ustxtxb_obs_1993_01_15_50_00024-00000_000.pdf

Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701 POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE V TEXANS IN TRANSITION. Jose Villareal, deputy director for political affairs of the Clinton transition team, said the group has included .Texans such as Dr. Kneeland Youngblood of Dallas in health care; Rick Hernandez of Houston in transportation; Blandina “Bambi” Cardenas Ramirez of San Antonio in education; Tony Sanchez of Laredo in energy; George Pedraza of San Antonio in international trade; Linda Yafiez of San Antonio, heading the INS cluster of the Justice Department; Hilbert Ocarias of Houston on labor; and Monica Aboud of Dallas on natural resources. Villareal, a Texan, said the transition team had a two-fold goal: To give those who participated in the campaign an avenue of participation in the administration, and to insure that there was political support for the policy initiatives that are taken. “This is one of the lessons learned from the Carter years, when many times the policies didn’t merge with the politics,” said Villareal, who expects Clinton to be much more inclusive of party officials and elected officials than the Carter Administration was. “We have a fairly large political operation that is charged specifically with the duty of keeping in touch with the constituents and I think you’ll have a more aggressive Democratic National Committee and more sensitivity to a grassroots approach to politics,” such as electronic town hall meetings, he said. The Clinton Administration in many respects will be similar to what Ann Richards has done in her first two years as Governor of Texas, Villareal said. “I think you’re going to see the New Texas replicated on the national level,” he said. “I think Texas is a great example of what can be.” V WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Texans who attended the economic summit included Michael Beatty of Coastal Corp., Houston; Cathy Bonner, Texas Department of Commerce, Austin; Milton Carroll, Instrument Products, Houston; Robert Cizik, Cooper Industries, Houston; Kathleen Cooper, Exxon Corp., Irving; Ernesto Cortes, Industrial Areas Foundation, Austin; Bob Crandall, American Airlines, DFW Airport; Cherill Farnsworth, TME Inc., Houston; Craig Fields, MCC, Austin; Irma E. Flores, Hospital Klean, San Antonio; David B. Garcia, 24. JANUARY 15, 1993 …….reawesastrormt~.”‘ ,000100.0,410eintat..!. CEDRA Pharmaceuticals, Austin; Gerald Grinstein, Burlington Northern Railroad, Fort Worth; Katherine Hammer, Evolutionary Technology Inc., Austin; Jess Hay, Lomis Mortgage Capital, Dallas; Raymond Jones, Fabricated Technology Inc., Irving; Herb Kelleher, Southwestern Airlines, Dallas; John Moores, JMI Inc., Sugar Land; Tony Sanchez, Sanchez, O’Brien Oil & Gas Corp., Laredo; Roy Spence, an Austin advertising executive; and Michael H. Walsh, Tenneco, Houston. And while public service may get you an entre at the Clinton White House, an open checkbook also helps; the Center for Responsive Politics found that nearly one-half of the participants in President-elect Clinton’s Economic Town Hall in Little Rock made hefty contributions to the Democratic Party. Conferees contributed at least $4.3 million to the winning party, the center reported. V NO BELTWAY BETSEY. Betsey Wright, an Alpine native, managed Clinton’s return from exile to the Governor’s Mansion in 1982, served as his chief of staff from 1983 to 1990 and returned to help Clinton this past spring, when his campaign was disrupted by Gennifer Flowers, but she reportedly has no plans to move to Washington. “My determination is that we’re going to get government out of the beltway, back out across the country, and of the people and I want to be one of those who struggles to make that happen,” she told Dave McNeely of the Austin American-Statesman. Instead she is turning her talents toward reforming the TV “infotainment” industry, where the lines are blurred between news and entertainment. Wright, a UT grad, met Bill and Hillary Clinton during the 1972 presidental campaign in Texas. V LIB SERVICE. The most liberal Texas congressman in 1992, as far as the Americans for Democratic Action is concerned, was Craig Washington, D-Houston, with a 90-percentfavorable rating in 20 key votes. Runner-up in the liberal group’s survey was Ron Coleman, D-El Paso, with 85, followed by John Bryant, D-Dallas, and Henry Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, both with 80; Jim Chapman, D-Sulphur Springs, Jack Brdoks, D-Beaumont, Albert Bustamante, D-San Antonio, and Martin Frost, D-Dallas, all with 75; Kika de la Garza, D-Mission, and Mike Andrews, D-Houston, 70; Charles Wilson, D-Lufkin, and Jake Pickle, D-Austin, 65; Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, 60; Chet Edwards, D-Waco, 55; Pete Geren, D-Fort Worth, and Greg Laughlin, D-West Columbia, 45; Bill Sarpalius, D-Amarillo, and Ralph Hall, D-Rockwall, 40; Charles Stenholm, DStamford, 30; Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, 20; Sam Johnson, R-Dallas, Larry Combest, R-Lubbock, 10; Joe Barton, R-Ennis, Jack Fields, R-Humble, Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, 5; and Dick Armey, R-Lewisville, recentlyelected chair of, the House Republican Conference in a conservative putsch, and Bill Archer, R-Houston, were 0 for 1992. V BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. Jim Oberwetter, chairman of the Bush-Quayle election campaign in Texas, is “born again” in the cause of civil liberties. In an op-ed piece in the said FBI efforts to entrap him into receiving faked wiretapped information about Ross Perot had shaken his faith in the law enforcement agency. He called for changes in procedures used to establish “probable cause” to suspect criminal activity. “Congress now must change the law to ensure our citizens’ constitutional rights prevail over a police-state mentality,” he wrote. “I have never believed more deeply in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights than I do today. This searing personal experience has rekindled a lesson learned long ago; that we must each defend our liberties which indeed hang by a very slender thread.” V HUD-MATES. Appointment of former San Antonio mayor, Henry Cisneros, as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development “gives South Texas a onetwo punch” at the agency, the San Antonio Express-News recently editorialized. U.S. Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, as chair of the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee as well as its subcommittee on housing, has supervision of HUD. The ExpressNews also noted that Cisneros and Gonzalez share ideas and goals for helping America’s cities, including more federal money for afford Continued on pg. 8 vl.!i”.-ttl-Lotet.t…wTAA .APssifslmPoriairepPithl