ustxtxb_obs_1994_10_14_50_00021-00000_000.pdf

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE I ji ‘VE BEEN PLAYING music in the old style, like I promised my father when he died,” Santiago Jimenez Jr, the son and grandson of San Antonio accordion players, said in a telephone interview. Jimenez, a conjunto accordionist and three-time Grammy nominee, and bajo sexto player Toby Torres will provide the most traditional element of the “Canciones y Corridos” tour. “I’m going to play corridos, like Jacinto Trevino \(a song also discussed in Don Americo’s contrabandista de El Paso,” and some of my father’s songs, like “Viva Seguin.” Jimenez, who learned the accordion from his father, a legendary conjunto accordionist, has never performed on the Texas-Mexican border. “Corpus Christi was as close as I’ve been to the border to perform,” he said. \(Like American Bluesmen who often find their most enthusiastic audiences far from home, The Border, Jimenez said, is more attuned to Tejano than conjunto music: “And the conjunto bands down there have their territories. I’ve played in Lubbock and Abilene, Mexico City, on the other side of the border, but never on the borderline.” For Hinojosa, who has performed on the Border only a few times, the tour is also something of a homecoming. “My family is from Meir,” she said, right across the river from Roma, Texas, where on October 21 she will perform in the plaza. The music is also something of a homecoming for Hinojosa, who has recorded with A&M, Rounder, Austin’s Watermelon Records, and Warner Brothers and is under contract to Warner Brothers . “Some of them are songs I grew up with,” she said. “And my understanding and feelings for some of the songs Dr. Paredes recorded is already evolving; it changes every time I go back to them. I’ll be going back to them for years.” Canciones Y Corridos de La Frontera Tour October 20 Pharr, PSJA High School North, Student Performance October 21 Roma I.S.D. Student Concert and Free Public Performance at Roma City Park October 22 Harlingen Municipal Auditorium October 23 Edinburg Hidalgo County H4torical Museum October 24 Edinburg, UT Pan American Student Performance October 27 Laredo Civic Center October 28 Del Rio/San Felipe Creek Amphitheater October 29 Uvalde Grand Opera Hall RUNNING SCARED. After the recent Democratic primary defeat of liberal U.S. Rep. Mike Synar in Muskogee, Okla., and House Speaker Tom Foley got only one-third of the vote and was forced into a runoff in an open primary, the rising antiincumbent feeling across the country has Republicans hoping to regain control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. At least half-a-dozen Texas Democratic Congressmen are on the endangered list this fall, including Jack Brooks, the Judiciary Chairman seeking his 22nd term from Beaumont, Ron Coleman of El Paso, Martin Frost of Dallas, John Bryant of Dallas, Bill Sarpalius of Amarillo and Charles Wilson of Lufkin. Democrats hope Ken Bentsen can overcome right-wing Republican Eugene Fontenot’ s wealth in the marginally Democratic central Houston district that incumbent Mike Andrews is vacating, while in another closely watched race, Democrat Rolando Rios, a San Antonio civil rights lawyer, is said to face an uphill fight to unseat freshman Republican Henry Bonilla in a district that, while Democratic, sprawls from suburban San Antonio to Laredo to El Paso and Midland. In the Texas Senate, where Democrats hope to pick up three seats to regain a twothirds majority, the key races are said to be Galveston Democrat Mike Martin’s challenge to freshman Sen. Jerry Patterson, RPasadena in a Galveston Bay district, and the race between former Rep. Curtis Soileau, D-Lumberton, against Republican Drew Nixon of Carthage in the Deep East Texas district that Bill Haley vacated. Dallas Democratic Rep. David Cain is favored to win in northeast Texas District 2 but Democrats may have lost a chance to regain District 22 in north-central Texas, where Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock’ s support for incumbent Republican David Sibley of Waco has headed off support for Margaret Ross Messina of Granbury in what should be a Democratic district. Republicans also hope to pick off Democrats Steve Carriker of Wichita Falls and liberal veteran Carl Parker of Port Arthur, whose new district includes more Houston suburbs. \(The Democrats will pick up at least one seat since Mario Gallegos is unopposed in a new Houston While the U.S. Senate and Congressional races look like damage control and the governor’ s race remains a tossup, Democrats are confident that Bullock, Comptroller John Sharp and Attorney Gen. Dan Morales will fend off a straight-lever Republican pull and prevent a down-ballot rout. LEADER OF THE PAC. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison received $727,000 from health-care interests in the past two years, tops in the Senate, Citizen Action reported. The consumer advocacy group traced $46 million in contributions in 1993 and 1994 to opponents of comprehensive health reform. A Hutchison spokesman complained that Citizen Action mistakenly included people who had no apparent health industry interests. Ed Rothschild, director of the Citizen Action project, said some contributors may have been included in error, but he doubted they involved more than a few thousand dollars. Rothschild noted that 48 percent of Hutchison’s contributors, worth $2.89 million, had no identification, in apparent violation of federal election law, and many of them had to be cross-checked with other sources. The report, Unhealthy Money Part XII: The Special Interests Kill Health Care Reform, also found that large donors employed in the health industry increased their contributions by 96 percent and large donors working in the insurance industry upped their contributions by 67 percent. The top 10 Texas recipients in the House and their committee assignthents were Jack Fields, R-Humble, Energy & Commerce; $214,165; Mike Andrews, D-Houston, Ways & Means, $175,425; Joe Barton, REnnis, E&C, $120,082; Martin Frost, DDallas, Rules, $98,650; Henry Bonilla, RSan Antonio, Appropriations, $77,342; Ralph Hall, D-Rockwall, E&C, $76,500; Gene Green, D-Houston, Education & Labor, $64,900; John Bryant, D-Dallas, E&C, $64,525; Craig Washington, DHouston, E&C, $52,400; Charles Wilson, Appropriations, $50,500. RESUME PROBLEMS. Stephen Mansfield, the Republican nominee for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals challenging Democratic incumbent Judge Charles Campbell, has misrepresented his birthplace, his legal experience and his political history, Texas Lawyer magazine reported in its Oct. 3 issue. The magazine started investigating Mansfield after his name recently turned up among the Texas lawyers who had failed to pay a statewide attorney tax. Although Mansfield claimed he had handled 100 criminal cases, the magazine was unable to confirm any appearances in Texas criminal courts. Although a campaign handout claimed he had written extensively on criminal and civil justice issues, the magazine found he had written only three articles, one in a Bellaire newspaper and two in a journal for charter life underwriters. Last THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21