15 National Reports: Texas Conservatives Vie for Johnson's Senate Seat:
RAVITCH, DIANE
Texas Conservatives Vie For Johnson Senate Seat By Diane Ravitch "Texas has said 'No' to the New Frontier," commented a nationally syndicated columnist after the recent special election to...
...Many of the major newspapers repeated the charges that the election had been stolen, not only in Illinois, but in Texas as well, where allegedly 200,000 votes had not been counted...
...in the meantime, Blakley will continue under his interim appointment to fill Johnson's Senate seat...
...Texas Conservatives Vie For Johnson Senate Seat By Diane Ravitch "Texas has said 'No' to the New Frontier," commented a nationally syndicated columnist after the recent special election to fill Lyndon B. Johnson's vacant U.S...
...Together, their votes would have put a liberal into the run-off election...
...For the special election, there was no party procedure for selecting candidates—the only qualification was a $50 filing fee...
...By J. Crow, realtor," Blakley said, reading from his notes...
...In foreign policy, Tower feels that the U.S...
...attempts at implementation...
...These feelings combined to create sympathy for a Republican state candidate...
...But conventional political labels have a special meaning in Texas: "Conservatives" such as Tower and Blakley are outspoken states' righters...
...But three weeks later, when Maury Maverick Jr...
...He does favor abiding by the 1954 Supreme Court decision on integration, but opposes any U.S...
...They will meet in a June run-off...
...The moderate candidates represented no stable, organized sector of the vote as did the liberals, but as individuals they did well...
...liberals" are those who espouse the national Democratic party's program, particularly such "radical" ideas as Federal aid to education and civil rights...
...No Republican received more than 25 per cent of the state vote until 1960, when Tower, a 35-year-old assistant professor of government at a small Texas university, received 41 per cent in opposing Johnson for the Senate (by a special state law, Johnson was permitted to run simultaneously for the Senate and for national office...
...What kind of man will Texas send to the Senate...
...The election of any one of the six except Tower or Blakley would have strengthened Kennedy supporters in the Senate, but the Administration kept its hands off the race...
...Tower says that he is the "only true conservative," pointing to his opponent's support of the Kennedy-Johnson ticket...
...Liberal Democrats were delighted in early December when Henry Gonzales, whose unsuccessful filibusters in the State Senate against segregation bills were well known, announced his candidacy...
...The only direct reminder of the regime in Washington was the bitter feelings left over from the 1960 elections...
...Ideologically, there is little choice for Texas voters in June...
...He consistently has supported the filibuster and opposes Federal aid to almost everything, except, of course, the Government subsidies received by his own airline...
...Tower has no such problems...
...In turn, Tower invited Barry Goldwater to appear in Texas and be photographed with his family...
...Wilson received 11.77 per cent of the vote, while Wright, an energetic campaigner with an evangelistic style, almost overtook Blakley by polling 16.39 per cent...
...In addition, resentment against LBJ runs deep for accepting the Democrats' liberal party platform...
...Blakley defends himself by saying, "I did not support the Democratic or Republican candidates or platforms but I voted Democratic...
...But Blakley and Tower had the best campaign organizations and the most money...
...Republican John Tower, who received 31.5 per cent of the vote, and right-wing Democrat William Blakley, who polled 18.33 'per cent, emerged as leaders of a field of 65 candidates...
...The state AFL-CIO -Council, an important part of the liberal faction, endorsed Maverick, but only after a close 44-37 vote against Gonzales...
...Whoever wins, the run-off election will have no more national significance than did this month's race...
...Tower was thus assured of sizable popular backing in his second bid for LBJ's seat...
...Of the 65, some ran as unusual personalities (such as Bing Crosby's father-in-law), others on a single issue (women's rights, introducing horse racing to aid the Texas economy...
...Blakley doggedly pointed to his support from such "leaders" as Senators Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, and Senators James O. Eastland and John Stennis of Mississippi...
...Do you know J. Crow," Blakley asked, oblivious to the laughter in the committee room...
...Although he now opposes a preventive war, he believes that "we could have cleaned the matter up nicely in 1943 and '49...
...Diane Ravitch, who recently joined The New Leader's staff as an editorial assistant, is a native Texan...
...The Harris County (Houston) Democrats, representing the largest bloc of liberal voters in the state, were also split, but withheld endorsement from either candidate for fear of impairing the future unity of their organization...
...He flatly opposes the "wild socialistic programs" of the New Frontier and adopted as one of his campaign slogans: "Tower leans to the right with all his might...
...Until recently, the state Republican party was active only in Presidential campaigns...
...He was aided further by the more-than-usual confusion within the state Democratic party...
...But rather than a repudiation of the Kennedy Administration, the selection of two antiAdministration conservatives to meet in a run-off was a demonstration of the peculiar brand of politics practiced in the Lone Star State...
...A 62-year-old self-made multimillionaire, oilman and airline owner (Braniff), Blakley worked hard to show that he was just as conservative as his Republican counterpart...
...an equally well-qualified liberal, entered the race, the liberal organizations were split down the middle...
...At one point, Tower complained that Blakley was trying to steal Goldwater's endorsement from him by publishing newspaper ads containing laudatory remarks by the Arizona Republican about Blakley...
...But only six were considered serious contenders: Tower, Blakley, State Attorney General Will Wilson, Congressman Jim Wright, State Senator Henry Gonzales and former State Representative Maury Maverick Jr.—all Democrats except Tower...
...But Tower, a genial young man, is a much better campaigner than the close-mouthed Blakley, who may have trouble winning over the Democrats originally opposed to him...
...fin 1958, when Blakley ran for the Senate on his Eisenhower-type conservatism, he lost to liberal Ralph Yarborough...
...The odds favor Blakley, chiefly because the total Democratic ballot in the recent election was more than double Tower's vote...
...More recently, Blakley has labeled the Peace Corps as "the greatest opportunity for Communist infiltration anywhere it is applied" and aid for depressed areas as "a blueprint for socialism...
...He said proudly that his Senate record in 1957—when he was also an interim appointee—was "100 per cent in favor of the Eisenhower Administration...
...Wilson and Wright ran as moderates, Gonzales and Maverick as liberals...
...These factors, added to the lack of unity or leadership in the Democratic party, were ultimately the decisive elements in the election...
...Yes, I've known of Jim Crow," Weaver answered with a straight face, "but he didn't write any book reviews...
...Senate seat...
...During the Senate Banking and Currency Committee's hearings in February on Robert C. Weaver's appointment as Federal housing chief, Blakley tried to pin the charge of radicalism on Weaver by asking him about a review of his book, The Negro Ghelto, which had appeared in a Communist publication...
...Having so clearly defined himself as an arch-conservative for the primary, Blakley now has the problem of reaching the approximately 50 per cent who voted for moderate and liberal Democrats...
...As a result, the liberal vote was divided: 10.14 per cent for Maverick, 9.32 per cent for Gonzales...
...Weaver, whose book had been reviewed in hundreds of publications, asked the name of the reviewer...
...Although Eisenhower won Texas handily in 1952 and 1956, the local Republicans were content merely to receive patronage and, in state elections, to vote for the conservative candidate in the Democratic primaries...
...has been "too conciliatory toward Russia" and has "grave misgivings" about disarmament negotiations...
Vol. 44 • April 1961 • No. 16
