ustxtxb_obs_1978_07_07_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

,N11,=11.M.M…… ANDEMSON &, COMPANY COFFEE TEA SPICES TWO JEFFERSON SQUARE AUSTIN, TEXAS 78’731 512 453-1533 Send me your list. Name Street City Zip Bob and Sara Roebuck 22 JULY 7, 1978 }LUX PRJCE RECOR,Ds MAG AZ INES IN DALLAS: 4528 McKINNEY AVE. 209 S. AKARD, downtown RICHARDSON: 508 LOCKWOOD FARMERS BRANCH SHOPPING CTR. SW CORNER, VALLEY VIEW IN WACO: 25TH & COLUMBUS IN AUSTIN: 1514 LAVACA 6103 BURNET RD. IN FORT WORTH: 6301 CAMP BOWIE BLVD. 1524 E. Anderson Lane, Austin bonds stocks insurance mutual funds optional retirement program THE COMMODORE HOTEL On Capitol Hill Owned by Texans. Run by a Texan. 520 N. Capitol St., NW Washington, D.C. 20001 Anchor National Financial Services offer some partisan excitement, some in unexpected places. Most incumbent Republicans are fairly secure, including popular Harris County Judge Jon Lindsay. Lindsay is opposed by former state representative Joe Pentony in one of the most important races involving a Republican officeholder. Julius Neunhoffer, Kerr County judge, survived a strong Republican primary challenge but is almost certain to be reelected. Neunhoffer is the senior incumbent Republican official in Texas. Most of the Republican excitement at the county level revolves around Republican challenges to incumbent Democrats. In Harris County, Republicans are making a serious run at the county treasurer’s office. The incumbent Democrat, Hartsell Gray, is vulnerable. According to a .knowledgeable Houston political observer, “Gray is thought to be bonkers. A polite word for him, I guess, would be ‘eccentric.’ ” Henry Kriegel, the Republican challenger, is the Houston city treasurer. Kriegel is considered competent and, important in the context of this race, stable. His chances are good. ART and the state party are keying on county offices as well as seats in the Legislature. Final funding decisions have not yet been made, but up to 20 candidates could receive support in such places as San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Slayton, Tyler, Dallas, Midland, Odessa and Alice. “Alice” is not a misprint. With criminal indictments hitting incumbent Democrats all over South Texas, ART has pledged to help Alfredo Cardenas, the Republican candidate for county judge in Jim Wells County. “Underdog” is probably nowhere more appropriately applied than to the Republican in this race, but the party is trying to offer credible competition in places where Democrats have violated their public trust. Even in Alice. Even, too, in San Antonio. Bexar County Republicans are drawing up plans for a full-fledged assault on the courthouse, where opportunities have been presented by a district clerk who got himself arrested on election night, a district attorney who thinks it is justifiable homicide to shoot kids who tamper with campaign signs, a sheriff who thinks it’s okay to have 19 relatives on the payroll, and a county commissioner who thinks his $27,000 annual salary is for a “part-time job.” As in most places, Republican chances in San Antonio are directly proportional to the money they can raise: Factors affecting the outcome The single most important factor in turning Republican underdogs into election-day winners is money. Contrary to popular belief, it is the Democrats in. Texas who have access to the big political money, not Republicans. The wellfinanced Republican is an exception, not the rule. John Tower and Bill Clements should have enough cash for full-fledged campaign efforts. Both will need it, Cleinents more than Tower. Jim Baker will be far back in the fundraising game, but compared to previous Republican nominees and perhaps to his Democratic -opponent, he should be sufficiently wellfunded. For other GOP candidates at all levels, reaching the proper level of funding will be a long and tedious task. To the extent that they do not do so, their chances will be reduced. Few of their Democratic opponents will be hardpressed to raise what they need. Many Republican candidates are actively seeking minority group support which, by objective analysis, many of them merit more than their Democratic opponents. Republicans are hampered in this effort by their lack of knowledge .of minority group politics and by the weight of habit and tradition favoring the Democrats. This fight for minority votes could be the turning point in a number of races at both the local and statewide level. Its credibility as a competitive party and a kicking, breathing, political alternative for Texas is enhanced this year by the number and quality of GOP candidates and by the vitality of most of the party’s campaigners. In years past, it was thought that the effort put into campaigns for other offices would hurt Tower’s chances when he was up for reelection. That thinking has passed. In fact, the party’s strength up and down the ticket in some parts of the state will almost certainly enhance the chances of all Republicans on the ballot. If Texas Republicans win a significant number of races this year, two-party competition might soon become a permanent working reality in the state. The Republican nomination would increasingly be seen as worth having; politically oriented young people could be expected to consider the GOP as their home in growing numbers; and more Texans would vote in Republican primaries. If things break right for the party in November, 1978 will go down as a watershed year in Texas politics. Place no bets. But watch carefully. Doug Harlan is a scholar in residence on the political science faculty at Trinity University in San Antonio. A Republican candidate for Congress from Texas’ 21st district in 1972 and .1974, he served the Ford administration as executive secretaryof HEW and as co-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Deregulation.