ustxtxb_obs_1985_06_14_50_00012-00000_000.pdf

Pho tos by Alan Pog u e More Champs Senator Oscar Mauzy The 18-year Senate veteran from Dallas remains an unregenerate liberal. Operating from a desk next to Sen. Craig Washington, Mauzy’s area on the Senate floor became the center for most of the plans to stop bad legislation \(much of it coming from the other corner, where Sen. resolution to make it unconstitutional to enact a personal or corporate income tax in Texas. Rep. Jesse Oliver This Dallas Democrat has come into his own this session as a leader on issues of social reform and social justice. Oliver has a reputation for working hard and expecting his staff to do the same. This session he sponsored key antihunger and indigent health care legislation. His work during the last days of the session and during the special session to create an indigent health care funding bill and to pass it through the House showed a tenacity and strength of character that some say will lead to his becoming the first elected black statewide officeholder. Rep. Hugo Berlanga The Speaker pro tern from Corpus Christi emerged from Gib Lewis’s shadow this session to help direct the floor fight on major social issues. After his parimutuel gambling bill suffered a surprisingly heavy defeat early in the session, Berlanga directed his energies toward passage of unemployment compensation for farmworkers, the indigent health care plan, and toward the defeat of the Saunders pesticide bill. His leadership on the floor and his willingness to use his influence with the Speaker on these issues were of crucial importance. Senator Hugh Parmer The hard-working and sincere former mayor of Fort Worth was almost singlehandedly responsible for what turned into a $15 million program to feed the hungry in Texas; he sponsored the resolution two years ago to create a hunger committee, led the committee, and then got the hunger bills passed this session. Rep. Al Luna This Democrat from Houston chaired the Mexican American Legislative Caucus through its finest session. Under his leadership, the caucus fought toe-to-toe with conservative powers and, more often than not, came out the victor. Luna’s ability to marshal this largest single voting bloc for social reform measures was crucial in the indigent health care and pesticide fights which were decided by paper-thin margins. 12 JUNE 14, 1985