ustxtxb_obs_1986_01_24_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE 1/’ Once Edward Kennedy announced he will not run for President, Bob Krueger, the former U.S. Senate candidate and congressman, penned a column in the San Antonio Express-News in effect singing Kennedy’s praises. Perhaps on the calculation that now it’s safe to ingratiate oneself to Kennedy’s admirers? Texas is part of the new Southern strategy for 1988, a regional presidential primary in the second week of March that year, after the Iowa caucuses and the traditional New Hampshire opening primary. State Sen. John Traeger, chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference, told the Wall Street Journal: “I can guarantee that Texas is going to be there,” in the Super-South regional primary. Texas primaries in both parties are now scheduled for May 7, 1988. Just how Traeger can make his guarantee, considering the fact that he is not running for re-election this year, the Seguin conservative did not say. Presumably the 1987 legislature still has something to say about it, since the plan would require the taxpayers to pay for two elections in the place of one. The Joy of Republicanism 1,” Kent Hance was on the stump in Fort Worth in early January, arguing that the rural areas can make or break a gubernatorial candidate. The former Democrat seemed to be in fine symbiosis with the Republican Party: “We have to have a candidate as a nominee that can carry River Oaks anti Highland Park,” he said, according to the Fort Worth StarTelegram. “But I assure you folks that any of us can carry River Oaks or Highland Park.” The West Texas native went on to assert that he had the best chance to garner the rural vote as well as the rich folks’ vote. The May 3 Republican primary promises to be a gay, convivial affair. Former Gov. Bill Clements has already revealed that he promised his wife he would smile throughout the campaign, and Kent Hance told the Young Republicans in Fort Worth, “As conservatives, we’ve got to remember to smile.” ,r , Bill Clements is claiming that polls show him as the favorite to win the Republican primary. Other polls show that of the three Republicans in the race, Clements is least likely to beat Gov. Mark White. Rep. Tom Loeffler, R-Hunt, who is also seeking the Republican nomination to take on Gov. White, will look foolish if he tries to tie himself to President Reagan. Early Loeffler commercials suggested that Loeffler was Reagan’s man in getting things done for Texas. But in December, Chief Deputy GOP Whip Loeffler helped lead the floor fights against the tax reform bill, even though Reagan made a special trip to the Hill to lobby for the bill. t/t Washington political columnist David Broder speculates that state district Judge Roy Barrera, Jr., a Republican who is planning to run against Attorney General Jim Mattox, may be looking to steal the light from Henry Cisneros as the state’s leading Hispanic politician, but nobody is saying just how Barrera expects to find a Hispanic constituency in the Republican Party . John Pouland has announced his candidacy for a spot on the Texas Railroad Commission. Pouland managed Gary Hart’s campaign in the Southwest in 1984, and emerges as the most progressive Democrat in the race, though he faces an uphill run against the well-funded state Sen. John Sharp of Victoria. Sharp, who in 1976 worked for now-Republican U.S. Senator Phil Gramm, has said he’s “been promised $1 million to make this race,” Pouland said January 12 at a Capitol press conference. He accused Sharp of making “spectacular flip-flops” on the issues. Republican John Thomas Henderson also announced that he plans to make his fourth race for the Commission. Current commissioner Buddy Temple is not running for re-election. Republican state Reps. Ed Emmet of Kingwood and Milton Fox of Houston are also expected to be in the race. Reporter Jim Simmon writes in the January 12 issue of the Houston Post about prejudice against Arab-Americans, an issue seldom visible to the mainstream press. “This antiArab feeling is something that’s emerged in the last 15 years,” said Ruth Ann Skaff of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee. “It’s getting worse, and I feel we have some very dark days ahead of us,” said Skaff, who is of Syrian descent. Skaff said there are an estimated 45,000 Arab-Americans in the Houston area. Skaff told Simmon that anti-Arab feeling seems more extreme after outbreaks of terrorism in the Middle East. Two days earlier, the Post carried a front-page photo of a Pasadena merchant’s sign in front of his business: “Honk if you want Khadafy wasted.” State Rep. Paul Ragsdale has decided not to run for Oscar Mauzy’s South Dallas state Senate seat. Ragsdale said he has had his fill of dissention among black politicos in Dallas, and now supports State Rep. Jesse Oliver for the seat. Oliver will be opposed in the May 3 Democratic primary by former state Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Jesse Jones, a long-time Dallas activist. A,’ The Texas Department of Corrections is trying to cut off mail between inmates, in an attempt to eliminate coded messages between gang members. A preliminary hearing started January 12 with U.S. District Judges William Wayne Justice and John V. Singleton presiding. Singleton, who has earlier ruled in favor of inmates’ constitutional right to receive mail, urged TDC to devise a less restrictive way of dealing with gangmembers’ communication than banning mail between all 38,000 of the system’s inmates. The TDC claims there are 1,230 gang members in the system. Assistant Attorney General F. Scott McCown argued for banning all inmate correspondence. Le Gran Enchilada Mario Cantu, the San Antonio restauraurieur whose legal difficulties with authorities hostile to his left politics may have contributed to his moving to Paris and opening ‘his Papa Maya restaurant there, in the Les Halles district, has won the Plat Vermeil, or Gold-Plated Dish, award for foreign food and the Golden Fork Award for excellent cuisine. This is the first time an American restaurant in Paris has won the prizes since the International Action Committee for Gastronomy and Tourism inaugurated the awards in 1970. Cantu, who owns Papa Maya with Teresa Gonzales, told the Observer in Paris recently that the French culinary establishment had also created a Golden Tortilla award for him, but so far news of its award has not reached our Austin offices. The long tentacles of the Observer newsgathering organization, stretching sometimes from America’s southern border to its northern border, now reveal that in Wisconsin the U.S. senator there has come to be known as “the third senator from Texas.” It seems that Republican Sen. Robert Kasten, a minor version of our own Phil Gramm \(if there for voting in the interests of the American oil industry, though our reliable sources report that very little oil is produced in Wisconsin. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 13