ustxtxb_obs_1994_09_16_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

PEOPLE Make a world of difference ! We’re proud of our employees and their contributions to your success and ours. Call us for quality printing, binding, mailing and data processing services. Get to know the people at Futura. F P.O. Box 17427 Austin, TX 78760-7427 U TURA 389-1500 COMMUNICATIONS, INC Republican Sen. Bill Ratliff of Mount Pleasant faces George Lavender, a conservative Democratic Texarkana radio station owner. Despite his recent criticism of Gov. Richards’ appointments of homosexuals to state posts, Ratliff, who has the support of Lieut. Gov . Bob Bullock, has shown a bipartisan streak \(he even took George W. Bush to task for attacking the rating of pubthe more progressive candidate in the race. Cain, a moderate Democratic state representative from Dallas, is the favorite in a marginally Democratic district that is the legacy of former Sen. Ted Lyon. Cain faces Richard Harvey, a Tyler rancher/investor. cumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Haley quit to become a lobbyist for the trucking industry, Democratic officials replaced him with Curtis Soileau, a progressive state representative from Lumberton from 1988 to 1992, whose nomination as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District ran afoul of the state’s two Republican U.S. senators. Soileau faces Republican challenger Drew Nixon, a Carthage accountant, in a district that is considered marginally Democratic. Soileau will be helped by efforts to get out the vote for U.S. Rep. Charles Wilson, much of whose district Soileau shares, and Gov. Ann Richards. have high hopes that Democrat Mike Martin, a progressive state representative from Galveston, will unseat freshman Sen. Jerry Patterson, a right-wing Republican from Houston, in what should be a Democratic district drawn for former Sen. Chet Brooks. Ronnie Ellen Harrison, a Democratic lawyer and abortion rights advocate, is a long shot to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. J.E. “Buster” Brown of Lake Jackson. David Sibley, a Waco Republican, helped Lieut. Gov . Bob Bullock in the 1993 session, so Bullock is supporting Sibley’s re-election, causing some Democrats discomfort as they watch from the sidelines while Margaret Ross Messina, a Granbury lawyer and the wife of the Hood County Attorney, challenges in this largely rural and normally. Democratic district that originally was drawn by former Democratic Sen. Bob Glasgow. tricting made Bill Sims’ former district untenable, the conservative Democratic senator moved from San Angelo to Paint Rock and a new swing district that was drawn for former Democratic Sen. Temple Dickson. Sims is favored against Hugh Shine, a former state representative from Temple who lost to Chet Edwards in a 1992 Congressional race. Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, a relatively moderate Republican seeking re-election in the redrawn district, faces Democrat James Saunders, a San Antonio lawyer, in what should still be a Republican district. cans believe Sen. Steve Carriker, a moderate Democrat from Roby, is vulnerable in a rematch with Tom Haywood, a Wichita Falls tax consultant who was narrowly defeated in 1992. Democrats believe Carriker is better prepared this year to hold the seat. State House The primary election brought little change in the Texas House of Representatives, where Democrats hold a 91-59 majority but a coalition of conservative Democrats and Republicans still hold the balance of power. Republican Jim Tallas and Democrat Tony Parra were the only incumbents defeated in the primary. Tallas of Sugar Land was a victim of a backlash against his opposition to term limits in District 26 while Parra, who had a generally progressive voting record in his only session, was brought low largely by his opposition to consolidation of water districts in El Paso District 75 and his outsider status in the Democratic Party. He made the political equivalent of a deathbed conversion to the Republican Party, which at least got him some attention at the GOP state convention. Races to watch this fall include: District 23: Progressive Rep. Patricia Gray of Galveston faces Republican Robin Fontenot of Clear Lake Shores. Republicans will be working Galveston County’s mainland Republican precincts especially hard to get out the vote for native Kay Bailey Hutchison as well as state Sen. Jerry Patterson of Pasadena \(See Senate District Craig Eiland of Galveston faces Jerry Purdon Jr. of Texas City. This district also could be vulnerable to a countywide GOP get-out-the-vote effort. District 43: Freshman Rep. Pedro G. Nieto of Uvalde converted from moderate Democrat to Republican and now faces Tracy 0. King, a Uvalde hearing aid specialist. Democrats want to stop the Hispanic Republican movement right here. District 52: Democrat Llorente Navarrette, a Georgetown school trustee, mounts a challenge against Republican Rep. Mike Krusee of Austin in a swing district. District 58: First-term Rep. Bernard Erickson of Cleburne, although conservative, became a Democrat after he found himself voting with the Democrats on rural issues and will face Arlene Wohlgemuth, the Johnson County Republican Chair. District 61: Conservative Rep. Ric Williamson of Weatherford switched to the GOP and beat a Republican primary challenger but now faces a challenge from Roberto R. Hopkins of Decatur, who believes the district is still Democratic. District 65: This figured to present an opportunity for Democrats only when Republican incumbent Rep. Ben Campbell of Carrollton was convicted in federal court on a bank fraud charge and was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $540,229 in restitution, but Republicans were able to replace Campbell \(who probawith Burt Solomons, a Carrollton lawyer, to face Democrat Stephen Birch. District 105, the seat given up by progressive Rep. Al Granoff of Dallas: Democrat Dale B. Tillery is favored against Republican Mike Anderson. District 107, the Dallas seat given up by moderate Rep. David Cain: Democrat Harryette Ehrhardt is favored against Republican Lee Sanders. District 134, the Houston seat given up by progressive Democrat Sue Schechter: Democrat Bruce Reeves, who got the liberal Harris County Democrats’ support, faces an uphill fight against Republican Kyle Janek in a marginally Republican district. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 9