ustxtxb_obs_1976_10_29_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

It boils down to this: either Carter or Ford is going to be President. While Eugene McCarthy has had some good things to say and has scored witty points against the two majors, he is not going to be President. A vote for McCarthy, while personally gratifying, is a luxury that not many in the country can afford. Carter will put millions of people back to work. He will loosen up money for new housing starts, and he will cause more capital to flow into small enterprises. He shows a strong empathy for the rights and needs of minorities and poor people, which has been out of fashion in official circles for the last eight years. He’ll put some good people into positions of administrative responsibility, and he’ll end the right-wing swerve of the federal judicial system. None of this is to ignore either some real doubts about Carter or some obvious shortcomings in his positions. But too much is at stake to risk four more with Ford. We’re for Carter. 0 Mike Smith Jimmy Carter New post for Orr brother Dallas Once again, one of the infamous Orr brothers is slipping into public office in a questionable manner. The Orrs are the pre-eminent political family in De Soto, a booming suburb of Dallas. Roy Op -, a former mayor of De Soto, and Fred Orr, a former councilman, comprise a two-man De Soto establishment with interests in real estate, insurance, and banking. For a time, they owned the only newspaper in town. But the Orr’s right-wing political influence reaches beyond De Soto. Fred served as a state representative and Roy has been a Dallas County commissioner and chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee. Roy Orr’s ascent to the Dallas County commissioners court was their first questionable conquest. When Commissioner Denver Seale died in 1971, Orr .somehow rett to appoint him as Seale’s replacement over ‘the protests of Seale’s widow, State Sen. Oscar Mauzy \(who has tried unsuccessfully to change the law that allows a county judge to unilaterally fill a commisand moderate Democrats who resented Orr’s high-handed political tactics. But none of that could keep On from getting the commissioner’s job, and as many incumbent politicians know, once you get the power, it’s not that hard to hang on to it. So it probably should have come as no surprise several weeks ago when the On brothers and Rep. Calv i n Rucker of Cedar Hill, the conservative Democrat who represents District 33-H in south Dallas County, toured the homes of Democratic precinct chairmen in the district, trying to line up their votes for Fred Orr to replace Rucker on the ballot should he resign. Thelma Tyson, a long-time Democratic party worker and wife of Dist. 3 County Commissioner Jim Tyson, said that she called Rucker when she heard about the visits and that Rucker denied he was planning to resign. He repeated his denial right up until the night before he had his signature notarized on a statement that he was dropping out of the race. The fact that Rucker might be dropping out didn’t really perturb too many of the folks in the district. Rucker, who beat Ben “Jumbo” Atwell in the 1974 elections, turned out to be one of the genuine lightweights in the 1975 Texas Legislature. After his first session, quite a few people in the district would have taken Jumbo back. But Rucker won the Democratic nomination this spring unopposed; certainly a host of other candidates would have materialized had he indicated his plans to drop out earlier. Rucker told the Observer and others that his reasons for resigning concerned, his wife’s health. He is in the process of moving to Austin, amid rumors that he is in line for some kind of state job. There are other rumors that the Orrs lined up the job for him as inducement to resign, but Rucker denies them. At any rate, the On brothers had their votes lined up and appropriately choreographed when the time came to replace Rucker. Rucker got his resignation petition signed on Saturday, Sept. 25 and turned it in on the following Tuesday; the meeting to select Rucker’s replacement was held that Tuesday’ night. Fred On won the balloting among the 20 meeting. Eleven voted for Orr, six voted for Thelma Tyson, and three for Trathene Hickman. Tyson claimed she could ha\\fe won a secret ballot, but she said the presiding officer at the meeting refused to allow a vote on whether to hold a secret ballot. So Fred Orr will be the Democratic nominee in 33-H, against an unknown Republican, James S. Gurney. Gurney, who is about 60 and whose health isn’t the best, had volunteered to resign his nomination in favor of a better-known, more vigorous Republican candidate. The Republicans apparently couldn’t come up with one, so Orr may be returning to the Legislature. The people in south Dallas County are reportedly quite angry at the Orrs’ heavy-handed tactics but probably can’t maintain that anger through election day. Dave McNeely October 29, 1976 7