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v It seems that both state Treasurer Ann Richards and Land Commissioner Garry Mauro have had their eyes on the state Comptroller’s job for the 1986 election. A little backroom wheeling and dealing is ‘said to have steered Richards toward the Lieutenant Governor’s slot and left the comptroller’s race to Mauro. If rumors of current Lt. Governor Bill Hobby’s interest in running for a fifth term prove accurate, however, that deal may have to be returned to the drawing boards. Richards and Hobby have on occasion expressed their admiration for each other. vr When the public debate rang forth on God’s place in this year’s election politics, CBS news turned to the Rev. W. A. Criswell of the First Baptist Church in Dallas. “I think this thing of separation of church and state is a figment of some infidel’s imagination,” Criswell said. He said Democrats can register “down and outers” and welfare recipients, but when Republicans try to register “Christian people” to vote, they get blasted. “There’s not anything wrong in trying to get God’s people to vote,” he said. v The infant mortality rate rose slightly in Texas in 1983 according to the State’s Department of Health. The rate is up from 10.8 to 11.0 deaths per thousand births. This is, however, lower than the 1973 rate of 19.2 deaths per thousand births. The infant mortality rate is a clue to the quality of health care, particularly for the poor. 1/ Representative Charles Wilson, Democrat from Lufkin, goes around these days badmouthing the Democrat vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro. Wilson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram he will vote for Mondale but that he wishes Sen. Lloyd Bentsen were the vice-presidential choice “so I could put my heart into it.” Wilson said Ferraro “has a bias against our part of the country. I regard her as a liability in Texas and nationwide. And she will become a greater liability as the campaign proceeds.” V Lloyd Doggett’s research staff has apparently uncovered some smoking guns in Phil Gramm’s record, which it plans to reveal during the Gramm/Doggett television debates on Sept. 28 and Oct. 18. NOTICE TO OUR READERS For our 30th anniversary in December, we are planning to give recognition to individuals or organizations whose work has staved off the forces of evil or has contributed to the making of a more progressive Texas. We welcome your suggestions with any supporting material you care to provide. 0 DIALOGUE Shady Real Estate Be sure to congratulate the Dallas Morning News. In an otherwise misguided editorial regarding Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, the News acknowledged that there was such a thing as a shady business deal. Diligent research fails to disclose any previous occasion when the adjective shady was applied by the paper to any real estate transaction. I don’t think they even used it in connection with Bunker Hunt and Congressman George Hansen’s silver dealings. Yet now that the News knows that some political transactions are beyond the pale, perhaps it will apply the principle to some of its in-state reporting, and in areas not connected with politics. We can always hope. James Yeager Washington, D. C. \(The following letter appeared in the Aug. 31 Observer with several printing errors. We herein try Exploiting Fears I want to share with you a conversation that ensued between a very bright and analytical Hispanic friend of mind and his very perceptive and inquisitive young son, following the conclusion of the August 1st TV program DONAHUE, in which the problem of illegal immigrants was debated, and whose panel, incidentally, included U.S. son-Mazzoli notoriety and Arnold Torres, of National LULAC \(Legal of Perceiving that major flaws pervade every argument advanced during the debate by Sen. Simpson and other advocates of the Simpson-Mazzoli legislation, the young man opened the discussion by asking: “What are the real reasons, Dad, that so-many millions of Americans object to having more of our kind as their fellow citizens? The ancestors of nearly all of them came here exactly the same way and for the same reasons, either seeking religious freedom, political freedom, or economic freedom and a better life. So why, now, do they not want to give the same kind of opportunity to others? Do they fear for their jobs?” “The job-stealing issue is a phony argument, son,” responded his Dad, “because the poor in America who are the ones most affected by the alien competition for jobs are not the ones complaining; in fact, they are sympathetic; it’s the comfortable middle class and super rich, who, by the way, are totally untouched by the alien job competition, who raise the issue. Besides, to further compound the hypocrisy of that argument, on the one hand they claim job competition from the illegal aliens, and on the other, they approve of the Panetta Amendment that allows the importation of large numbers of aliens to work in American farmlands.” The Texas Observer would like to thank all of the generous readers who gave to our subscription campaign for high school libraries. Because of your support, the students of 268 additional high schools will be reading the Observer in years to come. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 25