ustxtxb_obs_1980_06_20_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

The Run-offs The June 7 runoff elections were reasonably productive for liberal and progressive forces in Texas, giving state Sen. Bill Patman the Democratic nomination for Congress from the 14th District along the Coastal Bend, dumping some conservative legislative incumbents like San Antonio Rep. Don Cartwright and virtually securing Houston jurist Jim Wallace Place 1 on the state Supreme Court. There was one major defeat incumbent Judge W. T. Phillips of Waco was pipped for Democratic renomination by Austin attorney Mike McCormick, a lobbyist for Texas prosecutors. Patman emerged victorious from a rough-and-tumble, not to say dirty runoff against Nueces County Judge Robert Barnes. Drawing on his home turf connections, including endorsement by the Caller-Times, Barnes beat Patman in Corpus Christi, but couldn’t overcome Patman’s popularity in the rural areas of the district. Both Patman and Barnes dredged up all the mud they could in the course of the campaign. Barnes called Patman “million dollar Bill” and portrayed him as a free-spending liberal, a tag which doesn’t come anywhere near the truth of Patman’s moderate voting record in the state Senate. In turn, Patman pinned Barnes as the candidate of conservative and big business forces, citing Barnes’ considerable assistance from the rightwing National Conservative Political Action Committee. In November, Patman, a Ganado rancher, faces Republican C. L. Concklin, a Corpus Christi pediatrician. The incumbent in District 14, Rep. Joe Wyatt, is not seeking reelection due to various personal difficulties. In the only other Democratic runoff for a Congressional seat, Mike Andrews defeated former and would-like-to-beagain Congressman Bob Gammage in Houston’s Dist. 22. Andrews faces incumbent Republican Rep. Ron Paul in the general election. On the GOP side, businessman John Biggar beat Jack Bower for the Dist. 10 congressional nomination. Biggar will be tryi Ito unseat U.S. Rep. J. J. “Jake” Pickle, a Democrat, next fall. Pickle hasn’t lost since 1963. In legislative races, all Democratic, three incumbents were defeated for renomination. Political scientist Joyce Dorrycott’s upset of Rep. Don Cartwright was by a healthy 2-to-1 margin in San Antonio’s Dist. 57H. A good liberal, she is expected to have strong GOP opposition in November. Other incumbents beaten were Emmett Whitehead of Rusk in Dist. 15 by attorney Jim Turner of Crockett and Rep. Herman Lauhoff of Houston by attorney Clint Hackney. The fourth incumbent in a runoff, Rep. Smith Gilley of Greenville, beat business-backed Lowell Cable. The results here were crucial to the outcome of the speaker’s race. In each of the incumbent races, the victors are considered supporters of speaker candidate John Bryant of Pleasant Grove and the Junk-in-the-Box There are people of our acquaintance who insist that if you eat at Jack-in-theBox you deserve what you get, but even with that qualification, it appears that customers of the Ralston Purina-owned fast food chain are getting an especially raw deal anyway from the company’s television commercials. You’ve proba deposed were backers of Speaker Billy Clayton or his protege, Rep. Gib Lewis. Combined with the results in the other 10 Democratic runoffs, Bryant thinks he has 8-9 fresh pledges. In judicial races, Houston appellate Judge Jim Wallace beat Austin appellate Judge John C. Phillips for Place 1 on the Texas Supreme Court in a contest involving heavy media spending on both sides. In November, Wallace faces Republican Jim Brady. The defeat of Judge Phillips on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 2, does not bode well for criminal defendants in Texas, although Mike McCormick, the victor, might temper his prosecutorial bias when clothed in judicial robes. In the other Criminal Appeals Court race, Place 3 incumbent Tom Davis drubbed conservative Edith Roberts, who wanted to be the first woman on the high court. bly seen them, the first effort ever to use sadistic violence to whet your appetite for a cheeseburger and fries. In some versions of the commercials, a grandmother-figure, after buying goodies from the “new” Jack-in-the-Box, is asked what to do with the “old” JIB symbol, a circus clown \(alas, not Ronald Journal THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9