ustxtxb_obs_1983_03_11_50_00016-00000_000.pdf

With Hightower and Richards at United Farmworkers convention: Si se puede. one of the best organizers and campaigners the Democratic Party’s ever had. But I think that President Reagan, as he continues to follow policies that are completely separate from reality, may prove to be just as effective a campaigner and organizer, and certainly some of those around him like James Watt and Ann Gorsuch are good people to organize around. Would you look forward to running against Sen. Tower or do you expect him to retire perhaps? Based on some of the comments that he’s made this last week, within the last few days in fact, I would expect that he would be the nominee. Certainly to the extent that there’s even a need to inspire more enthusiasm, having Phil Gramm on the ballot would be an exciting prospect for all of us. But I think that John Tower will be ample competition and undoubtedly will have a substantial war chest. It’s going to be a race that I think I can feel really inspired about, that it would really make a difference to have John Tower out of the Senate and a progressive person in the Senate. Maybe this question is premature, but I’m sure you lie in bed at night thinking about what kind of Senator you would be .. . No, actually of late I’ve been sleeping very soundly. I’ve been starting early and going late and usually get there so exhausted I have not had the opportunity to ponder these questions. [He laughs.] Okay, in your rare moments of leisure do you think about what kind of Senator you would be? On questions like arms control, for example? Well, I would say that I would hope to be in Washington the same kind of Senator that I have been in Austin. And that is to try to see that people who can’t afford a political action committee or a full-time lobbyist get some representation and that there’s some balance in the process for all those who don’t fall under any particular special-interest category. As far as some specific issues, I think that we are pursuing a policy in the arms area that has not brought us security and that we have got to place a very very high priority on bringing about significant arms reduction. That could well become an issue in the fall campaign; indeed it might be an issue in the primary: what a candidate is willing to commit to do to get reasonable steps taken toward disarmament. I think the Reagan administration, “There’s got to be a combination of approaches to provide reasonable access to the public in campaigns through the media . . . otherwise we’re going to have simply duels between the super rich.” had it not been for a citizen movement for arms control, would have moved us further and further away from the prospect of reaching any kind of reasonable agreement on arms control. Do you feel any sympathies for Sen. Cranston’s linking arms control to the economy? Well, I think that it is linked, and I believe that Sen. Bentsen in his speech to the joint session here last week emphasized the connection between unrealistic commitments that President Reagan has made to increase defense spending and the amount of money that is available for other kinds of spending needs and how that impacts us in the state. So I think there’s a great relationship between the spending priorities that the federal government pursues and whether we have a tax bill in the Texas legislature this session. How do you feel, at this point, about campaign finance reform? It’s essential. I think that certainly the biggest hurdle that any potential candidate such as myself has to overcome is to demonstrate that the campaign is credible financially, and that has become all the more difficult over the years because of the large amount of dollars necessary for a media campaign to gain the name identification among the public-at-large that we talked about earlier. I think that it would be desirable to come up with some kind of program to, if not limit the cost of campaigns, which has some problems of bias toward incumbents, to have some kind of public participation. Do you have specifics? I know that Common Cause has advocated for some time a program of public campaign finance in congressional races. I’m not sure that’s exactly the program necessary; I know that Sen. Bentsen has introduced some legislation concerning access to the media. Th -ere’s got to be a combination of approaches to provide reasonable access to the public in campaigns through the media, whether it’s paid for through public funds or through funds that are voluntarily contributed or whether some of that time is provided on a volunteer basis as a condition for a license, that will allow people to communicate public policy issues; otherwise we’re going to have simply duels between the super rich. So you would like to do something also as far as state races go? I actually introduced a bill a couple of sessions back on public campaign finance for railroad commissioners to draw attention to the large amount of dollars contributed from the industries regulated by the railroad commission to those races. We saw cases at that time of around ninety percent for one candidate coming from those that they regulated. It would be desirable to pursue the kind of issues raised by Nina Butts in her article a few months back \(TO, Texas Common Cause has on campaign 16 MARCH 11, 1983