ustxtxb_obs_1978_04_28_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

regulate as a commissioner, but he refuses to take any contributions at all, campaign that he finances out of his own pocket. John Thomas Henderson, a man of integrity, is campaigning out of conviction; he stands head and shoulders above the incumbent and deserves our support. begin to get a more responsive banking system in Texas. Take a walk on this one We generally don’t like a “no-vote” strategy, but try as we might, we just can’t bring ourselves to recommend any of the three characters who’d like to be Texas agriculture commissioner for the next four years. Reagan Brown, Bris coe’s interim appointment to the post that John White abandoned when he went to Washington last year, and Joe Hubenak, the state representative from Rosenberg, are -both jovial, hard-working and undoubtedly well-intentioned fellows. \(Don Sewell of Nocona probably is, too, but after a campaign-launching horseride from El Paso to Fort Worth, he farm and food situation in Texas is in too big a mess to be entrusted to nice guys who have no notion of what must be done to fix things, nor the stomach to take on the job if they did know what to do. Brown is a story-telling, fun-loving patriot who has spent most of his life as a rural sociologist working for Texas A&M, which qualifies him to be a rural sociologist for Texas A&M. Hubenak is an accountant who has devoted an uncommon amount of his energy as a public official to the task of eradicating fire ants in Texas. Because of depressed prices and high costs, 3,000 family farmers were squeezed out of business in cure in their respective offices for another four years, having drawn no opponents: Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong and Comptroller Bob Bullock. As a result, theirs has been a leisurely springArmstrong has spent his time flying kites, while Bob Bullock’s favored pastime is taking pot shots at John Hill. Neither man needs your vote to win, but both deserve a vote of confidence. Improving Congress With any luck, it is possible that Texas could finish 1978 with its best congressional delegation in memory \(with bad luck, of course, quite the opposite could sive candidates are making particularly strong races and they are worth all the time and money you can give them in these last daysLane Denton of Waco, running for the sixth congressional district’s seat, of Houston’s 18th district, and Martin Frost, campaigning in the 24th district that takes in Arlington and laps over into both Dallas and Fort Worth. Denton is a populist reformer who has served with distinction in the Texas Legislature and has been in the forefront of battles to help farmers, teachers, minorities, the elderly and consumers. He has big money arrayed against him, but he has a record of service, name identification and a hard-working cam Loan shark referendum It’s not often that plain old citizens get a direct shot at special interest legislation, but this year’s Democratic primary ballot gives voters a chance to say whether or not the 1979 Legislature should authorize higher interest rates on loans under $5,000. We doubt that you’ll have much trouble making up your mind on this one, but if you think the loan companies might really need higher rates, consider that Texas already , is among the six states allowing the highest interest rates on small loansa borrower of $100 cash gets hit with a rate of 108 percent, for example. The loan lobby has been preparing a bill for next session that would permit finance companies to demand up to 149 percent interest on small loans, those generally made to people least able to afford the high rates. While the vote on the referendum will not be binding on the Legislature, it will be highly influential, and you can put a serious crimp in the plans of the loan lobby by voting against this proposition. Known by his enemies Harry Ledbetter didn’t just throw his hat into the ring for state treasurerhe By God slammed it to the ground, stomped on it a while, then whirled around defiantly, ready for all corners. Early in the campaign, he put an eightpage promotional supplement in the state’s biggest newspapers, charging “scandalous inefficiency” in the treasurer’s office and asking in a bold, banner headline: “Are you going to let Dallas’ big banks and political brokers control your state treasury?” He hasn’t let up, running flat out from the start, hounding Briscoe’s appointed incumbent at every drinkwater in the state and hurling everything but his own body into the edifices of the giant bankholding companies, which he says plainly are a subterfuge for branch banks. He comes on with all the subtlety of Comptroller Bob Bullock, whom he used to work for, and Texas’ banking establishment doesn’t care for him one bit, which recommends him highly. We like Ledbetter as much as the bankers dislike him. He can win, and if he does, we’ll Texas last year, and another 3,000 are expected to go under in 1978. Yet supermarket prices continue to climb. Vision and leadership are called for, but no ag commissioner candidate has shown even a dash of either. Consumers and farmers alike would be at least as well off if the office were left vacant. The uncontested Two of the state’s finest public servants and sharpest political wits are se paign group that make him the frontrunner. Leland, seeking the seat that Barbara Jordan is relinquishing, was a stalwart in the Legislature last session, providing invaluable leadership on the humanitarian and economic issues that others would just as soon pass over. Frost has been patiently building a broad-based grassroots organization in his sprawling district for months and is in a good position to knock off a threeterm, right-wing incumbent whose sole Three for Congress: Leland of Houston, Frost of Dallas, Denton of Waco. * * * 4 APRIL 28,1978