastily called a meeting and voted unanimously to appoint the former speaker to serve out the term of the county judge, who died two weeks before. As part of his $11,397-a-year job, Mutscher will preside at misdemeanor cases, including juvenile offenses. The folks in Mutscher’s home town seemed delighted with their new judge, but there were a few expressions’ xpressions of outrage around the state. The Dallas Times Herald asked “gin a state where less influential felons have received life sentences for possession of a marijuana cigarette, what does the Mutscher case teach about the nature of Texas justice? That the wages of political corruption is embarrassing publicity? That ’tis better to sin big than to sin small?” And The Austin AmericanStatesman concluded, “[T]he whole thing smells. It smells of arrogance of power, and it is a slap in the face of the good people of the state.” A state bar grievance committee in II Houston has leveled 30 charges against “The Other” Don Yarbrough, the unopposed nominee for the Texas Supreme Court. Close to half of the allegations stem from a civil suit tried this summer in which Yarbrough was found guilty of malpractice and fraud in a business deal. Muniz busted And in other crime news: Thirty three-year-old Ramsey Muniz, who ran as the Raza Unida Party candidate for governor in 1972 and 1974, was indicated by a federal grand jury on 11 counts of conspiring to possess marijuana with intent to distribute marijuana and of using a communications facility in a conspiracy to commit a felony. Federal and state agents have been pre paring a case against Muniz and his brother, Roberto, for the past 18 months. They believe that the brothers have been dealing weed in a big way. According to the allegations in the indictment, they have been involved in transporting thousands of pounds of Mexican marijuana for distribution in their home town of Corpus Christi and in Birmingham, Ala. A number of other men are listed in the indictment, including Celso Oliveria, a former member of the Benavides school board in Duval County. Muniz, whom the Observer once endorsed for governor over Dolph Briscoe, was named “Mr. Corpus Christi” in 1963. Both brothers pled innocent to the charges. Taking aim at Tower Dallas It was no accident that U.S. Rep. Bob Kreuger, the first-term Democrat from New Braunfels, was picked to introduce National Democratic Chairman Bob Strauss at the kickoff of the new Dallas County Democratic Forum, July 22. The Forum sponsors, led by new Dallas County Democratic Chairman Ron Kessler, wanted someone capable of giving the main address should Strauss be unable to show. And Kreuger, the former English prof, is able.. What’s more, he is willing. He is one of several people testing the waters for a 1978 run at the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. John To wer. Tower, if you’ll recall, slid into office in a cloud of dust each electionwith the exception of 1972, when he used the long coattails of then-popular Richard Nixon. Even so, Nixon received about a half million more votes than Tower did. So the senator, despite what will then be seventeen years of incumbency, might provide the best target he ever has. During his visit to Dallas, Kreuger wouldn’t come out and say he was running for the Senate. He also wouldn’t come out and say he wasn’t. And because of his well-publicized battles in Congress for deregulating natural gas prices, Kreuger appears potentially formidable because he’ll be able to raise a lot of money from those people who own gas. After the Forum luncheon, Kreuger met with members of the Dallas Chamber of Commerceanother sign he is getting his ducks lined up for a senate race. U.S. Rep. Charles Wilson of Lufkin has been angling for the senate race ever since he won election to Congress, but some sources indicate that his desire for the nomination may have cooled somewhat. Wilson had to battle for a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, and he may not be prepared to give up that and his safe seat in Congress for a chancy race for the Senate. Other potential candidates include State Insurance Board Chairman Joe Christie, Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz, Secretary of State Mark White, State Sen. Peyton McKnight of Tyler, and Barefoot Sanders, who ran against Tower in 1972. People who have run statewide before usually have better name identification going into a subsequent statewide race because Texas is so large. Lyndon Johnson, whose seat Tower now occupies in the Senate, was the last Texas congressman to make the jump to the Senate back in 1948. Some of those people looking at the race perhaps are hoping that Tower will decide to bow out rather than seek re-election. He went all-out for Gerald Ford’s abortive presidential primary race this year in Texas and reportedly flustered some Reagan supporters in the process. They could be out to get Tower in 1978, so he might decide to quit rather than chance losing in his own primary, much less the general election. Probably all of the potential Democratic candidates will wait until the dust settles from the November presidential election before taking stock of who else might be in the race and how much money they can raise. At any rate, look for a crowded primary and a lot a jockeying for position between now and the filing deadline in 1978. Dave McNeely 10 The Texas Observer * .0,4*9.1,4e6PRA*104.r. of*As ,: