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4,4 Strike three! Dolph Briscoe, who had been heckled by protesting farmers in McAllen in March, and who had watched his press secretary slap a Dallas television reporter on camera a few days later, thought he finally had a slow day on his hands in early April when he went to Arlington to throw out the first ball to open the Texas Rangers’ season. But when he was introduced for the ceremonial pitch, he was roundly booed by fans, an embarrassment that was carried on network television. The job done, the governor abruptly left the stadium. N c.0 Quickest reflexes Bob Krueger, with a $250,000 media blitz in the can and knowing that his opponent had no media money, never intended to have those three televised debates with Joe Christie in the last week of the senatorial race. He got trapped into them. Christie had been stinging Krueger pretty good with charges of staff irregularities, and Krueger reacted by saying it was time for Christie to leave off with the personal attacks and begin to address The Great National Issues. Christie aides Joe Siff and Robert Heard saw the opportunity immediately, and the next day Krueger and the state’s press got a Christie letter accepting Krueger’s “challenge” to debate those issues on TV. Worst media spot Joe Hubenak, the state representative from Rosenberg who ran an all-out campaign against Reagan Brown for agriculture commissioner, had wretched luck with his radio ads. A “Movietone News” type announcer boomed out the candidate’s credentials, called on a few typical Texans to say why they were for Joe, then turned it over to the man himself, who sounded like he was standing in an empty grain silo with a mouthful of milo. He was completely unintelligible and should sue his ad firm for non-support. Tough break, fella Door-to-door canvassers for state senate candidate Phil Hardberger in San Antonio not only persuaded one man-of-the-house to vote for Phil, but also convinced him to put up a yard sign. The convert held the sign, while one of the eager campaigners drove the stake right into the man’s water line, flooding his yard for two days. Worst campaign slogan Jerry Sadler’s: “Put Sadler in the Saddle.” It’s the same one he used in 1938, when he won a seat on the Railroad Commission, and it hasn’t hurt him 40 years laterhe took 46 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. Party time Thorne Dreyer, the Houston public relations man, won the gratitude of hundreds of political junkies for figuring out that political parties do not have to be intolerably dull. He hired clowns, jugglers, good bands, and whatever it took If it’s Wednesday, it must be Alpine Bob Krueger’s on the move, out to turn a seat in the U.S. Senate into a ways tation to the . presidency, and he doesn’t have a lot of time to waste in any one spot. He’s a professional at “touching base” with people, as they say in Washington, and his campaign schedule this spring was nothing if not fast-paced indeed. In April, he hit 57 Texas towns in ten days, earning him the title of “The New Braunfels Flash.” to produce way-aboveaverage parties for congressional candidate Mickey Leland, state representatives Ron Waters and Lance Lalor, and Senate hopeful Bob Krueger. He calls his parties “energy events,” which is perhaps unfortunate, but they’re a lot more fun than a Mark White barbecue. Atlantic Richfield The annual ARCO Spoilsport of the Year Award goes to none other than ARCO, whose executives refused to allow U.S. Senate candidate Joe Christie to stand outside the gates of their Lawndale plant and talk to employees as they left work. The stump is the one on the bottom Briscoe has been carrying a stump around the state on his campaign plane, taking it out at various stops and mounting it to deliver his little talk. It’s a stump speech. Get it? Bless you, Bob And finally, a very special word of thanks to land commissioner Bob Armstrong for not campaigning at all. We needed that. q w oos dn p n eN Aq sol oqd The Ron Ziegler medallion for political clarification State comptroller Bob Bullock, who filed for re-election but spent all his time campaigning in the governor’s race, apologized to the press for his hastiness in calling John Hill an SOB, saying that he merely meant to say that Hill was “incompetent, ignorant, no good and sorry.” Thanks for clearing that up for us, Bob. THE TEXAS OBSERVER