ustxtxb_obs_1984_08_31_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

Political Caucus. The more women who are drawn to the polls by Ferraro \(or driven there by the Republican platform get. “I’m encouraged by the visits I had with Congresswomen Ferraro,” Doggett said. “She will be a real asset, add a great deal of enthusiasm to the ticket. I don’t think anyone would deny that I would have been assisted in a more significant way by a Texan on the ticket. I don’t see the vice presidential “The greatest tool these days in farming is not a new tractor but a new tax accountant.” Lloyd Doggett selection as the biggest problem we have. That’s more of a plus. I think the problem we have is with a significant amount of popularity we have on the part of President Reagan, even though there is a significant uncertainty and some dissatisfaction with his policies.” Doggett’s biggest problem will be expanding the coalition that carried him through the primaries. He is having some difficulty appealing to conservative Democratic supporters of Kent Hance and Bob Krueger. Despite a state Democratic The 1984 Presidential series is really heating up, and we’d hate for you to be out in right field. For a spirited account of the players and strategies, thousands of readers from all over Texas turn twice a month to the Texas Observer. And you can be one of them. Here’s how. $20 enclosed for a one-year subscription bill me for 820 The Texas Observer 600 West 7th Austin, Texas 78701 4 AUGUST 31, 1984 convention pledge by Hance to support Doggett, Hance has told the San Angelo Standard Times that he will not work for the senatorial nominee. “Get out and campaign for Lloyd? No, I’m not going to be doing that,” Hance said. “I think some of the people that raised funds for them [Hance and Krueger] are more oriented toward the Republicans, and one or two already have gone with Gramm much as they joined with Clements when he ran. But I think we are making some headway. Senator John Montford, D-Lubbock, [a Hance supporter] had a reception for me in Lubbock, and they are raising some money up There. We had a good response in Wichita Falls, but we’ve got a lot of work to do in that area,” Doggett said. Doggett believes he can peel off some of the Hance support in West Texas, where Hance scored 60, 70, and 80 percent victories, by focusing on the effect of Reagan’s rural policies. He has been working to reverse a perception of his candidacy as an urban candidacy, which, he said, was due in part to Hance’s billing himself as a rural candidate. Doggett has been meeting with farmers in Amarillo, Plainview, Lubbock, and elsewhere. “I see large chunks of Texas,” he said, “where our farmers and ranchers and small businesses that are interrelated with them are being victimized by the policies of this [Reagan] administration. The agriculture program itself has cost taxpayers more than ever before because it had no caps on the amounts of benefits of the PIK program, for example. Millions of dollars went to some of the corporate interests in California, to some of John Block’s friends up in Illinois. But, at the same time, family farmers and ranchers were going out of business at a greater rate than ever before. So I would say that what we’re looking at principally for them is some kind of 1985 agriculture bill that is more in tune to their needs and in which relief is targeted more to family farmers and ranchers. I think we also need to look to a bill that has more certainty to it, where family farmers and ranchers find out about what the bill is before they have already planted their crops or at least planned them. Another issue I’ve talked to them about has been the tax shelter farmer, which creates real problems. The greatest tool these days for success in farming is not a new tractor but a new tax accountant. I think there are big changes in the tax code that could have an impact on family farmers and ranchers.” If Doggett is able to add some part of the rural vote to his coalition of constituencies, he will be in a good position to go after a share of that large soft center of the body politic. Traditional Democratic affiliations, as well as a fairly unified state Democratic party, will work to Doggett’s advantage, as will the party’s get-out-the-vote campaign, targeting predominantly Democratic precincts. A private poll has shown Doggett running about 10 percentage points ahead of Mondale/Ferraro in the state and about even with Gramm. BUT WHAT ABOUT all those registered, slightly disgruntled, adequately fed, over-mortgaged suburbanites and small-city dwellers, who get their politics, in large part, from television while ensconced in lazyboy recliners and who shift the state’s political center slightly to the left or to the right with each major election? In 1982, the shift was away from Gov. Bill Clements and to those fighting the utilities and high interest rates. How is Doggett going to ride with the mainstream? “I suspect,” Doggett said, “that he [Gramm] will try to paint me into a rigid ideological position at the opposite end of the spectrum from where he has been in the Republican party. The National Journal and the Baron Report did an analysis of members of Congress that was reported in May of this year. They determined Phil to have the 435th most