ustxtxb_obs_1983_06_24_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

Senate All Stars RAY FARABEE DEMOCRAT-Wichita Falls A well-deserved reputation as one of the few statesmen in the Senate . . . does his homework, has good instincts, knows how to forge compromises .. . instrumental in working out PUC reforms . . . helped with ethics legisla tion and also kept potential feud be tween Edwards and Lyon from heating up . . . represents his conservative North Texas district well, but always gave labor a fair hearing in his State Af fairs Committee. Major accomplish ments: worked to pass an inordinate number of bills, many on jurisprudence, and several sunset bills; worked for public utility accountability and against employment discrimination; sponsored and passed major Texas Mental Health Code reform legislation \(TO BOB MCFARLAND REPUBLICAN-ARLINGTON Smart, often eloquent, always well prepared . . . played a major role with ethics legislation; came up with compromise language, for example, that cooled down Democratic Party chairman Bob Slagle . . . picks his battles carefully . . . willing to listen to the other side . . . plays fair with labor . . . backed workers’ comp. for farmworkers .. . major accomplishments: legislation to salvage the state’s financially strapped unemployment fund. KENT CAPERTON DEMOCRAT-BRYAN A solid member who can accommodate himself to other people’s interests but willing to stand firm when he has to .. . positioning himself to be another Farabee, but better on the issues .. . also fits in with the way Hobby operates and is himself a potential lieutenant governor . . . Used Sunset Commission experience to carry PUC reform package after Hobby removed it from Doggett’s hands . . . labor frustrated with his voting record this session .. . Major accomplishment: PUC reform. A Bonehead Award for Sen. Bill Sen. Bill Sarpalius, D-Hereford is the recipient of this year’s Hubris, Hamartia, and Overall Confusion Award for not knowing when he has won or when he has lost or when pride becomes arrogance or when the Farm Bureau and the agriculture commodities lobbies do not have the best interests of agriculture at heart or when steadfastness becomes hardheadedness or when noble anger becomes self-destruction. When Sen. Hector Uribe presented Sarpalius with a deal that would have saved his amendment deregulating the trucking of agricultural commodities and would have meant Sarpalius could then give up his promised filibuster of a farmworkers compensation bill, Sarpalius did not understand the situation. He could not deliver his votes for his own bill. He had made no effort to hold those votes. So Sarpalius’ ag bill lost and, in retribution, Sarpalius began his filibuster that killed the farmworker bill. During a second filibuster, on the final night of the session, Sen. Ted Lyon asked Sarpalius if he realized he was also killing two agriculture bills important to the farmers of Sarpalius’ district. But Sarpalius was too far gone in his plot to avenge his earlier loss to recognize this publicly. Rep. Pete Patterson publicly bemoaned the fact that Sarpalius was the Senate sponsor for his low-interest farm loans bill; it meant his bill was dead. A woman from Sarpalius’ district after the first filibuster told the Observer that she thought Sarpalius should be governor. Sarpalius may have entertained such thoughts but now they are all undone in a month in which he alienated labor, the Mexican American vote, the small farmer. With all three camps against him, he can never win statewide election. Instead he clung to the banner of the Farm Bureau, which found itself unable for the first time to call in votes at will. 0 Sarpalius in filibuster finery. 6 JUNE 24, 1983