ustxtxb_obs_1989_09_15_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

speeches that we’ve heard the mayor deliver lately .” The debates should focus on the “three C’s crack, cops, and competence,” Hofheinz said. Hofheinz has the backing of Houston’s police unions. HOFHEINZ might feel safer debating on Houston’s streets now that Republican gubernatorial candidate Kent Hance is out cleaning up the ‘town. Hance went undercover with an HPD team that arrested three suspected crack dealers in less than an hour. Also riding with Hance was an Associate Press reporter. In Houston, Hance proposed a “Texas Crime Czar” who would coordinate a state and federal war on crime. Hance said a Czar would cost about $1 million a year in state funds. When he announced his candidacy in Austin last month, Hance promised no new taxes. V SEVERAL DAYS before Houston Post photographer Carlos Rosales captured Railroad Commissioner Hance looking a drug bust, in which three Houston police officers hovered over a supine and handcuffed suspect, McAllen Monitor Photographer Larry Clubb captured Sen. Phil Gramm in a “grip and grim” front-page photo in which Gramm scowled at a Chinese-made AK-47. Gramm, with the assault rifle in his right hand, called for the conversion of abandoned military bases to jail space for drug offenders. \(At the Republican National Convention in New Orleans last year Gramm was honored at a banquet sponsored and paid for by the National Rifle AssociaWhy is it that no one considers it offensive to pack crewman into nuclear submarines, Gramm asked, while so many consider it cruel and unusual to pack prisoners into jails? “If we could just get more money and more manpower, we could win this war on drugs, “Gramm said. V CLAUDE JONES, the Lyndon LaRouche supporter who was elected then ousted as Chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party earlier this year, has also joined the mayor’s race in Houston. According to Fred Bonavita of the Houston Post, Jones promises an aggressive fundraising campaign. Jones, a 40-year-old employee of the LaRouche organization, appeared at a press conference with two LaRouche supporters, who announced their intention to run for the Houston City Council. Curtis Perry and Joe Perez will run against incumbents Jim Greenwood and Eleanor Tinsley. LaRouche himself is attempting to run for a Congressional seat in Virginia while serving time in a federal prison on a conviction for mail fraud and conspiracy. V HOUSTON civic club leader Joyce Williams’s campaign for the Congressional seat left vacant by Mickey Leland’s death began with an attack on the candidate who seems to be ahead of the pack of six. Williams announced her candidacy then went after Houston Senator Craig Washington, whom she described as a special interests politician. Her original plan was to run against Washington when his Senate seat was up for election next year, she said. Williams, according to the Houston Chronicle, describes herself as a “missionary theologian.” She ran against Washington in the Democratic primary in 1980 and drew only 30 percent of the vote. V WASHINGTON has also won the support of the Harris county state House delegation. Representatives Paul Colbert, Debra Danburg, Harold Dutton, Larry Evans, and Senfronia Thompson all endorsed Washington, describing him as a champion of the less fortunate in the state of Texas. V IN HOUSTON,Republican Rep. Brad Wright criticized an opinion released by Attorney General Jim Mattox’s office. The AG’s opinion set aside a provision in a law that would have required real-estate agents to reveal whether a previous resident of a house or apartment for sale or rent had AIDS. Wright, who was one of the authors of the provision, said that Mattox “took out language opposed by the lesbian and gay lobby.” During the past legislative session Wright was a persistent opponent of AIDSprevention and education measures proposed by public health officials and gay/lesbian lobbyists. Wright, who became the conservative Republican’s unofficial spokesman on AIDS issues, insisted on framing the argument in moral and legal, rather than public-health terms. Mattox dismissed Wright’s complaints, saying that the legislator did not understand the process by which the attorney general’s staff considers legal opinions. toof HOUSTON millionaire and former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Wes Gilbreath, announced his candidacy for land commissioner. Gilbreath, a businessman, funded his own television and billboard campaign in an effort to win the right to run against Lloyd Bentsen last year. He was defeated by Beau Boulter, a former Amarillo Congressman who was badly defeated by Bentsen in the’ general election. But Gilbreath surprised Republicans by forcing Boulter into a runoff. In the race for land commissioner, Gilbreath will depend on contributions, as well as his own funds, according to what he told reporters in Austin. Gilbreath is the only Republican in the race. And no Democrats have formally announced that they will run against incumbent Garry Mauro. 1,./ JOHN BRYANT’S campaign for the Democratic nomination for attorney general continues to show signs of health. At an end-of-August fundraiser in Houston, Bryant turned out 850 supporters and potential contributors. In Austin, after the September 9, Hightower Ranch Party, Bryant said his campaign has done no polling yet. Polling will probably begin in late October, Bryant said. Speaking to the large crowd at the Hightower ranch gathering, Bryant said that Democrats should continue to campaign on progressive issues rather than allow Republicans to frame the campaign debate. He said he had won each of his Congressional elections campaigning as a Democrat in Dallas. V DALLAS lawyer Sandy Kress, a moderate, Lloyd Bentsen Democrat and former county chair, is running for the seat that Bryant will vacate. Kress faces the prospect of having the district in which he is running carved up in 1992, after the census. Many have predicted that the Fifth District will be redrawn to provide black Congressional representation for Dallas. V JOHN SHARP seems to be facing a downhill battle in his campaign to capture the Democratic nomination for state comptroller, a position that will be vacated by Bob Bullock, who is a candidate for Lt. Governor. Sharp announces his candidacy with the public support of all but two Democratic state Senators, Chet Edwards and Hugh Parmer. Sharp didn’t ask for Edwards and Parmer to sign on, as both are involved in statewide races of their own. Sharp also has the support of 70 percent of the state’s Democratic county chairpersons. Speaking at the Hightower ranch gathering, Sharp said the next elections will not be dominated by phony issues such as flags and guns, but by fundamental economic issues issues that Democrats should be addressing in every campaign they run in 1990. V FORMER SPEAKER Jim Wright also spoke to the 3,500 Democrats at the Jim Hightower fundraiser, held at a ranch near Austin. Wright delivered a moving speech on progressive Democratic values, the agenda that he advanced while he served in Congress. Wright also said that he hoped that he would be judged for the service he provided while he was in Congress. Wright was warmly received by both the crowd, who enthusiastically applauded him, and by the politicians, who praised him for what he had achieved as Speaker. Jim Wright, “our speaker, ended the Reagan Administration’s ugly little private war in Nicaragua,” Hightower said, ” . . that’s why the big boys and the bastards went after him.” Hightower described Wright as a Texas populist in the tradition of Ralph Yarborough. Congressman John Bryant also praised Wright, saying that he wished Wright were still speaker. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7